You might want to grab yourself a beverage, because I've got a lot to say about this guitar.
A few years back I decided my next guitar would be a 7 string. I'd never tried one before but knew for the metal I play it would be an easily justified reason to pick up my 8th guitar. I was originally eyeballing the Jackson Dinky for under $ to just get an idea if I'd like playing a 7. While researching, an ESP 7 string kept popping up in the results for around $ that got me thinking about expanding my price range to that just to see what's out there. Then the red Omen Elite 7 caught my eye. I did a lot of research on the model and really liked what I read and heard. But...I already own 2 red and 2 black guitars and wanted something different. The charcoal is awesome, but not really my style, so blue it would be. Then I saw this specific blue one I ended up buying on Sweetwater, with a lighter blue and a great stain pattern from the burl, and knew that not only was this the model, but THIS was my guitar. So I placed the order, paid the down payment, and my new guitar arrived the next day.
When unboxing, two things hit me right out of the gate. First, this seemed smaller than pictures and review videos made it look. Not tiny smaller, but more slim and streamlined. I was expecting the bulk of my old Strat, and this was like a trimmed down take on the design. Second, it's a lot heavier than it looks. Not a bad weight, but it's like double the weight of my Ibanez of similar style, and the guitar itself looks like it should be a lot lighter. That's a strong testament to the denser wood they used compared to what I'm used to playing on at this price range. And it extends to the neck as well. The whole thing just feels rock solid. The finish is just amazing looking. From the gray satin wood stain of the back of the body and the neck, to the eye catching burl top, this looks fantastic. And the inlays look great and are pretty unique. I will say though, the guitar is a lot darker than it looked in the pictures on the store's site. Close up with a flash it looks almost as pictured, but the lighter blue only pops like that in very bright lighting. Which really makes me glad I went for the lighter blue instead of the darker tones I typically see for these guitars. I'd have been fine with the darker tones, but I really wanted the color of this to come through.
As I said before, this thing is solid. Just incredibly well built. The weight, while substantial, is really well balanced and comfortable to play with a strap or on my lap. The contours do a great job of feeling comfortable in any position. I do wish the front had a contour around the top similar to a Strat though, that would soften the edge by my picking arm, but that's just a really minor wishlist thing that could improve the guitar for me, not at all a complaint. The volume and tone knobs are easy to use thanks to the rubber ring around them, and they look great with that burl top. Pickups look cool with the see-through that shows off the red coils and offer a nice contrast to the blue. I was concerned about the neck feeling too fat, but it is perfectly shaped. Any issues I had playing on it are clearly a result of my inexperience playing a 7 string and extra jumbo frets, not due to design, and have improved with each practice. The neck feels perfect. The exception to that is the fret buzzing on the low B string. I had to fine tune the truss rod quite a bit and adjust the action and intonation higher than I prefer to stop the buzz. This was kind of disappointing considering Schecter is known for their factory setup, and Sweetwater also makes a big inspection. But once I dialed everything in, it plays fantastically. It just took a bit more work than reviews led me to believe I'd have to do. I'm not thrilled with the action on the low strings, but it's not so high I'm having trouble playing. It's just higher than I like. And the fret buzz was really minor all things considered, I'm just a perfectionist when it comes to things like that and it drives me nuts until I have it just right. Also, I've been playing on an Epiphone SG Special the last couple years, so I've been a little spoiled to low tension, small frets, and low action from that setup. Thicker strings and a longer scale is inevitably going to mean having to have differences in the setup than something like that. The Jumbo XL frets take some getting used to switching from standard Gibson/Epiphone fret sizes, as is the increased string tension, but again that's to be expected switching to such a different style guitar. Within a few minutes of playing it, I knew it would be fine with time and practice. And my fingers no longer feel like they're tripping over each other trying to play chords on the standard sized frets. The bridge itself is nothing special. It does exactly what's needed of it and feels good to play with. I'm more of a Tune-O'Matic kind of guy typically, but I've had no issues playing with this bridge whatsoever. Strings stay where they belong, and things like palm muting work without any adjusting of technique, something I've had to do on Floyd Rose bridges in the past. It doesn't do anything particularly noteworthy, but I also have absolutely no complaints about it.
Now onto the sound. These pickups sound like they should be on a pricier guitar, or something I would eventually upgrade to. Crisp clean tone. Great rock sound with gain. And a beefy metal chug that gets that nice crunch when you mute and punches when you're not muting with distortion cranked. Having a 5 way toggle is really nice for versatility. Though the bridge coil split is a little chimey and the neck split just kind of sounds like a slightly muted take on the neck pickup. But I like having extra options for sound and there will definitely be places I can utilize those extra options when writing. I have other guitars with warmer clean tones, but this guitar sounds just fine without any gain. With gain is where this thing shines. These pups are hot. Almost too hot. I can get pinches and natural harmonics with very minimal effort, but that can easily backfire when switching chords if my transition isn't seamless as I'll get brief accidental harmonics if I don't lift my fingers cleanly. I actually like this though, as it forces me to work harder at playing properly and correcting some lazy habits I've gotten into. So while it's initially a little irritating, it's making me a better player. My only real complaint about these pups is that they're not great for height adjustment. There's a little play, but nothing too substantial. Fine adjustments at best. But I'm really nitpicking with that complaint. They sound fantastic and are very versatile. And thanks to the through-body string setup, dense wood body, and pups, the sustain on this guitar is truly impressive. While on the subject of complaints though, a common one people have made about this is true for me as well. The tuning heads aren't very good. They're perfectly functional in what they do. They hold tune fairly well, occasionally dropping up to a quarter step on the low end when not in use, but hold tune while playing. Same issue I've experienced on most split headstocks. There's a lot of play when tuning and it leads to a lot of extra turns to make significant adjustments. I will definitely be replacing these with decent locking ones down the road. But they're adequate for what they're needed for stock.
So to wrap things up, I'm incredibly happy with this guitar. It looks amazing. Sounds fantastic. Has a rock solid build that feels like it'll be with me for many many years. The only thing about it I'd change is the tuners, an easy and fairly cheap upgrade, and I'd like to lower the action more without fret buzz. The second might be possible. I plan to keep working on it. The Omen Elite doesn't do anything really new or innovative with guitars, but it does what it's designed to do incredibly well. There's just so much Schecter did right with this guitar, that the couple things they didn't are able to be easily forgiven. For under $, I really can't recommend it enough. I bought an Ibanez for slightly more back in the late 90s and that thing stock was absolute garbage by comparison (I've since modded it and it's pretty decent, but still not as good as this). This guitar plays, sounds, and feels like a guitar that should cost at least another $. I'm extremely happy with my purchase and I know I'll be playing this for many years to come! That said, the fret buzz, high action, and bad tuners kept this from getting a perfect score out of me. I still highly recommend it and have zero regrets about buying it, but it's not quite the perfect guitar. Even if it has quickly become my favorite that I own.
