Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional HSS Electric Guitar - Atomic Snow Reviews
Guitar virtuoso Nick Johnston's personal preferences directed the design of the Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional HSS, optimizing it for fast, technical playability. Equipped with a rock-solid roasted maple neck with Thin "C" neck profile, a 14-inch-radius ebony fretboard, and extra-jumbo frets, it's immediately apparent that this is an instrument built for precision. And while its playability is sure to appeal to rock and metal players, its HSS pickup configuration with two Nick Johnston single-coil pickups yields a universe of tonal textures to explore. Complete with a vintage-style tremolo for expressive bends and dives, and a Graph Tech XL Black TUSQ nut to make sure the tremolo action is as smooth as can be, you'll be amazed at the Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional HSS guitar's ability to respond to any creative impulse you may have.
Earn $45 back in Bonus Bucks† OR pay $38/month with 24 month financing*
$45 Earn $45.00 back in Bonus Bucks† on this purchase when you use your Sweetwater Credit Card without financing. Select your offer in checkout. Terms
As low as $38/month
with 24 month financing*
See all payment options
This item requires extra delivery time from Schecter. Order today to reserve yours now, risk-free, or contact us for more information.
Customer Reviews
Customer Added Media
This product doesn't have any review media yet!
Share Your Thoughts
Help other music gear aficionados by sharing your opinions of gear you've purchased.
Questions about the TradNJHSSAS?
Or call us at (800) 222-4700
Sweetwater's Sales Engineers are regarded as the most experienced and knowledgeable professionals in the music industry, with extensive music backgrounds and intense training on the latest products and technologies. They are available to offer you personalized product advice any time you need it.
Highest Rated Reviews
Better than Fender
This is a great guitar.I was looking for a Strat style guitar but not a traditional Fender. This really gets it done. The only things I've done is change the string tree to a graph tech and I replaced the volume and tone nobs with Telecaster style nobs only because it's a real pain to pull out the coil split using the traditional Stratocaster nobs.
Great option for a strat. Compares to a high end USA strat.
I was interested in this model because it offered something a little different then a standard stratocaster. I love the vintage look of the Atomic Snow but with some modern features. The ebony fretboard and circle outline inlays look fantastic. The tremolo system is stable and feels smooth. This guitar is an excellent value for the quality and appointments you get. Shout out to Schecter for replying to my email and sending a free tremolo arm replacement and other swag I did not ask for. Shout out to my sales engineer Nick for help with purchasing this guitar.
The new
Pick one of these up and play it unplugged for a second. It sounds good. Plug it in and flip some switches and knobs around, it sounds good. And by then, you'll notice how you may be holding the easiest neck to play on you've ever felt. Look around the guitar and you'll see a sticker on the back confirming that it's already been set up, locking tuners, and solid hardware. In short, this is probably the best value for the dollar many people have ever seen. I have sold a couple of guitars after picking one up a month back because it just plays and feels too good. Get your hands on one, play it for a while, then pick up another S-style... You'll know the difference, you'll know the value. Schechter has a serious winner here and it is as well made and durable as they come.
Amazing guitar
I compared this to my Fender Deluxe sunset metallic 2012 and I was beyond impressed. It plays FAR better than my strat , it feels excellent and plays better than many guitars costing twice or more in price. This is a must have for me...
Dreamcaster
I mostly fool around with Teles for the crisp, clean single-coil chime, but wanted to get an HSS Strat style to get a little heavier. This gives me a nice helping of what I'm used to and good push towards heavy. Finish is gorgeous and the pick-ups are on point, but the real killer is the neck: so smooth and wickedly easy to play. Effortless movement, I'm only hindered by my capabilities.
Separately, my son (who near exclusively plays punk and metal) can not leave it alone. He's in love.
Almost five stars, but a wack whammy!
I originally planned on getting another Epiphone Les Paul, but after browsing the website I decided to try an HSS style guitar for something different. I've played traditional SSS Strat type guitars, but I was excited about trying something new after seeing the glowing reviews for this one.
First impression, not great. Out of the box the guitar seemed to play okay, but after riffing and strumming a few chords, I decided to play some leads. I moved up the neck, to do some bending around the 17th fret and the high E string broke. So here I am, excited to play my brand new $ guitar, and less than five minutes in, instead of rocking out, I'm messing around replacing strings. Stock strings were 10s but I only had nines available, so I decided to replace the three plains.
After playing the 9-46 set a few days I decided to replace with a proper set of 10s so I could get a feel for how the guitar is supposed to be set up. The low E was having tuning issues, so I thought a fresh set of strings would help that. Locking tuners are okay, easy to use, but there's still an issue with that darn low E. The set up with the tens was fine, but they played a bit stiff, and I'm used to nines so I decided to switch them out with nines after a few days. I needed to raise the string height a little to alleviate buzz, but after doing so the guitar actually started to sound GREAT after my negative first impression. The humbucker sounds fantastic, although the single coil pick ups sound a bit thin, but I use light strings, I'm sure they'd sound better if you're a blues player who plays 11s. I'm actually digging the HS pickup combo setting, but it's surprisingly noisy if you're accustomed to Strats in the hum cancelling positions.
As I played the guitar more and more I really started digging it, it was sounding great, and the nines felt buttery for the classic and hard rock style of music I like to play.
So I'm rocking out and really starting to love this guitar, so I decide to finally try out the whammy, which I hadn't taken out of it's baggy at this point.
The whammy is odd as heck, not like a screw in and play typical Strat whammy, looks like Schecter tried to reinvent the wheel, rather than leave well enough alone. Turns out there's a tiny screw you need to unscrew to install the whammy, and be careful because it is TINY and you could lose it if you're not careful.
I was ready to come here and give this thing five stars even after the negative first impression, but I have to subtract one for the whammy. I'm pretty sure Fender doesn't have a patent on the screw in tremolo bar which has worked fine for years, and I haven't played shreddy Floyd Rose equipped guitars so maybe the tiny screw thing is normal for those types of trem units, but for a fat Strat type guitar I don't know why Schecter went that route.
If they fixed the whammy issue, and issued this guitar in an HH style, you're looking at a 5+ star guitar. This one would have been a solid fiver, but I was disappointed with the wack whammy.
