Schecter Omen Elite-8 MS Charcoal

I've played guitar for over 15 years, so I've played many of them, BUT this is my first 8 String!

Pros:
1. Surprisingly lightweight
2. Solid build quality and beautiful finish
3. Big volume/tone knobs with rubber rims for ease
4. General set-up is pretty good out of the box! (this is rare)
5. Sounds great, comfortable, fun to play

Cons:
1. The finish is completely different from the images advertised; they need updating. It's more brown/dark beige textured than the dark red finish shown, but still looks great! I was after a slightly brighter coloured version, but it's acceptable.
2. The pickups are passive, which is fine! However, they are weaker than I thought and require the gain to be turned up a bit more than my other guitars for a decent input signal. (could just need adjusting, minor issue tbh)
3. The tone knob has such a small change in tone I doubt I'll use it.

Bought this as my first 8-string. Quite happy with the purchase. A few downsides tho. The tone knob doesn't fit flush with the body. Not a huge deal but when playing it does catch my attention. Not noticeable from far though. Second con is that it doesn't have locking tuners. For a guitar in this price range I sort of expect locking tuners, especially when the guitar doesn't have some elite pickups like the fishman fluences. That felt disappointing but still seems to hold the tuning well. At least in drop E.

Then some pros.

The pickups sound surprisingly good. I was impressed. A bit too much low end so you might want to cut some in your amp. Also the cover on them is weird. It's some sort of heat tape which is weird but doesn't affect the thing. Fretwork was pristine. No sharp edges, and intonation was almost perfect, just a few tweaks and played like a charm.

The 5 way blade selector is cool and gets you some wicked sounds, a big pro there. Also the guitar is LIGHT I was surprised and in the best way possible.

Neck was so beautiful and although very thin it felt amazing to play and wasn't weird at all

Definitely suggest if this is your first 8 string or multi scale but there are cons. Plays like a beast