Schecter and Monuments' John Browne let the purple reign on shreddable new Tao signature electric

John Browne, resident prog-metal guitar whiz in Monuments and in his solo project Flux Conduct, has partnered with Schecter on a new signature model. The Tao is a state-of-the-art S-style that is offered in six, seven and eight-string formats.

And there’s some good news for the southpaw shred guitar community, with left-handed models available for all three variants – and they are all build for speed. The necks are comprised of a wenge/paduak five-ply sandwich that’s carved into a Thin “get out of my way” U profile (we’re talkin’ 19mm thickness at the first fret). 

The necks are topped with ebony fingerboards and join the solid swamp ash body with a four-bolt joint. Said bodies are given an upscale vibe courtesy of a highly figured flame maple veneer, which comes to life under the transparent purple stain and is reprised on the headstock cap to complete the look.

Both the standard six-string electric guitar and seven-string have 16” radius fingerboards, while the monster 8-string guitar has a 20” radius ‘board. Both extended range models have a longer 27” scale length as opposed to the Tao-6’s 25.5”.

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What else have we got? It won’t surprise you to learn that the frets are extra-jumbo, and that there are 24 of ‘em, but with Schecter stumping up for stainless steel frets they are sure to be silky smooth and hard-wearing, too. 

No expense has been spared with the hardware. The nuts are all Graph Tech Black Tusq XL. The hard-tail bridges and locking tuners are sourced from Hipshot.

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As for pickups, all three deploy Schecter USA high-output humbuckers, with a Chaosbreaker at the neck position and a Colossus at the bridge, all of which are controlled via a three-way toggle switch and a volume pot with push/pull functionality for splitting those coils. No tone, because Mr John Browne does not need it.

Other helpful features include the truss rod adjustment wheel being located at the top of the fingerboard, making for nice and easy setup tweaks, and the Luminlay side-markers which light up and guide your fretting hand in low-light situations. And in all playing situations, come to think of it, because there are no fret markers befouling that huge and shreddable expanse of ebony fingerboard,

The Jackson Browne Tao is available now, with the Tao-6 priced $1,599, the Tao-7 $1,649, and the Tao-8 $1,699. Add $50 to each for the left-handed models.

For more details, head over to Schecter.