When I hear the name “Schecter”, I automatically think of rock and metal guitars. One of the most famous guitars to come out of Schecter, the C-1, has been around since 1999. A while back, we looked at a more modern model, the C-1 FR-S. Today, we’ll be looking at a more basic, to-the-point C-1-style guitar, the Schecter C-1 Custom.

Let’s get to it!

Features:

– Mahogany Body

– Arched Quilted Maple Top

– Ebony Fretboard

– 12-16″ Compound Radius

– 22 XJ Frets

– Thin “C” Neck

– 3pc Mahogany Set Neck

– Maple with BLK/Creme Multi-ply Binding

–  Chrome Hardware

– Schecter Locking Tuners

– TonePros T3BT TOM w/ String Thru Body Bridge

– Volume/Tone (Push-Pull)/3-Way Switch

– Schecter USA Pasadena Pickups

Right out of the case, this guitar looks absolutely stunning. From the block inlays, to the beautifully figured cuts of wood, to the multi-ply binding, everything looks very unique.

This guitar costs about $800, so you could imagine my surprise when I saw all of the beautiful figuring on the top and the gorgeous cut of mahogany on the back. The See-Thru Vintage Burst really accentuates the woods used and adds a bit more color to the guitar. The icing on the cake is the Maple binding all around the body and the Ebony fretboard.

The Ebony board was a nice addition, you don’t see it too often on >$1000 guitars.

Thanks to the nice contours on the front and back, the guitar is very comfortable to hold, and quite light. The contours hug the body well, and could be played for hours without discomfort. The compound radius is definitely set up to be a shredder’s neck. Fast rhythms and legato style soloing are as comfortable as ever on the C-1’s neck.

Overall, the visual appointments give this guitar a really classy vibe.

But does it sound classy…..

Tone:

The answer is yes, it does sound quite classy.

The wood choices scream rock music. The combination offers a big bottom end with a bit of scoop in the mids. The Maple top adds a bit of zing to the top-end which helps the highs cut through the mix just enough to stand out.

Schecter has opted to put in their Schecter USA Pasadena humbuckers in this guitar. These reinforce the rock attitude that this guitar was clearly designed for.

The Pasadena Plus Bridge Pickup is quite bright and cuts through just about anything. It was actually originally created as a custom pickup for Zacky Vengeance of Avenged Sevenfold, so it definitely was intended for hard rock and metal sounds. It handles down tuning quite well and manages to stay quite precise and articulate. The standout feature of this pickup is it’s versatility and dynamic range. While it was intended for metal, it cleans up quite well and handles all sorts of different applications.

The Pasadena Neck Pickup is smooth and mellow and allows for a really sweet clean sound that I couldn’t stop playing with.

The addition of the Coil-Split offered even more versatility than these dynamic pickups already offer. They give a usable single coil-ish sound, but nothing that blew me away.

(If you don’t know what a Coil-Split is, I urge you to read our article Splitting vs Tapping Pickups.)

For being stock Schecter pickups, I was very happy with these. Although, if you are looking for something for more extreme styles of metal, I would maybe consider a pickup swap. These sound great for heavy rock, 80s metal, and other metal applications, but they sounded a bit thin for playing any low tuned proggressive or “DJENT” styles.

Build Quality:

Schecter continues to amaze me every time I pick up one of their modern guitars.

While this guitar was not “perfect”, it came closer than I could have hoped for, for the price.

The standout feature was the wood quality and finish work. The visual appointments were just about flawlessly executed and I could find no major flaws in the finish or binding. The biggest concern I had with the quality was a scratched up 7th fret. It wasn’t chipped or anything that would affect playability, but I like my guitars to look pristine when I get them.

The tuning machines were decent for being stock, but I usually upgrade stock tuners and these would be no exception. They weren’t bad, but some nice Hipshots or Gotohs would really bring this guitar up a notch.

(Installing tuning machines are a super easy mod that I do on just about every new guitar that I buy, read our article on upgrading your tuners to learn how to do it!)

Overall, I’m very satisfied with the quality of guitar that Schecter manages to put out in this pricepoint.

Final Verdict:

The C-1 Custom is a fantastic guitar for the rock or metal player. The pickups are designed specifically for hard rock applications and totally nail it. The playability of the neck is excellent and the visual appointments are quite stunning and unique.

The coil-split function wasn’t super amazing, but the rest of the sounds the guitar could create were excellent.

If you are wanting to upgrade this guitar to make it even better, I’d maybe consider some higher quality tuners and maybe a pickup swap!

I’d say $800 is very well spent on this guitar if you’re looking for a solid shredding machine.

8-8-9

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This article was written by Zac Buras, our editor located in Louisiana.

 

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