Gear Review: 2005 Schecter C-1 XXX

By anders pearson 21 Jul 2009

The last of my guitars (for now) is a Schecter C-1 XXX. I believe it’s a 2005 model.

I got it on eBay on a whim with a really lowball bid. After having my C-7+ for a while and being really impressed with the quality, I kept
watching other Schecter guitars go by.

The C-1 XXX is some kind of “special edition” guitar that Schecter produced to sell exclusively at Guitar Center. It has mother of pearl “stripper” inlays on the fretboard. Honestly, I find that embarrassingly tacky. I’m not crazy about the “vector” inlays on my C-7+ either. When it comes down to it, I think I really prefer fretboards with no inlays at all. Parker style.

The cheesy inlays though are about the only visual flaw the guitar has though. Mine is pretty beat up and scratched, but that can be charming in its own way.

I think it’s not true neck-through; just a very smooth, well-disguised set-neck heel. Either way, sustain is great and upper fret access is about as good as it gets. Mahogany body with maple top and maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. TonePro bridge and string through body, Grover tuners, and it came with Duncan Design pickups (basically 6-string versions of the same pickups that are in my C-7+). Again, absolutely solid, sturdy construction.

Those stock pickups though had the same issue as in the C-7+. Decent sounding but just not aggressive enough for metal. So I made this guitar a project and installed some EMG Hz pickups in it. I also filed the nut slots a bit wider to accommodate some beefy strings so I could tune down to C.

The result was an absolute beast of a metal guitar. Those EMG Hz pickups were exactly what it needed to give it serious bite. Very high output but with excellent note articulation. Crisp, but powerful.

Now, if there were just a way to make those inlays invisible, I wouldn’t feel quite so embarrassed about posting pictures of it on the internet.