Schecter Hellraiser C-1 - Black Cherry Reviews

This guitar prvides 'crunch' and 'shredability' that is to die for! It feels like it should...another part of my body.
Moreover, customer service is "top-of-the-line"!
One can be most confident in their products and most appreciative of Sweetwater's heartfelt care for the customer.
A "shout out" to Alex...my personal customer service representative who has been exemplary! Thank you Alex!

-Jamie

PROS: I have Tele's, an American Strat, PRS Custom 22, Gibson Les Paul, and several other kit and scratch built guitars. This is my first Schecter and I have to say I really like this Hellraiser. The Abalone binding on the body really stands out against the red body and the inlays in the neck are just stunning! I have received many compliments on this guitar about its looks. I definitely agree!
I had to adjust the action and intonation when I received it to my liking and now it plays like a dream. The neck is very comfortable in my hand and is very smooth. I really like the 24 frets. With the way this was made, it ends up sitting just right when I am standing using a strap so the frets are where you expect them. That was kind of surprising because I thought I might have a bit of an adjustment because I usually play 22 fret guitars. The weight is about 7 lbs which is very comfortable for long gigs. Just enough body weight to really balance the guitar without being overbearing.
I really like the blending between the body and the neck. No bumps or chunks of wood to work your hand around when playing high on the neck.
This is my first active pickup guitar and the EMG pickups sound really awesome and the sustain, both from the wood and the electronics far exceeds my expectations. I was concerned about the battery (9V) life but after doing some research I found that many people are reporting 2,000 to 3,000 hours of use. Just make sure to unplug the guitar after sessions to preserve the battery life and use a GOOD battery like Energizer or Duracell.
Overall I am VERY pleased with my purchase and would highly recommend this guitar. GREAT ENGINEERING Schecter!!!

CONS: There is only one thing I would suggest that Schecter change immediately (or Sweetwater change before shipping). The volume controls are reversed and I don't understand the reasoning behind this. The forward volume control controls the rear pickup and the rear volume control controls the front pickup. This is bass-ackwards from EVERY other guitar I own! I had to switch them around because that drove me crazy when I was playing it at a gig! Although it was pretty easy to do, I am not sure others would have the skills to do that.

Feels great and easy to play

Schecter makes some of the very best guitars for the money and this one is made exceptionally well. Looks and sounds fantastic. Great for hard rock as well as cleans. Julio and sweetwater have great customer service.

Beautiful guitar, excellent playability.
Love it

Great tone for rock and metal. I never had much use for coil tapping in other guitars, but this produces super usable tone in either position. Finish is lovely. Pictures of the abalone-style binding on the body and headstock don't do it justice, looks so good in real life. All the hardware is solid and smooth. Awesome guitar for the money.

these guys here at Sweetwater are the best, Jarod was out ( my usual sales rep) so i contacted Andy.. who was just as helpful, guitar arrived very fast and in great shape.. the flaws described (it was a showroom) was not hardly noticeable..
guitar was clean, setup nice and intonated perfect. I dropped the action from .15 to .125 which was better for me.. great guitar. excellent customer service as always!

I have a CS335, a CS356, an FCS Strat and a PRS core HB2p, these are great and very expensive guitars. I bought the Hellraiser on an impulse just to have a 24 fret guitar with hyper treble tones for some some clean chops and backgrounds. What I got was a build as close to perfection as PRS core, more sustain than any guitar I've ever played, and it's blinged out like a high-end Taylor. It's intonated perfectly, the action is perfect, and it's beautiful. I don't know how this was done, but I'm glad I had that impulse to fill a small niche in my guitar playing, because it does that very well. I was not prepared for a guitar that is as good as any of my 4000.00 guitars. It won't replace what they do, but it's as good overall as any of them. Unbelievable.

I opened the box and was struck with awe. It was exactly as I had envisioned it, the high quality photos did it no justice at all. The high shine and black cherry color, highlighting the curved maple top. Oh yeah, and the gothic iron cross inlays and matching mother of pearl trim.

Well I played it straight out of the box, did some tuning and she was good to go. Ran her threw some minor scales and chord progressions and all seems well. Never had active pick ups before but suffice to say I am impressed. Tones sound good, seems a bit flat, however the sounds are much cleaner and a bit more crisp.

I am going rub the fret board with some fret oil and let it acclimate to the humidity for about day and than run her threw her paces. Thank you Roger R. for your final inspection; the team down at Sweetwater just nailed it.

Own 25 guitars. All major brands. This is my fav ever.
My kid's Fender performer tele Has a smoother neck, but this is a great guitar

I have 25 guitars including Fender, Gibson, PRS, Ibanez, Washburn... The Schecter Hellraiser is the best guitar I have played. Beautifully finished, amazing tones, the neck is so good that I play better.

I was playing a PRS SE 24, but have other US PRSs, a Les Paul custom, and various others.

I am blown away by how easy this is to play and how solid and consistent it played from nut to fret 24.
I was looking at this for a few months, waiting for one that didn't have one or more of the tuners installed crooked, that also had a nice pattern top. oddly cut nut (slot in the nut not straight with the string). Sweetwater is great for supplying pictures of the actual guitar you are buying.

I play through a Helix out to 2 Quilter Power Blocks, going from my PRS SE to this beast will take a little more tweeking to adjust to the active pickups, I got the tone good enough for now, and just kept playing.
I was not expecting such a great playing experience, I am really impressed.

my 2 tiny nitnoy issues are the nut is not flush on either side of the neck, and the volume knob is a little too close to the pickup for my sausage fingers to rest perfectly in-between (I'll get used to this though),

Also the neck volume is furthest from the neck, which is odd but OK. There is nothing on Schecter's website, that I can find, to explain the control layout, so maybe it's built incorrect, maybe not, it doesn't bother me yet, if it does, I'll swap them around.

Can this guitar do everything or what?! It came right out of the box perfectly in tune. The cherry color is even more lively in person. The neck feels great and it"s a very comfortable fit. I plugged this in and went right for some heavy metal jams. The pick ups are SOLID. The pull out volume knobs for the pick up to become single coils is also amazing. After jamming some Metallica I went on to play some blues, some grunge, and old rock n, roll.

This guitar made me realize how hard my old guitar was to play even with it being in good condition and professionally set up (Ibanez S-370). I actually played a lot of my typical jams better and cleaner on the Schecter. This guitar plays fast, feels light, plays tight and very versatile. The locking tuners are great too and speaking of tuners the guitar stays in tune fantastically.

I researched guitars and played many in the last 8 months before I made this purchase. No matter what guitars I tried I kept coming back to the Hellraiser. It"s the best deal you can get under $1,000 and a solid choice.

This has to be the best guitar that I have ever owned! From the build quality to he tone, this thing is incredible! I am truly sold on Schecter!!!

I was looking for a guitar capable of playing high gain hard rock and metal but just couldn't stomach the prices of Les Pauls, ESPs, PRS, et al. So, I went to the bad place and tried a few alternatives. This guitar just called to me even though setup was less than great. I ordered from Sweetwater (stellar service) and was rewarded with an absolutely awesome axe for my purposes. Details: This guitar has the heft of a Les Paul. It feels "solid", just like a Les Paul or PRS. With a good setup this guitar plays with unbelievably low action with absolutely zero fret buzz. The Tone Pros bridge and through body string mounting make this a sustain monster. Access to upper frets is awesome and the neck, body interface is very well sculpted. Probably the most accessible upper register I have ever experienced on any guitar. The fretwork is outstanding and the edges of the neck are slightly rolled, giving the edge of the neck a PRS feel. The frets do not need dressing out of the box. Finish is flawless. This guitar is absolutely the most resonant guitar I have ever experienced. Pluck a string and you will feel the body resonate for sure. And the resonation persists throughout the entire note. Playing this guitar unplugged, it is very loud. Almost as loud as some of my semi hollows. No joking. It's quite amazing, actually. Tuning Machines are very high quality. The pickups are awesome for high gain stuff, but as expected with an active pickup lack some harmonic complexity on low gain playing, but that's not the guitar's fault. You don't buy this to make it into a Blues guitar. One thing that really sets this guitar apart is the 25.5" scale. The scale not only makes the very high registers of the 24 fret fretboard more easily playable, but it adds to the purpose for which it was intended. The higher string tension of the longer scale adds a snap to bass strings not unlike a Strat. I like this because I think it promotes note separation at high gain and prevents the bass from becoming mush which is so common on metal guitars. This guitar has a very pronounced pick attack that works very well for for drop tunings because it maintains note definition that you can't get on a short scale instrument. The one and only criticism I have, which is almost irrelevant to me, because I didn't care about this feature one whit, is the coil splitting of the pickups. They really don't change the character of the pickups that much. If you want this to get traditional active pickup single coil sounds, this machine isn't going to do it. But what it does well, it does extraordinarily well. The neck profile is not unlike the thin Les Paul necks. Just right and fast. In fact, I like it better than any Les Paul I have played.Just perfect. I find this to be the best playing guitar in my collection, and I do have some high end guitars. I am mostly a blues player, and it's just a shame that you can't get all of the virtues of this guitar out of a Strat. Were I a metal head, this would be my go to guitar. But, it does suck for Blues, so I don't send as much time with it as I would like. I have even thought of pulling the EMG's and putting in a boutique set of passive humbuckers. Were it not for how odd I would look playing a Hellraiser at my local Blues jam, I probably would do that. But, the shape is just so aggressive that I think I'll pass on that. But if one were to take that route, I am sure that it would be a tone beast. Hands down the best playing guitar I own. You will not be disappointed. The build quality and quality of components is every bit as good as any guitar I have ever played. Too bad Schecter doesn't make anything with this construction approach that is focused on lower gain tones, or I would have two Schecter's in my arsenal. Just can't say enough things about it.

This guitar has been my favorite axe since I bought it five years ago. It plays better than my Ibanez or Gibson, and the sound from the EMGs is incredible.

I have now been retired for 1 year as a truck driver. I have played guitar and have written a few songs off and on throughout the years.
So the hourly demand driving truck, took anytime that I had a chance to play away, just so I could catch up on sleep! So I put my guitars away for the past 4 years!
Now retired, I'm back to playing again and went searching for a new guitar, when I came across this beauty!
After ordering the guitar, it got here within 2 weeks, which is awesome considering, the debacle in our supply chain these days!
I played the guitar as much as I could, considering that I just had hand surgery a short while ago, but what I can tell you is that the guitar is absolutely beautiful hands down!
The emgs are a bit heavier than I expected, for the type of music that I tend to play, but with great shred ability!
The neck is a tad bit beefy for my preference and maybe that's due to the hand surgery that I've had recently.
Although the fingerboard and frets were polished nicely, with the fret wire rounded off very nicely and yet very comfortable to play!
My only issue with this guitar, is that then that the nut was a little undercut on each side and was not flush with the neck. So I did take off 1/2 a star for that!
I want to mention that my salesman; Damon Spragia, is one of the best sales engineers, that I have ever encountered thus far!
The man will spend any amount of time with you, weather answering your questions about, any of the products that you may be interested in or getting into a conversation about the good old days!
He definitely makes you feel like a friend!
So Sweetwater"I think that you need to give this man a raise!!!
Anyhow didn't want to turn this into a book!
I wouldn't have any question about purchasing this guitar again, automatic yes for me!
I definitely would say go for it and give Damon a shout out!
Can't say it enough, good dude!!!
Here's the pic of my guitar, the day I got it.

I own a number of high end American-made instruments and hadn't ever bought an Asian-built guitar. Then I saw a video of Claudio Pietronik (a total fretboard monster) playing one of these with his band Ancient Bards from Italy and got curious. Plus none of my guitars has EMGs. So when a screaming deal on a new, gorgeous black cherry C1 Hellraiser showed up - small ding on the back of the neck - I bought it. THE GIBSON LES PAUL MARKET IS IN DEEP DOO DOO when the word gets out about this guitar! Remarkable sustain, tone, articulation and tuning stability, all to a good degree to the use of decent tonewoods (mahogany and maple - hard to beat) which aren't found on most Asian guitars. The EMGs sound great through a wound up Marshall and the cleans are OK through a '66 Super Reverb. EMGs are better for high gain tone. And the workmanship is superb: Asian guitars have obviously come a long way in the last decade. Les Paul performance...with better tuning stability...at a fraction of the price. Only drawback, and it's just a personal preference, is that I'd have preferred medium frets to the super jumbos.

This is one of the most versatile guitars i've ever played. I play everything from Metal to Blues jams and anything in between. I love my guitar and I feel like I bought multiple guitars because of how different it's own settings can produce. A truly solid instrument with rosewood and mahogany... can't beat the sound and feel. Plus the EMG's are about the best you can do with active pickups. I really don't have anything negative to say about it whatsoever.

I only have one other guitar,which is a 1996 carvin dc135.The action of the neck is not as good as the carvin, but this guitar rocks some awesome sound from the emg's.This guitar is beautiful, and worth it just for the looks.

I owned this guitar for about 4 years used it quite a bit I found the coil split for the bridge humbucker useless as the sound was too thin and eventually the volume push pull pot for the bridge pickup broke in a good way so that when you pulled it out it became a kill switch. Pushed in it gave the full humbucker and pulled out it had become a kill switch.
The coil split still worked on the neck and that is where it was most effective for rhythm strumming. The single coil mode for the neck humbucker cleaned the sound up and for a fat lead you just pop the volume knob back down to get back to full humbucker, and with the three-way switch you could preset a couple good tones.
I found the tone knob to have too wide a range and the tone had to be carefully dialed in unlike passive pickups. The setting on the tone knob was critical in reducing the unwanted brightness and dialing in a tone that didnt grate.
I eventually sold the guitar I didnt like the locking tuners or the locking bridge and I have a Schecter hellraiser c-1 Special that doesnt have the locking tuners or locking bridge or the push pull stuff and that guitar I feel is just simpler and better than the fancy hardware you get on the regular C-1. The Special was discontinued a few years ago. With the Special I find the pickups sound better than the regular C-1 version. Mine are regular emg 81/85 and not the 89/whatever version that they use in the regular C-1.
I dont play metal but you can play jazz with the emg's if you lower the volume and go through a good amp not some fender frontman or mustang thing. I have 81/85 on my steinberger synapse ss-2F so I know the emg pickups can sound good. I just didnt really like the ones on this C-1 here in the long run. There were times the guitar sounded amazing and played great and other times where it just didnt feel or sound right. But the weight balance is very good the guitar feels light and is balanced beautifully yet feels substantial.

Unfortunately the volume pot and bridge pickup there was a short circuit or weak wire because the bridge pickup was really weak. Paid for a guitar set up and I'm surprised they didn't notice.
The neck volume pot and neck pickup was outstanding. 2nd model of this guitar I had to return this month. They blamed Shecter but, 2 inspections didn't catch it? So I bought one from their competitor a Hybrid model and it works great.