Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid C-1 - Trans Black Burst Reviews

Had the floyd rose sustainiac model for a year. i love it. im just not a huge floyd rose guy, i bought that one mostly just to have one. but was blown away, its seriously one of my nicest guitars, if not the nicest (right up there with an american strat deluxe and a hp les paul std). the Schecter just sounds mean, rich, harmonic. i absolutely love it. the ultra thin neck is so awesome once it stops being "weird". the construction is top notch. did i get lucky? well i went at first to buy a fixed bridge C shape, but turns out the SLS elite are swamp ash (got a deal on one on reverb), and although i did not buy into wood making a difference, boy does it. even several pickup swaps did not overcome the wood. So what did i do? came back to sweetwater and bought a second Hellraiser Hybrid. no messing around, its got the sound Im after. turns out i didnt get lucky, its just this simple - Schecters are consistent amongst models, even after a year, and the 57/66 pickups paired with mahogany plus maple top sound amazing. even acoustically you can tell, these Hellraiser Hybrids just sing with oozy rich resonation.

thanks to my sales engineer Kevin Scott for making sure my new gear voyages work out!

After getting the 8 string version of this years ago I kept putting this in my wish list over and over since. Finally I thought I better get this before they stop making them. Anyway, everything about this is perfect for what I got it for. I have a lot of guitars but this is the only 6 string with active pickups. These are about the best sounding EMG's for me. The look of these is stunning and love the carbon fiber binding and glowing side dots. The sound and playability are stellar!!

This is my first Schecter, as well as my first serious and quality guitar, also my first purchase with Sweetwater and I have nothing but positive things to say about all the above. My sales engineer Alberto Perez has been great to work with and he took good care of me!

This guitar is stunning, feels very high quality and plays great out of the box. I'm very happy with my purchase. The emg pickups are sweet on this, they handle metal great but also can play clean. One reason I chose this model over other schecter models is the inlay design is more simple with not a lot of designs all over the neck.

All in all I will continue doing business with Sweetwater. And I look forward to enjoying this beautiful guitar for years to come!

I wanted a shred machine that stays in tune and looks as killer as it plays. This is it! It holds tuning like a wizard and with the glow in the dark dots and carbon fiber binding, looks as good as it sounds. My only request would be to add sustainiac to this beast, but that would be more for fun rather than for practical reasons. I was so tired of screwing with my old guitar with a floyd rose, and just wanted something reliable, that stays in tune and looked the part. Very happy with my choice and want to thank my Sales Engineer Brian Lemert for his awesome help and guidance as usual. Get one and happy shredding!

The look is just stunning and plays like a dream from soft to heavy. Neck feels great, action is low and plays so nice, no fret buzzing at all. I'm enjoying this guitar to way much i think.

I'll make this quick. This is my second Schecter purchase this year.( Have the E-1 special edition in TPB) so when Nick here at Sweetwater let me know about the deals in September i had to have this Hellraiser also. Its been in my sights and now this hybrid is in my hands and sounds plays and feels amazing. The emg's make one hell of a metal tone that your not used to. Chrunchy goodness! Im an ol Jackson fan who will never go back. Schecter guitar research is hands down one of the best guitar makers for the price in the world.

I was looking for a 6 string with a longer scale length for alternate low tuning for ....well pretty heavy slow and low groove metal. I tried playing some baritone's but my hands are too small and the action and play ability was terrible. I usually prefer a Gibson scale length, 24 3/4", but low tuning gets too sloppy. I found the 25 1/2" with this setup is just right as long as I stay under a drop C tuning. I'm going to try different string gauges and setups...can't wait. Oh and the pickups? Wow! I thought I hated active pickups? It's like they're focused in on the sound you want and and push the envelope too the max. I actually use the tone control and volume now to get more or less push and ...bingo! It's so much more versatile than what I had hardwired in my mind. It definitely does it's best work Shedding,

I have been strugling to find the sound, that all guitarist strive for. After reading some of the reviews on these pick ups. 57/66, I chose this guitar. I am here to tell you that I am amazed at the quality and sound from this guitar. For a mid level priced guitar it plays comparable to high end models. I recommend that you buy this guitar. Also my experience with the sales team at sweetwater has been top notch, and they are very knowledgeable and willing to help. I ordered this guitar at 4:30 pm and it was delivered to me the next day at 1:00. that was amazing for free shipment. All i can say is you can not go wrong with sweetwater and they have all my buisness from now on.

I am not one for shreading and playing loud and fast. I stumbled across this guitar in Sweetwaters retail store and I just love it. Typically I play blues and calssic rock and suprisingly this shread mechine not only suited my needs but exceeded them. The EMG pickups are the clearest sounding active pickups I have used next to the Fishman Fluence line. The overall feel and playability was exceptional. The neck was comfortable and fast, thanks to its satin rubbed finish. Very impressed. Perhapse the best value for a any rock guitr under a grand.

Having owned at played may guitars in this price range over many years, I can certainly say that this one ranks right up there. It's visually stunning and for what it does well (metal), it excels!

The action was higher than I like when I received it. The neck had good relieve so I took down the bridge. It is now very comfortable. I am not convinced that the nut slots couldn't have been cut lower, however (IE, you can only take the action down so far). That said, I've grown quite fond of where the action is now.

I didn't expect this to cover a wide variety of styles and, well, it won't. There is not a huge tone difference between the bridge and neck pickups. In fact, I'd say it's the least difference of any guitar I have ever owned. They are bad tones, just not a lot of variety.

If you want and ax for heavy to brutal tones that looks the part, you can't go wrong at that price range.

That said, I do agree with another reviewer. For a Korean guitar at this price range, a case should have been included.

I have owned a handful of Schecter guitars over the years. Some decent, some borderline terrible, so when I picked this one up I was really surprised! The build quality on this guitar is up there with guitars triple its price!

THE GOOD:

LOOKS. It's a stunner for sure! The multi-ply real carbon fiber binding, the glow in the dark side dots, the thick quilted maple cap (NOT a veneer!) and the real mother of pearl inlays are both elegant and aggressive.

SOUND. If you're one of those players who hate active pickups because of their sterile sound, I urge you to give this one a try! EMG really have something here with this set! They can go from sparkly to bluesy to balls-to-the-wall thrash with ease!

FEEL: the thin C neck has a satin finish that is just a joy to play. The fretwork is impeccable! No dead or high frets, no sharp fret ends. Setup was as perfect as you could reasonably expect. The hardware is all top notch, too, and it stays in tune like a champ!

THE BAD:

WEIGHT: This guitar is quite heavy for it's style. It feels like a Les Paul. You will definitely feel it if you play for long periods standing up.

PRICE: While I think the instrument as a whole is well worth the price, I think this is a pretty steep price point for a Korean-made instrument. I think the case should definitely have been included. That being said, I have also seen a lot less guitar for a lot more money, so this is subjective...

OVERALL: If it is in your budget range, get it. You will not be disappointed, and you will be hard-pressed to find another guitar with this level of build quality in this price range. I am very happy with this one.

Let me start with, this is a really good guitar! The fretboard is smooth, and the finish on the body is perfect. The black chrome hardware looks and feels solid. This has the second to best offering from EMG in the 57/66 pickup set. The neck is SUPER smooth. Lie the satin finish on the back.

So why 3-stars?

Quality control on some of the areas of the guitar were pretty bad. For example, Schecter used the wrong size nut. See the picture below. It's most obvious on the right side. It was also far more apparent in person. The nut was way too short. When I went back and looked at other C1 hybrid guitars, this wasn't an issue. It did not stay in tune very well. Could have been the wrong but.

Another big issue, which is one I'm not sure how it passed the 55 point inspection. It had deadening string buzz on the E, A, and D string. It was bad! It started at about the 7th fret in each, and got progressively worse as you moved to the higher frets. It was unplayable past the 12th fret. Maybe warped neck? I'm well aware about setting up a guitar, but I've never seen one this bad before.

Also, the carbon binding is neat. I thought it was cheesy, at first. It grew on me. However, the binding on the fretboard edges is far from great. You can see small gaps and edges from all of the layers they used to create it. Visually, it's like they laid about 20 thin layers (like holding a stack of paper). The edges were wavy, had gaps, and in some spots, uneven.

Oh, and be carful with this particular Tone-Pros bridge. When you're setting the intonation, there is a little nut that likes to fall off. Don't lose it. There is no replacing it. I reached out to Schecter to see if they had a spare, and they never got back to me.

Two things I would like to see Schecter implement: dropping in the coil tap version of the 57/66 pickups would add a LOT of diversity to this particular guitar.

Second, if they started rolling/contouring the edges under the forearm. Ibanez and some others are really ahead in this. This guitar does dig into your forearm some. Not as bad as some, but it's certainly noticeable.

Would I buy this guitar again? Maybe. I would make sure it had the correct nut, and the fretboard wasn't warped. Without these issues, I would give it 4.5 out of 5.