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Schecter C1 Blackjack
Price Paid: $550 USD (with HSC)

Schecter Spec's:
CONSTRUCTION/SCALE: Set-neck w/ Ultra Access / 25.5”
BODY: Mahogany
NECK/FINGERBOARD: Maple/Rosewood
FRETS: 24 X-Jumbo
INLAYS: Black Pearl Dots
PICKUPS: Seymour Duncan JB / ‘59
ELECTRONICS: Vol/Tone/5-Way
BRIDGE: TonePros TOM w/ Thru-body
BINDING: Multi-Ply
TUNERS: Grover
HARDWARE: Black Chrome
COLOR: Gloss Black (BLK)
SUGGESTED RETAIL $819


Pro’s:
-Excellent price for what you get.
-Comes stock with a Seymour Duncan JB/59 set of humbucker’s
-Finish and binding are flawless
-Pot's are solid and nice and smooth
- 5-way switching for a multitude of sounds
-Tuning key's seem very nice, and stay in tune very well
-Neck is nice and smooth, slightly bigger than a Fender strat neck
-Fret's have smooth ends
-fairly lightweight
-Neck transitions seamlessly into the body
-Overall great feel, tone, and versatility

Con's:
- Not long after purchasing the 5-way switch is loose in the bridge position and needs to be nudged sometimes to make good contact
-It's a little neck heavy
-The neck is a little narrow for my taste, but not too bad


Review:
Upon receiving the guitar, it amazed me at how beautiful a solid black guitar could be. The creamy binding
accentuates is sexy curves just right, and the black MOP inlay's have a ghostly appearance on the fretboard.
The black chrome hardware (which actually has more of a dark bronze/root beer color) add a nice touch to the guitar's dark characteristic.
This was the first guitar I had ever played that had an all mahogany body and maple/rosewood neck combination, and I must say.... me likey. I'll be honest, I bought the guitar on a wild whim without ever playing it before, so I was pretty nervous before I plugged it in. After plugging into my rig (whatever is was at the time.... yeah, I'm a gear whore), and running through a few riffs and such, I was very impressed! The guitar has a nice punchiness to it along with crisp highs and a tight bottom end. Compared to my PRS, it has a more midrange focused tone, as opposed to the darker more open tone of the PRS. This is a good thing though, since a guitar's voice is in the midrange. Note's seem to jump out at you rather than getting all jumbled up with each other.
After playing through all the pickup arrangements, I realized that this is a very versatile guitar. The bridge position is very punchy and articulate, the middle 3 positions have strat like tones that are excellent for clean to slightly overdriven passages, and the neck position has a vintage low output rawness to it that is great for all kinds of tones.

Summary:
The main reason I bought this guitar was so I would have a backup in case anything ever happened to my PRS during a gig or practice or whatever. Little did I know that I was getting a guitar that would end up seeing just as much playing time as my PRS. I've played this guitar through many different setups, and it has performed flawlessly through all of them. While my PRS is still my main "go to" guitar, the Blackjack adds a little more variety and versatility to my aural arsenal.