8.18.2009

Review of the Schecter C-1 Blackjack FR by Terry White

This review will be based on the Schecter C-1 Blackjack FR model, but most of what I am going to tell you applies to all the Diamond series Schecter guitars.

A friend at a local music stop turned me onto Schecter guitars, and here are the reasons that I decided to take the plunge and give one a try.

I got my first Schecter a little over a year ago, and my main reason for buying a Schecter is simple. I am a left-handed guitarist and getting really good high quality guitars in left-handed models and a decent price is very hard to do. Schecter has found a way to keep manufacturing costs low enough and still deliver a super high quality instrument. 

And here is how they have accomplished that.

What Schecter does with the Diamond series guitars is that they ship all of the materials for manufacturing the guitars to a plant in Korea. I know what you are thinking there still made overseas so they can’t be too good, but that is where you would be totally WRONG.
Here is how they get around that. Once the guitars are assemble and ready they're then shipped right back to the Schecter guitar headquarters in California. And what happens then is what sets these guitars apart from any other guitar assembled in an overseas plant.

The technicians at Schecter Guitars do all the finish and set up work for their guitars right here in the U.S.A. They set them up to such a high quality standard that the guitars are almost always ready to play right out of the box. They even take it a step farther than that. Schecter guarantees their guitars for the life of the guitar. That’s right for as long as you own the guitar if anything at all goes wrong with the guitar they will take care of it for you.

Okay enough about the background of Schecter, onto the C-1 Blackjack FR.

Schecter does not use second rate parts of pickups in their Blackjack guitars.

The Schecter C-1 Blackjack uses only original Seymour Duncan pickups, a JB in the bridge position, and a 59 in the neck position, and this is only the beginning.

The guitar uses a set neck design with ultra access, and a 3 piece Maple neck, Mahogany body, and a Rosewood fingerboard. 24 X-jumbo frets and Grover tuners. Plus an all original Floyd Rose (not a copy) Tremolo.

The guitar plays fast, very fast, and the tone is as good as any guitar I have ever played. The action is excellent, as good as found on guitars that will cost you several thousand dollars.

This is simply one of the best guitars that I have ever owned, and I am already making plans to purchase several more. I already own 2 Schecters and would not hesitate to purchase another one.

Dollar for dollar I honestly do not think that you will find a better guitar out there anywhere. This guitar only uses the best of the best tuners, pickups, tremolo out there. And I have checked, if you try to purchase an all U.S.A. built guitar with these same features the least you are going to pay will be well over $2000.00.

Here is the best part, my Blackjack only cost me a little over $800.00, add in another $100.00 for one of the best guitar cases I have ever seen and you are all set and still got out for less than a thousand dollars.

You can even take the Blackjack a step higher, the Blackjack ATX model offers everything I already mentioned but adds an Ebony fingerboard, and Seymour Duncan active Blackout pickups. That will run you about $150.00 more, maybe less if you check around a little.

As far as reliability, well I have been playing my Blackjack for over a year now and have not had a single problem at all. And I do not expect any problems. The guitars are just so well put together and then inspected again and again before ever being shipped out to a customer. But if by some freak of nature you do have a problem all it takes is a single phone call to the guys at Schecter and they will waste no time at all doing whatever you need to get things right.

But, out of everyone that I know that owns a Schecter I do not know of anyone that has had any problems.
I do not have any reservations at all about recommending Schecter guitars to anyone; I just have that much faith in the guitars, and believe in them that much. And I never recommend anything unless I own it myself, and believe in it

You can check the Schecter C-1 Blackjack FR and the rest of the Schecter guitars at http://www.schecterguitars.com

If you have any questions at all please feel free to email me at terrywhite1@live.com or you can always find me on the Rockhouse Method message boards at www.rockhousemethod.com.

Terry White



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great Review. Makes me want to head out now to my local guitar store and purchase a Schecter.

Thanks for posting this RHM and Terry.

Terry White said...

Sorry guys I just noticed a couple of small typos. I typed this one up in a bit of a hurry. But even with the typos it is still very easy to understand that these guitars are well worth checking out.