- Great build quality with excellent tech specs for the money
- Huge variety of sounds
- Perfect craftsmanship
- Very easy to play, fluid instrument
- The one we had for the video had a cracked pickup frame
- Active pickups may not be for everyone
Hello there, back again with another excellent electric guitar review! This time, we will be looking at a Schecter Blackjack SLS C-1 STBB (See-Thru Blue Burst) with active pickups. My regular readers are already aware that I’m a huge Schecter fan! I have played dozens of Schecter guitars as well as their more affordable line of SGR by Schecter electric guitars. There was not a single model that I wasn’t impressed with the value they offered!
Table of Contents
About Schecter
Schecter Guitar Research, commonly known as Schecter, is a well-known American guitar manufacturing company. It was founded in 1976 by David Schecter in Van Nuys, California. Initially, the company gained recognition for producing high-quality replacement parts for existing guitars, such as Fender and Gibson. Over the years, Schecter has evolved into a prominent guitar brand, manufacturing a wide range of electric guitars and basses. The company is particularly renowned for its custom and semi-custom instruments, catering to a diverse range of musical styles, including rock, metal, and jazz. 
Schecter guitars are often praised for their craftsmanship, attention to detail, and the use of quality materials. The company offers a variety of guitar models, including signature series instruments designed in collaboration with renowned artists. Schecter‘s guitars are known for their versatility, making them popular among musicians across different genres. As you may already know, I’m a big fan of Schecter guitars. Solo II Custom is not the first Schecter I tried. While working in the MI business, I had the chance to test, play and record many Schecters daily and was always amazed by their quality. Even their SGR by Schecter line was pretty much one of the best entry-level guitars ever.
Check out my Schecter guitar reviews here
My experience with Schecter guitars actually has made me buy one for myself! 🙂 Recently, I got a Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid PT-7 electric guitar and again, excellent value/money as always! In this review, we will be looking at a model that really impressed me with its build quality, ergonomics, and sound quality. Schecter Blackjack Series is still in production; however, this particular model is not easy to find online anymore since it’s not actively manufactured anymore. 
There are variations of this model. I searched for it on Schecter’s website; however, I was only able to find Blackjack SLS C-1 “EX” or “A” models. These are still almost identical to the one you will see in the video below. But the inlay at the 12th fret, which is called “Hell’s Gate Skull“, can never be seen on any Blackjack SLS C-1 models. No idea why! When our customer bought this guitar, it was the last one in stock. Probably the last brand-new one in Turkey! We did some tests and found no issues. However, just before we packed it, I noticed a crack in the pickup frame. There was only one option to go for! We informed the customer and offered them a pair of free DiMarzio pickup frames. He happily accepted it, and we shipped it 🙂 As our regular procedure, we recorded the guitar in a full-length, unbiased guitar review video format. Before we get into tech specs and some commentary, let’s have a look at the video! 
Sound Demo (no talking)
Like the other full reviews, this video was recorded again with a Marshall JVM205C valve amp and Shure SM57 microphone directly into the TC Electronic Impact Twin.
And before I give you my opinions about this guitar, let’s have a look at the tech specs table. I have compiled this from the Schecter website, but I have simplified it a bit, as Schecter has different sections for each part of the instruments, which is not really necessary to see the full picture. 
Tech Specs
| Schecter Blackjack SLS C-1 | Tech Specs |
|---|---|
| Body | Mahogany |
| Contour | Arched Top |
| Construction | Set-Neck w/Ultra Access |
| Neck | Maple 3 pieces |
| Neck Thickness | @ 1st Fret- .748” (19mm)/ @ 12th Fret- .787” (20mm) |
| Scale | 25.5" (648 mm) |
| Fingerboard | Ebony |
| Pickups | Seymour Duncan BlackOuts AHB-1 (Active) |
| Controls | Volume/Volume/Tone/3-Way Switch |
| Radius | 12”-16” Compound Radius |
| Frets | 24 X-Jumbo |
| Tuners | Schecter Locking |
| Nut Width | 42 mm |
| Nut Material | Graph Tech XL Black Tusq |
| Bridge | TonePros T3BT TOM w/ String Thru Body |
| Strings | Ernie Ball Regular Slinky #2221 (.010-.046) |
| Accessories | SGR-1C *Case Sold Separately, not included! |
Schecter Blackjack SLS C-1 model electric guitars feature a classic combination of an arched top mahogany body with a multi-ply binding on the body as well as on the neck. This particular one in the video also features a beautiful see-thru blue burst finish that goes perfectly well with the black colour on the instrument. This guitar comes with a classic compound radius that you can find in modern designs. Compound neck profiles don’t offer you a fixed radius amount across the neck; instead, the radius changes from 12″ to 16″ towards higher registers. So basically, you have a flatter feel on higher registers, while you have a more rounded feel on lower registers. 
Schecter Blackjack SLS C-1 also features 42mm Graph Tech XL Black TUSQ, Schecter locking tuners, and TonePros bridge. These components are very high quality and promise a stable tuning and intonation experience. As for the pickups, the Blackjack SLS C-1 series actually comes in different pickup configurations. This particular one featured in the article comes with a pair of Seymour Duncan Blackouts active pickups that operate with a 9V battery. Back in the day, we had both of these versions as well as a passive and satin black finish one.
Verdict
Normally, you would expect a set of active pickups to cost more, but in fact, the passive ones (Seymour Duncan Full Shred & Jazz pickups) were a bit more expensive than the active ones, followed by the passive, black satin finish one, which was the cheapest. I can clearly remember that I enjoyed playing this guitar in the video and played as many samples as possible in a limited time while we were shooting this series of videos. It was a breeze to play this instrument, a completely ergonomic and great-sounding instrument, as it’s no surprise when it comes to Schecters. Most Schecter guitars are made in South Korea, and I strongly believe South Korean guitar manufacturers (Not sure which facilities) have gained a tremendous amount of experience in guitar making and always deliver the highest value for the money you pay!
As you can hear from the video, this pair of active pickups generates way more output than your passive ones, so you can easily hear that even on the clean channels of the Marshall amp, the sound was slightly overdriven. This is pretty normal for active guitar pickups as they generate more output and can easily break up valve amps. To be completely unbiased, I never touched the settings of the amp. EQs are always flat, and I always use the same gain settings for each channel. Thus, you can easily hear the effect of different pickups vs the same settings on a valve amp!
As for the fingerboard/fretboard, it features a pretty glossy ebony fingerboard, which was kind of strange initially. You normally expect matte-looking, fully black ebony boards. My current Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid PT-7 also features an ebony fingerboard; however, it also has some dark brownish figures. I have seen completely black ebony fingerboards mostly, but Blackjack SLS C-1 was pretty unique to me in terms of this glossy ebony board. You can actually see the white light reflection in the video! They may have polished it and made it really smooth and shiny.
Overall, this guitar is another excellent & flawless axe by Schecter, apart from the crack on a pickup frame, which can happen to any instrument due to screws that weakened the plastic. There was not a single issue. Even the setup was completely ready to play without any adjustments! The only problem with Schecter guitars, in my opinion, is that even though they offer one of the highest value/money in the market, almost all guitars in this range don’t come with a gig bag! I mean, hard cases are not really my thing, but a gig bag would be so cool, dear Schecter! 😉 
I must say I would only get this guitar if I wanted something modern in terms of sound and feel. I’m not saying clean tones were not cool, but overdriven and high-gain sounds were solo fluid and nicely compressed! Schecter once again had gained my full trust! As I have mentioned, it’s almost impossible to find the exact model nowadays; however, you can always go for the Schecter C-1 Blackjack Gloss Black model, which is due to arrive in Thomann’s warehouse. This guitar is almost identical to this version.
Pricing & Availability
As you may have noticed, this article is pretty dated. Since then, Schecter has released so many guitars, and unfortunately, the SLS Blackjack C-1 is no longer available. At least, I’m sure that it’s not even on Schecter’s official website under the Blackjack series. They still list Blackjacks series with C-7 and Avenger variations, in case you are interested. As always, for the best price offerings, I can only suggest Thomann!
Check out the Schecter Blackjack series on Thomann here
For more Blackjack and SLS variations, you may also want to check out Reverb.com, as there are many used Schecters over there.
Check out the Schecter Blackjack series on Reverb here
Also, you may want to check out Amazon stores. Sometimes you may find Schecter models over there, too!
Check out the Schecter Blackjack series on Amazon here
I hope you have enjoyed this guitar review and found it helpful and insightful! Here on my blog, I will keep posting real reviews, unique articles and content that you can never find anywhere else! So please consider signing up for my newsletter (no spam, completely free) so you will always be the first to know when I publish new stuff here! Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
