- Superb build quality
- Very consistent, solid craftsmanship
- Can cover a huge ground of sounds with the EMG pickups
- Doesn't come with a gig-bag
Hello there, back again with another excellent guitar by an excellent manufacturer, Schecter! This time, we will be looking at a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser electric guitar. This has been one of the most shocking guitars I have ever played. I mean, if you think about the brand, their style, the musicians who play Schecter instruments and the aggressive look, I would always think that these were built for heavier music genres and very limited. However, when I demoed it, I found out that dozens of different sounds which were usable in many genres could be obtained with a single instrument like this.
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.
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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. Hellraiser Hybrid PT-7 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. I also got myself a Solo II Custom in recent years and was really impressed!
Check out my Schecter guitar reviews here
Before we dive into details, let’s see the guitar in action. This time recorded with a Marshall JVM205C valve amp + Shure SM57 microphone.
Sound Demo (no talking)
Doesn’t it look excellent already? The craftsmanship on these instruments is top-notch, with not even a single problem or cosmetic fail on it. If you think you would never like active pickups, please think again. This guitar is one of the most successful instruments in tone generation for both high-gain settings and pristine clean tones. Also, the coil-split function goes perfectly well with these pairs of pickups. 
Tech Specs
| Schecter Hellraiser C-1 | Tech Specs |
|---|---|
| Body | Mahogany with Quilted Maple Top |
| Construction | Set-Neck (Ultra Access) |
| Neck | Mahogany 3 pieces |
| Fingerboard | Rosewood |
| Tuners | Schecter Locking |
| Scale | 648mm |
| Frets | 24 X-Jumbo |
| Radius | 355mm |
| Nut | 42mm Graptech XL Black Tusq |
| Bridge | Tonepros T3BT Tune-O-Matic |
| Pickups | EMG 81TW (B) EMG89R (N) |
| Controls | 2xVolume(Push/Pull) Tone 3-way Switch |
| Strings | Ernie Ball Regular Slinky #2221 |
According to Schecter Guitar Research’s website, this guitar is made in South Korea, which makes me think that it’s probably built in a Cort factory. I don’t know you, but Korean-made guitars always make me feel safe thanks to their build quality and playability. This guitar must have been the first Schecter I had ever touched, and as I said, I was quite shocked by the versatility of this instrument. 
The thin C-profile neck is awesome and very, very easy to play. String action is quite low without choking up the low end, and this results in ease of playability that you could only have with high-level guitars. One of the most surprising aspects of this guitar was the EMG pickups. I was always someone who got influenced by the comments and forum posts back in the early 2000s, and always thought EMGs were for a certain type of music. Many people claim that these pickups don’t have any dynamics and sound sterile and stiff. Some would say that for cleans, you should never consider EMGs, etc. See, there was a lot of misinformation spreading around before YouTube and gear reviews had become a thing.
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EMGs in this guitar were so sweet that we received a lot of positive feedback, talking about the clean sounds as well as the overdrive and distortion sounds. With the coil split option, you end up with so many possibilities, which makes this guitar a true studio tool. You can basically record any kind of music without any issues at all!
Overall, just like the other Schecters that I have played and tested, I was blown away by this extremely well-built shred machine. It’d be very difficult to choose one from either this, the Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid series or a Schecter Blackjack C-1. If you are into hard rock and heavy metal genres and want thick gains out of your amp and at the same time want to have pristine clean tones with wide tonal varieties, I would definitely suggest you try one. Yes, the look is quite aggressive but beautiful at the same time, but it will also provide many usable tones at your disposal no matter what kind of genre you are going to use it for! 
Pricing & Availability
Fortunately, these guitars have been in production for a very long time. On top of that, as this C-1 series has become the core guitar model for the company, in time, they have released so many iterations to choose from. Whether you are after a fixed-bridge version or a Floyd Rose version with a Sustainer pickup on the neck, you are all covered!
Check out the Schecter C-1 Hellraiser series on Thomann here
You may also want to check out Reverb for the used as well as the brand new listings.
Check out the Schecter C-1 Hellraiser 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 C-1 Hellraiser series on Thomann 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!
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