Schecter C-1 Diamond Series

brand new, made in 2000. i think it was made in Korea, but i pulled that sticker off right when i got. it has 24 frets with diamond inlays, very nice. i don't relly need 24 frets, but hey, i'll take 'em. it has 2 humbuckers, a volume, a tone, and a 3-way switch(neck/both/hum). the pick-ups are duncan design and aren't that great. the body is solid mahogany, the neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. so it's not really neck heavy, which is really good, cuz the ibanez i had before this (GAX70) would dive bomb for the floor is i let go of the neck, which was not cool. the finish rules. it's silver satin. it doesn't need to be polished and dust and fingerprints don't really show up, so no polishing necessary. the body style is kind of a miz between a strat and a prs, so it's realy nice. it's even got the raised part in the middle and on the horns like a prs. its got a tune-o-matic but no stop tail, the strings got into the body to enhace sustain. the tuners are grover and stay in tune pretty good. the neck scale is 24 3/4" (like a les paul) and is really comfortable. it reminds me of an ibanez neck, which are the nicest necks i've ever played (on the more expensive models). i'm not to sure what size the frets are, i think they're jumbo, but they might be medium. whatever they are they're cool. it came with a gig bag. oh ya, all the hardware is black, which looks really cool with the black hardware.

my styles are metal, hard rock, some punk, classic rock, and heavy. it can do all of these nicely, although the pick-ups aren't great and aren't quite heavy enough for me so the metal and heavy stuff don't sound right. i;m going to change the pick-ups eventually. it's got humbuckers, so it's not noisy. it's got kind of a bright sound, which i don't like too much, i'd rather a darker one which i can kinda get when i turn the tone down. but the pick-ups still aren't bad for stock, but i could do better. but with the mahogany body, they still sound pretty good.

the set up is great. straight neck, as far as i can tell it's intonation is fine, the action is low with hardly any buzz, which i like. like i said before, the pick-ups aren't great, but not bad for stock. the bride is fine. the creme binding on the side is cool, but it would be even cooler if it was black. they're is 1 or 2 extremely minor flaws in the finish, but nothing anybody would notice unless they really examined it. i have a tendency to spot those things.

i haven't played live with it yet, only in my basement. but i think it could definitely survive, i mean, the guy from Papa Roach uses them. the hardwares seems fine. the finish is great, but the black paint on the top of the saddles on the bridge is starting to rub of from palm muting, but only the part i touch so no big deal. the strap buttons are solid, nice and wide so your strap won't come off uness you doing tae bo while your playing. i think you could definitly depend on it. i'd use it on a gig without a back-up, i don't think i could even afford a back-up anyway.

never needed to, but it has a limited lifetime warranty, so it can't be that bad.

i've been playing for 2 1/2 years. i own a strat, an ibanez, a marshall amp, and some pedals. i would definitely buy this guitar again, it's great. i love the finish and the overall feel, it's just a great guitar. i don't really like the pick-ups, but like i said before i'm gonna change them. i didn't really try any other guitars, i saw Papa Roach live and saw Jerry Horton using it and thought it looked cool. so i kinda researched it and tried it out and really liked it so i bought it. i wish it had black binding instead of creme, and better pick-ups.

Although I actually wanted a C-1 plus, apparently they aren't making them anymore, so I went for the C-1, which Musician's Friend still has in stock. I'm not disappointed. From the moment I picked it up, one word came to mind: solid. Mahogany body, 24-fret maple neck (bolt-on) w/ rosewood fingerboard. The body style is fairly classic, with echoes of both strats and Paul Reed Smiths. Mine came with a perfect 'electric blue' paint job that's rich and has that classy 'deep' look to it, along with antique cream binding around the body. Excellent Grover tuners, and 2 decent 'duncan-designed' humbuckers. 2 knobs - one volume, one tone, and a 3-way selector. Incredible for the price.

Playing it without the amp, you can hear the real acoustic quality of the instrument. The thru-body string set-up gives it nice sustain, and it has a natural, well balanced sound. I have kind of a crappy old Yamaha amp (and a Korg effects unit), but the C-1 still sounds pretty good through it. The bridge pickup is definitely 'hotter,' and sounds vicious with some classic fuzz distortion applied. The neck pickup is smoother, and if you crank the tone down, you can get a nice Les Paul tone out of it. The 3-way selector switch is a little weird, but not enough to be a major prob. I play all sorts of styles, and the C-1 seems versatile enough to handle it. I will probably put some real Duncans in it at some point, but for now, it sounds mean with overdrive and smooth on clean settings, and that's good enough for me.

The diamond series is built overseas and set-up at their shop in California. Those guys do an excellent job getting these guitars ready to play. The strings are a little light for my taste (i usually do ernie ball lt. top-hvy. bottoms), but it was set up beautifully right out of the box. Aside from minor imperfections in the fretboard inlays, it's beautifully put together. I have noticed no fret buzz, and I love the tune-o-matic bridge and thru-body strings. Once again: solid.

I can't imagine having many problems with this thing live. I banged out a bunch of metallica and bad brains on it the first night i got it, and it barely even went out of tune. The strap buttons are huge, the hardware is simple and sturdy, and the finish seems like it will last forever. I have actually played may gigs without a backup, so I would have no reservations about using this one 'without a net.'

Limited lifetime warranty, but i wouldn't know anything about their service.

I've been playing for about 15 years, and this is one of the nicer guitars I've owned. I've never been one to spend a ton on my gear, so finding this for the price (I paid $322, it lists for $600) was a nice suprise. I wanted something along the lines of an Ibanez Artist or a Hamer Archtop, and this fits the bill perfectly. About the only things I'd change are the color and the electronics. the finish is beautiful, but I prefer black myself. And I will replace the electronics, just because I always put some hi-output seymours in my guitars... SO, if you want a workhorse for cheap, look no further...