Schecter C-1 Silver Top

I believe this is a 2003 model, purchased new from Guitar Center for a ridiculously low price of $200. It was made in Korea, has 24 jumbo frets, set neck, mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, dot inlays, Grover tuners, 5-way switch, 1 vol, 1 tone, Duncan Designed pickups, silver top, TOM bridge, string-thru body, 24 3/4" scale. The Schecter web site stated it had the HB-103 Duncan Design pickups, but they were actually HB102B and HB102N, which are supposed to be a close approximation of the Duncan JB and Jazz, respectively. I'll probably put these into one of my more "budget" guitars to give it a kick in the pants.

The guitar sounded ok in its stock form, and was a steal for the price. It seems well-made and has great sustain. Kinda like the poor man's Les Paul. I like the versatility of the 5-way switch. Can get reasonably good-sounding single coil sounds.

Well, curiosity got the best of me so I had to ask myself, "How would it sound with a few upgrades?" So, off came the stock TOM bridge and on went the TonePros locking bridge. This gave it a bit more sustain, Next I changed out the Grover tuners in favor of Sperzel locking tuners and that made the tuning rock-solid. I'm not a big fan of Grovers anyways and this was a big improvement in terms of stability. Finally, the voices told me "Change the pickups!" I put a Seymour Duncan Distortion in the bridge position and a Dimarzio PAF Joe in the neck position and OHMYGAWD what a difference. This guitar just kills now. I actually have a problem putting it down at night and getting to bed at a reasonable hour because it sounds so sweet. I realize this is a personal issue, and I am doing my best to deal with it.
Rating before "the change" = 7.5
Rating after "the change" = 10.0

The guitar was set up very well straight from the store. No issues at all in this category. That was a first! The only problem was electronic, as after I got it home, I noticed the volume pot would cut out when turned up the volume all the way. A new pot for $5 easily solved this issue, and I'll have to knock off a point here, but you'd think they would have put in some better electronics.
Compared to some of the beautiful woods employed in some of the other C-1 models, I must admit the silver top seems rather bland, but I sure can't complain about the measley price I paid! And the tone is to die for.

I believe this guitar would now be considered extremely reliable. Everything seems quite solid now, so I have no concerns playing out live with this beast. Although, to help counteract Murphy's Law, you should ALWAYS bring a backup axe, and of course, extra prophylactics.

Can't really comment on this, as I've not had occasion to deal with them. Their website seems ok, although some of the info concerning this model was incorrect. Maybe because it is not being made anymore.

I've been playing almost 40 years, and own lots of other guitars including Gibson, Fender, Epiphone, Yamaha, Steinberger and Ibanez. Usually play these through a Peavey Classic 50/410.

After the upgrades, this certainly ranks up at the top of food chain. If this were lost or stolen, then I would have obviously been too drunk to have noticed the incident, or I would have gutted the perpetrator with a rusty quarter inch cable end.