Schecter Hellraiser C-1 Electric Guitar (Gloss White)

My son had a used Hellraiser with the Floyd Rose wammy thingy. Oh, sure he liked it, but what a pain it was to change the strings! And considering he didn't use they wammy very much, he wanted the same model without it. Now I'm not made of money, and my son doesn't get much of what he wants. This guitar was regularly over $1,000 on Amazon for weeks. But then the unthinkable happened. One evening my son came running into the room screaming about Amazon. They had the guitar listed at something like $469. I added it to my cart and for some reason there was another immediate 10% price reduction (this was in November, just before Christmas and lots of specials). I snagged the thing for something like $429. The guitar seems well-made and he claims it has a very smooth neck action. Dual pickups and excellent, beautiful finish, too.

See pictures with how horrible of a condition this arrived in. Listed as used with damage to the back but did not mention the severe fracture lines in the neck and damage to front. Unacceptable description. Other than that the guitar looks great but is worthless due to neck damage.

I have loved this Schecter Hellraiser guitar. The pickups sound great and the split coil/coil tap options are phenomenal and give this guitar excellent versatility. The look is sharp and the locking tuners are a great touch. Nearly everything about this guitar is exactly what I was looking for - nearly. My biggest problem comes from the same use: detuning. I swapped out the stock strings it came with for Ernie Balls with a .62 base string up to a .12 high string because I want to use this guitar for hard rock and metal exclusively. The 25.5" fret length should allow for that fairly reliably - I see people using LTD guitars with a 24.75" neck length that handle it fine. Sure, you can detune this guitar but there are a couple major problems that immediately kick in: 1. Moving out of standard tuning immediately puts your strings at risk for dislodging themselves on the bridge. I've "rocked out" and played a guitar like this exactly how any guitarist would that wants to crank it up, and the base string often comes out of its bridge position and it gets stuck off the edge of the bridge cradle. Not OK. The typical A string has done this too. I've noticed it's less of an issue with lighter gauge strings and standard tuning but my Fender Strat can handle some detuning just fine and has never once had this issue. Problem is, my Fender Strat is a 3 single-coil pickup and isn't really meant for this kind of style. The Hellraiser is billed to be more in the lane I'm trying to use it for. 2. Larger strings don't sit well on the nut - my .62 string currently rests on top of the groove for the nut instead of within it, and the tuning pegs barely fit the string. You cannot fit a .80 in this guitar, period. If it was a squeeze to get a .62 in it I doubt you can go much larger and that's a bummer. I am submitted for a return, reluctantly, and will be seeking another axe for my needs. I really want to love this guitar and think Schecter should address these small issues. I would consider keeping it if these weren't problems. Just about everything else is solid.

All I could ever want in a guitar. Beautiful Plays like a dream Sounds amazing

Great action, tone, design

Arrived in great condition. This is a beautiful guitar. Great price for the quality.

The action on this guitar was great out of the box. I opened it, threw on some bigger strings, and went to work. The guitar has a great sound. The active emg's will melt your face off. Great guitar.

Guitar is beautiful, but it came damaged. Was delivered in product box only, no extra precautions/packing for shipping were made to ensure guitar did not get damaged. Sadly, have to return this and my son did not get to keep his Christmas gift. Have already reordered a new one through Sweet Water, but it is on back order. Very disappointing.