Let those notes reverberate forever!
I’ve been playing this Schecter Hellraiser, it’s a C1 special edition with the Floyd Rose, and today I want to do a more in-depth review of this guitar.
Because it’s a pretty good metal guitar, especially for the price.
This electric guitar it has a little bit more to offer than most mid-range guitars. So if you’re looking to spend a little bit more and you want a Floyd Rose bridge, then this Schecter is a great option.
Schecter Hellraiser C-1 FR S BCH
- Build quality gives a lot of sustain
- One of the few guitars with built-in sustaniac
- Floyd Rose gets in the way of palm muting
- Not the most versatile guitar
Let’s get the specifications out of the way first, but feel free to click on any part of the review you find interesting.
Specifications
- Tuners: Grover
- Fretboard: Rosewood
- Neck: Mahogany 3-pc
- Inlays: White Dots
- Scale length: 25.5″ (648 MM)
- Neck Shape: Thin C-shaped neck
- Thickness: 1st Fret- .787″ (20MM), 12th Fret- .866″ (22MM)
- Frets: 24 Jumbo
- Fretboard Radius: 14″ (355 MM)
- Nut: Floyd Rose locking nut 1500 Series
- Nut Width: 1.625″ (41.3MM)
- Truss Rod: 2-Way Adjustable Rod w/ 5/32″ (4mm) Allen Nut
- Top Contour: Arched Top
- Construction: Deep Insert Joint with Ultra Access
- Body Material: Mahogany
- Top Material: Quilted Maple Veneer
- Binding: Abalone w/ BLK/WHT/BLK Multi-ply
- Bridge: Floyd Rose 1500 Series
- Controls: Volume/Tone/Intensity/3-Way (Pickup) Switch/2-Way On-Off Sustainiac Switch/3-Way Sustainiac Mode Switch (Fundamental-Mix-Harmonic)
- Bridge Pickup: EMG 81
- Neck Pickup: Sustainiac or EMG 89
Build
It looks the part it’s a black cherry maple top. It’s got a flame veneer in it so it looks really great. But the real beauty of the guitar lies in the fretboard.
It’s got amazing binding and the neck is neck through which is always good for sustain. And you can get a lot of sustain out of this guitar.
When you pick it up, you’ll be amazed at all the details and finishing touches that makes this a truly remarkable instrument.
The beautiful quilted maple top seems to pop off the surface and intricate inlays in the bound fingerboard add a special touch of class.
The fixed neck with an ultra excess heel cut giving you easy access to those higher hard to reach frets, but I personally don’t like the size of the Floyd tremolo.
I must say i’m not really that big of a tremolo guy but I find all of the tuning bits get kinda in the way of palm muting.
I like a floating bridge or maybe even the Ibanez Edge tremolos for a heavier dive.
But you just can’t beat the sustain and tone stability you get from this double locking Floyd Rose though, so i know for a lot of you this is ideal.
Sound
I’ve played both clean and distorted sounds for metal and also for more type of jazz or funk guitar for you to hear in this review so you can check out a little bit of the versatility that it has to offer:
I like my guitars a little bit more on the twangy side and these active EMGs offer a lot of growl for metal but don’t twang as much.
So it’s a great guitar for metal but for other styles not so much. If you’re looking for a more versatile guitar then this is not a guitar for you.
You have to be sure that you want to play either metal or heavy rock music if you want to buy a guitar like this.
That being said, you can get a nice range of both clean and distorted sounds out of it.
It has a three-way switch so it has the middle part of the of the switch of the guitar so you can always have these two pickups out of phase. It’s not like a single coil but you can get a little trebly here.
There are also a lot of metal guitars that have a coil tap. So you have the active pickups which have a great growl and then you can do a coil tap to get more of the single coil sound.
So that’s more my type of guitar.
Although this has a great clean sound, it’s a little darker, not that Fender twang.
This hellraiser gives you a mahogany body a quilted maple top a thin mahogany neck and a rosewood fingerboard that delivers solid base and bright overtones.
You have a regular variant with active emg 81/ 89 pickups, the one I played here. But Schecter is one of the few guitar brands that also include an ultra cool sustainiac pickup in their factory models.
With the emg 81 humbucker at the bridge and the sustainiac at the neck plus a Floyd Rose tremolo you have a solid metal machine.
Add a real metal guitar to your collection with the Schecter Hellraiser C-1 FR-S solid body electric guitar!
This Hellraiser gives you a mahogany body, a quilted maple top, a thin mahogany neck, and a rosewood fingerboard that deliver solid bass and bright overtones.
You have a regular variant with active EMG 81/89 pickups, that’s the one I played here, but for an extra-long sustain, Schecter is one of the few guitar brands to also include an ultra-cool Sustainiac neck pickup in their FR S models.
With the EMG 81 humbucker at the bridge and the sustainiac at the neck, plus a Floyd Rose tremolo you have a solid metal machine.
Best sustain
When you pick up a Schecter Hellraiser C-1 guitar you will be amazed at all the details and finishing touches that make this a truly remarkable instrument.
When you pick up a Schecter Hellraiser C-1 guitar you will be amazed at all the details and finishing touches that make this a truly remarkable instrument.
The beautiful quilted maple top seems to pop off the surface, and the intricate inlays in the bound fingerboard add a special touch of class.
Moreover, these details are not only cosmetic. The Hellraiser C-1 FR-S has a fixed neck with an Ultra Access heel cut, giving you easy access to those higher, hard-to-reach frets on its 24 fret neck.
But I personally don’t like the size of the Floyd Rose tremolo. I must say I’m not really that big of a tremolo guy, but I find all of the tuning bits get kinda in the way of all of the palm muting I like to do.
When I use a tremolo, I like a floating bridge, or maybe even the Ibanez Edge ones for a heavier dive.
You just can’t beat the sheer sustain and tone stability you get from the double locking Floyd Rose though, so I know for a lot of you this is ideal.
The sustaniac could be a nice addition and worth the extra money. That’s because this unique pickup design has a special sustain circuit designed to hold notes as long as your wilt to sound.
Start the sustain circuit by turning on the switch and play a note or chord on the guitar and let the electromagnetic feedback your sound for as long as you want.
I haven’t reviewed this guitar with the sustainiac but I liked it on another guitar from Fernandes I tried a while back. You can get some unique soundscapes with this.
Schecter knows that serious shredders like you demand absolute performance from their guitars. That’s why they supplied the Hellraiser with a genuine Floyd Rose 1000 Series tremolo bridge.
A remake of the original Floyd Rose blade tremolo, this incredible bridge will have you bending, rocking, and never worrying about ruining your action or tone when it comes back up.
A reliable guitar with quality materials and string locks for someone who likes hard riffs.
I'm Joost Nusselder, the founder of Neaera and a content marketer, dad, and love trying out new equipment with guitar at the heart of my passion, and together with my team, I've been creating in-depth blog articles since 2020 to help loyal readers with recording and guitar tips.
