Schecter C-1 FR S SLS Elite

first play
The metal-knobbed volume control also
functions as a push/pull coil splitter for
both pickups.
The C-6 Pro’s three-piece bolt-on maple
neck has a Fender-like 648mm (25.5-inch)
scale length and is held fast to the body’s
sculpted heel with five-screws. In classic
rock/metal/shred guitar style, the wenge
’board has a flat 355mm (14-inch) radius
and 24 extra-jumbo frets. The neck’s end of
the deal is completed with small dot inlays,
as-slippery-as-a-politician Black Tusq top
nut, and six-on-a-side die-cast tuners.
Next up is the C-1 FR S SLS Elite. We’ll
shorten that to C-1 from here to save ink and
our fingertips. The C-1 has a neck-through
body construction. The 648mm (25.5-inch)
neck is a multi-ply club sandwich of maple/
walnut/maple/padauk/maple/walnut/
maple. The body end of the neck is formed
from a pair of swamp ash wings, an unusual
choice for a guitar like this. We expected the
more typical basswood.
The remainder of the C-1’s physique is
formed by an arched flame maple cap. It’s a
lovely looking lump of lumber made more
spectacular by the Black Fade Burst finish.
The blackness intensifies as your eyeballs
drift from the cutaways towards the base of
the body. The matching headstock adds to
the C-1’s upscale vibe.
Further clues to the high spec of this
beautiful guitar are the ‘FR’ and solo ‘S’ in
the model designation. ‘FR’ stands for the
double-locking 1500 Series Floyd Rose; the
‘S’ tells us that we have the direct-mount
Sustainiac pickup, and its circuitry, onboard.
Like an EBow, this thing offers infinite
sustain, at least until the nine-volt battery
goes down. Of course, an EBow only works
on one string at a time. The Sustainiac
will set all six strings a-trembling, so it can
handle chords, too.
Schecter has paired the Sustainiac
with an active Fishman Fluence Modern
humbucker. Also direct-mounted to the
guitar’s top, the Fluence is available from
the manufacturer with Alnico or ceramic
magnets. Fishman recommends the
ceramic version for the bridge position and
that’s what we have in our C-1.
If you turn the C-1 body over, then you’ll
discover that it has two battery flaps: one
for the sustain circuitry, the other for the
bridge pickup’s lithium ion power pack.
Battery life on the Fluence Modern is
quoted as up to 200 hours. That’s 12,000
minutes. So, you should be good for 4,000
three-minute classics, or almost two entire
prog rock albums.
Feel & Sounds
We mentioned earlier that the C-6 Pro has
a 355mm (14-inch) fingerboard radius.
Well, the C-1’s ebony ’board is brandishing
a 305 to 406mm (12- to 16-inch) compound
radius. Long story short, both guitars
deliver a super-low action and effortless
string bending. Sculpting around the
cutaways and neck heels also ensures that
upper fret access is easy as pie.
So, let’s start with the more cost-effective
and less conventional C-6. We’ve become
conditioned to expect mid-range Schecters
to come shipped with (Seymour) Duncan
Designed pickups. Instead, we’re faced
with the Diamond Decimators. Schecter
produces some excellent high-end pickups,
but these lower budget jobs are tasty, too.
They remind us of the venerable SuperRock
pups loaded into the popular Schecter PT
model. They offer plenty of grunt yet they
clean up nicely, too. Punchy and bright, the
bridge unit impresses in humbucking and
Modern rock, metal
or shred guitars
are more complex
and diverse than
their fi rst-run ancestors
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25
december 2018 Guitarist
SCHECTER C-6 PRO & C-1 FR S SLS ELITE
GIT440.rev_schecterx2.indd 25 01/11/2018 11:53