1. Schecter Blackjack Atx C-1 Fr Review Car And Driver
2. Schecter Blackjack Atx C-1 Fr Price
3. Schecter Blackjack Atx C-1 Fr Review Consumer Reports

Just as there are many different schools of metal – heavy metal, stoner metal, death metal, thrash, death-thrash, grindcore, gore-grind, industrial metal, black metal, TRUE black metal – there are also many different schools of metal guitar design. Radical shapes and extreme colours compete on the shelves against stripped back, simple but deadly designs. Active or passive pickups, fixed or floating bridge, 22 frets or 24 (don’t even joke about building a metal guitar with only 21 frets. How can you possibly be evil if you can only reach a high C#?). In many ways the C-1 Blackjack ATX FR is almost too classy to be a metal axe, with its carved top and chunky neck profile that are more likely to remind blindfolded players of a Les Paul than a day-glo heavy metal meat-axe. But don’t worry, there are still plenty of badass features in here for shredders and rhythm chuggers alike.

Spec check
This bad boy features a solid mahogany body with a carved top and aged binding, and a 3-piece maple neck with 24 jumbo frets and a rather flat radius. The fretboard is ebony, the grain of which is extremely tight, giving the fretboard a very smooth feel, especially combined with those huge frets. The only inlay on the face of the fretboard is an ‘active’ symbol at the 12th fret, although there are side dots too so you can still find your way around. The neck is glued in, but carved with Schecter’s ‘Ultra Access’ shape, which makes it feel like a neck-through. The back of the neck is painted, which some players will love, and others, not so much. If it bugs you that much, a good tech can scrape it away neatly, but even though I’m a player who likes a good chunk of unfinished maple, I didn’t find the painted neck to be obstructive or distracting at all. The headstock is Schecter’s pointy 3-a-side design, which looks traditional and hard-edged at the same time.

The review model has an original Floyd Rose locking tremolo bridge. There’s also a fixed bridge version available in 6 and 7 string but frankly, as a shameless 7-string noodler and whammy bar abuser, I feel the range is just that little bit empty without a Floyd Rose-loaded 7-string version. There, I said it. Schecter, please don’t send Zacky Vengeance after me to enact his namesake.

Pickups
The pickups are Seymour Duncan Blackout actives, with a volume control for each and, a global tone control. There’s a three-way pickup switch which selects between each humbucker or a combination of both: no split coil settings here, so the Blackjack’s clean tones lean more towards Metallica than Dream Theater. Seymour Duncan describes the Blackouts thusly: “The ‘other’ USA-made active humbuckers use unbalanced inputs in a differential preamp. The problem is, an unbalanced differential preamp is not very effective at cancelling hum. Our engineers figured out how to capture the tone that players want in an active design, but using balanced inputs. The result is 12dB to 14dB less noise, plus more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, Blackouts have more tone than other active pickups.”

Blackjack ATX C-1 FR is a solid, double-cut metal-oriented axe with body made of mahogany. Creme binding, satin finish and black hardware decorate the body. Floyd Rose double-locking bridge is installed on the top and it`s fronted by a pair of active Seymour Duncan humbuckers. REVIEW: Schecter C-1 BlackJack ATX with Seymour Duncan Blackouts Peter Hodgson July 26, 2009 November 26, 2011 Just as there are many different schools of metal – heavy metal, stoner metal, death metal, thrash, death-thrash, grindcore, gore-grind, industrial metal, black metal, TRUE black metal – there are also many different schools of. The Schecter Blackjack ATX C1 is an incredible combination of understated looks, and hot-rodded tone and playability. The classy appearance includes black chrome hardware, 3-ply, aged body binding, and minimalist fingerboard inlays.

Sound
The C-1 Blackjack ATX FR plays like a much more traditional guitar than a shredder’s plank thanks to the combination of the arched top and the neck carve, which is deeper and rounder than the majority of guitars oriented towards the speedier side of axemanship. The Blackout pickups are an interesting spin on the expected active metal pickup sound. They’re a little blunter and a bit warmer than you might expect, with more midrange and ‘woodiness’ than traditional actives. You can really hear the personality of the guitar, which isn’t always true with actives. The bridge unit has plenty of articulation and chunk – you’ll hear plenty of crunch and grind, which is especially great for ultra-fast, muted thrash riffage, while legato techniques have a real sense of movement and dynamics as overtones jump out. The neck pickup sounds round and vocal, responding especially well to huge vibrato, and again there’s a very musical pick attack. You know the kind of pick attack that sounds like an integral part of the note, rather than just a percussive bassy thud at its beginning? Well that’s what this baby excels at. Awesome. Both pickups are ideal for metal, but due to the warmer character they can be used for softer styles too. You may turn a few heads showing up at an indie gig to plug the C-1 Blackjack ATX into a small Fender combo for some ambient jangle, but it’ll fit the bill sonically, no problem.

My only niggle is the placement of the controls. The neck pickup volume is closest to the strings, with the bridge volume in the middle and then the tone control. This makes sense from one perspective – after all, it mirrors the placement of the pickups themselves – but practically, the bridge pickup will probably get the most use and it’s difficult to turn it down with the control in the second position. Easy enough to flip around if you know what you’re doing though if it becomes a problem, but I think the vast majority of players would prefer it to be swapped around to begin with.

This review will be based on the Schecter C-1 Blackjack FR model, but most of what I am going to tell you applies to all the Diamond series Schecter guitars. A friend at a local music stop turned me onto Schecter guitars, and here are the reasons that I decided to take the plunge and give one a try. REVIEW: Schecter C-1 BlackJack ATX with Seymour Duncan Blackouts Posted on July 26, 2009 November 26, 2011 Author Peter Hodgson Just as there are many different schools of metal – heavy metal, stoner metal, death metal, thrash, death-thrash, grindcore, gore-grind, industrial metal, black metal, TRUE black metal – there are also many.

Conclusion
This is a very powerful, great sounding and playing guitar with killer features and construction. While some guitars lend themselves more to either rhythm or lead playing, the C-1 BlackJack AX seems to cover it all pretty easily. It takes a lot to drag me away from my beloved neon shred axes but this monster could well do it.

Schecter Blackjack Atx C-1 Fr Review Car And Driver

[geo-out country=””Australia” note=””]Musician’s Friend shopping links:

Schecter BlackJack ATX C-1 FR Electric Guitar Aged White
Schecter Blackjack C-1 Electric Guitar Black
Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Set
Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Neck
Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Bridge
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Seymour Duncan

In the past couple of years, Schecter has really stepped up their game and started offering really amazing guitars. With models such as the Banshee Elite and the KM-7 MK-II, we’ve been seeing some affordable models with boutique-like specs.

Today, we’ll be looking at the quite affordable Schecter Blackjack ATX C-1, a basic Schecter guitar that features a few surprise features.

Features:

• Swamp Ash w/ Arched Top
• Vampyre Red Satin Finish
• ‘Thin C’ Shape 3-Piece Maple Neck
• Neck-Thru Design
• Ebony Fretboard with 14″ Radius
• 25.5” Scale Length
• 24 Extra-Jumbo Nickel Frets
• Glow In The Dark Side Dot Inlays
• TonePros T3BT TOM w/ String Thru Body Bridge
• Schecter Locking Tuners
• Graph Tech XL Black Tusq
• Seymour Duncan Blackout Pickups
• Volume/Volume/Tone/3-Way Switch

Right off the bat, you’ll notice some exciting features that you don’t get every day on an affordable, production guitar.

On the ATX C-1, you get ‘Glow in The Dark Side Dot Inlays’! Of course, these don’t serve much functional use other than to look really sweet and help you see what you are playing in the dark. It’s really neat to get on an affordable instrument, though. A few years ago, you pretty much needed to order a full-on custom guitar to get these!

‘Luminlays’ actually made it onto our Top 5 Best Modern Guitar Features. Go check that out for other neat, modern appointments to guitars.

The Schecter ‘Thin C’ neck profile and 14″ fretboard radius are somewhat of the “middle ground” of all guitars. It’s not a thin profile, but it certainly isn’t thick. I’d say it’s great for the guitarist who is seeking something that is comfortable for any style of playing, without being centered on one thing.

Tone:

One of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite body wood has to be Swamp Ash. Although this guitar is totally finished over and you can’t really see much grain, I was excited to see that it was made of Swamp Ash. You don’t really see much of Ash in the affordable range right now.

Ash has a lot of open and porous grains that allow it to give off an almost “popping” sound when played. This intense attack and clarity make it extremely well suited for down-tuning and extended range guitars. Read more about that in our Ultimate Guide to Tonewoods.

On top of ash, the ATX C-1 features an Ebony fretboard! Ebony is a very dense and oily wood, which means that it doesn’t have to be finished or sealed to last a long time. This is great for players who want a faster playing neck!

The pickups chosen for the ATX C-1 are the Seymour Duncan Blackouts. These active pickups have a very high output and are intended for the angriest of metal tones. In comparison to the infamous EMG 81/85 set (which apparently everyone loves to hate on), the Blackouts have a more controlled high end and a fatter low end. They don’t do clean tones the best, and they certainly don’t play nice with mid-gainy sounds, but boy are they punchy for distorted, heavily saturated tones.

Schecter Blackjack Atx C-1 Fr Price

The guitar is definitely intended for metal. The Blackouts, mixed with the Ebony Board and Swamp Ash body, make for really heavy tones without sacrificing clarity and attack in the low end.

Build Quality:

Schecter’s quality standards have become increasingly better over the years. This is a Korean-made instrument, so it’s not to the USA shop standard, but it’s still above par for the price.

Most of the issues I found were very minor, and they didn’t really affect playability.

Schecter Blackjack Atx C-1 Fr Review Consumer Reports

The binding on this guitar felt very cheap, and there was some finish overspray on the headstock that looked a little bit rough. There was also some finish bubbling in the same area. It looked like the finish might have been rushed around that part of the guitar.

Other than that, there wasn’t anything to be found. The guitar played really well, and the bridge and neck were quite comfortable to play.

The only other thing I would mention is that the Schecter Locking tuners used weren’t the best thing I’ve ever used, but certainly not the worst. If it were my guitar I would probably upgrade those pretty much immediately and have a really solid guitar.

Final Verdict:

The Blackjack ATX C-1 is an affordable guitar that features a ton of fancy features that you don’t usually get under $1000. It’s really comfortable to play for just about any kind of player, features a super fast Ebony fretboard, and produces a super angry metal sound.

I’d say this guitar would probably make an awesome live workhorse for metal styles.

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This article was written by Zac Buras, our editor located in Louisiana.