Schecter Guitar Research C-1 FR-S Apocalypse Electric Guitar Red Reign

Holy crap, this guitar is beautiful. It was a top gloss coating, but on the sides and rear, it's a beautiful swamp ash. The frets are huge in size as well as stainless steel. They weren't the smoothest in the world, but nothing you can't polish up in a few minutes. The Apocalypse VI pickups sounded incredible with high gain. With low gain, you really need to boost the bottom end to make it sound full. Surprisingly, the neck sustainiac pickup actually sounded nice and creamy, especially compared to the bridge. One important thing to note, on this version of the guitar, you cannot split the coil, so what you hear is what you get. Another surprising discovery was the internal wiring, it was very nice and tidy and well organized. Next year, I will be buying another one of these.

OMG! I don't even know where to start!

If you are looking at this, presumably it is because you want the Sustainiac. This is a well built option with a passive bridge pickup, so only one 9v battery required compared to a different model with an active EMG in the bridge. The Sustainiac works as advertised. If that is what you need, great. I am not a big fan on how the Sustainiac sounds AS A PICKUP. When you turn off the sustainer and just want that neck pickup sound, it isn't great. The bridge pickup is great. As a guitar, everything works. There was no trouble with the electronics or the finish. The neck is thin and flat as you would expect on a shredder guitar. I would say it feels wider than a Strat (distance between high and low 'E' strings, but only a little bit. If that is something that concerns you, get your hands on one before committing. The Floyd Rose tremolo stays in tune, as you would expect. It is also a gigantic hassle, as you would expect, if you want to drop D or change strings. The guitar is gorgeous to look at. I wish there was a version without the Floyd installed, but a Wilkinson/Strat style tremolo. It fits a Strat case, which is important because it doesn't come with one - not even a gig bag, and Schector really likes their cases. For those complaining about craftsmanship, I don't see it. This is my second Schecter and the last one held up fine. There is nothing obviously wrong with this one.

This is honestly one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever owned. The strings are set just perfect above the frets from the factory and it has some great tone. The only complaint I would have is they should've placed EMG 81 in the bridge instead of the stock one that comes with the guitar. Sustainiac has taken time to get use to but it is pretty cool once you figure out its functions. Would've been nice to have some instructions in the box as well. I would definitely recommend the guitar and say it's worth the money.

Couldn't ask for a better guitar, will handle pretty much anything you want to throw at t

OK so let me give some info about this guitar since there isn't a lot of real data out there. The GOOD: This is the most beautiful guitar I've ever seen (maybe except some wood grain finishes). The red finish looks unreal is brighter light. On a dark stage, it'll just look like a dark guitar. The pearl Roman numeral inlays are stunning in person. The Apocalypse VI pup looks sweet too. Honestly, the look of the guitar is actually what made me want to overlook the negatives and keep it. The quality is worth every cent. The neck is like playing on a cloud. Only a slight neck dive when standing but not very noticeable. The strings bend on the stainless frets with ease. Knobs and Floyd Rose are perfect. Now the cons: The pickups were a problem for me. The bridge pickup is made for modern, low-tuning play. If you aren't using a 7-string - or if you don't play in atleast drop C or lower, then this sound will be thin. I play in E standard and drop D (with the EVH D-Tuna and a trem stabilizer). So for me, the sound was thin. The bigger problem was the Sustaniac pickup. Not much info about these. This pickup is only a single-coil. I know this because the 2nd single-coil cap (NOT the one with the gold and name on it) is just a "dummy cap". It fell off! I had to glue it back on. The description SAYS humbuckers in both positions - nope. The sound you get out of this as a pickup is worthless (not the sustain feature, just as a driver). There is literally no bass at all. So if you are going to use the bridge pickup only, this may work for you. But don't even think about a warm tone. Another problem with the sustaniac is that you can either use the string vibrating feature (which is nice) or the pickup. You can NOT use both at the same time! So much for smooth neck pup solo tones while using the sustaniac feature. Turning on Sustaniac automatically switches pup to bridge - no matter where the 3-way selector switch is. Conclusion: I returned mine. Hope this helps! God Bless :