NGD: Schecter C6 Pro

Dave Sloven

Dave Sloven

Ambassador of DOOM!
Country flag
Just picked this up. Haven't had much of a chance to play it yet but it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up. Guy advertised it last Saturday for $900, realised the next day that a couple of shops had started advertising them new (for 'Schectember') for just over $1K, so he dropped the price the next day to $700.
I accidentally sent him an offer of his asking price due to stupid buttons on Gumtree and then I apologised and asked if he wanted to do trades, to which he basically responded that he is not interested in guitars and just wants the cash. I sent him a real offer today of $550 (thinking that he'd try to barter me up to $600) and he basically told me okay but said that he couldn't go any lower than that though ... so I picked it up for $550. Not the best negotiator or photographer in the world ... the following are from his ad and I had to rotate half of them!

OFJO2JI.jpg


zqsHWnb.jpg


3GxM0cP.jpg


RQeZ2qm.jpg


9jqV1iF.jpg


hXvSKZ9.jpg


eJnnJ2l.jpg


The guitar itself is thin and light, and feels almost as light as an Ibanez S Series, but without the weird mounting of the electronics. The pickups are Schecter Diamond Decimator, which I am assuming are made in one of their Asian factories, perhaps the World Music factory in Indonesia, which makes this guitar. In the USA they sell a variant called the CR6 with Schecter USA Apocalypse pickups, but I suspect this change was done to keep the price low in Australia, the EU, etc. It is also probably the case that the CR6 is finished in California.

Here's a (somewhat annoying) youtube review:


We tried it quickly at band practice tonight and it seemed a bit fizzy. Might be that the pickups are adjusted incorrectly. They looked really high to me. I've wound them right down and will try setting the height on Sunday. I also have a Bare Knuckle Black Hawk set that I can try in it.


Blyat! I found a review in Russian

 
Last edited:
When the new Gotoh MGTB tuners become more available I will probably install those. They have a black thumbwheel, which looks a lot better with black tuners. I would have to get a left-handed set for the reverse headstock. Otherwise I have a set of Bare Knuckle Black Hawks here that are currently in one of my SGs, I might try those out as well. No changes other than those planned though, besides the usual ClipLock strap.

Xlj0Xkv.jpg
 
Last edited:
I installed the Black Hawk set into this guitar today, the wiring side was easy but I had to modify the feet on the pickup legs of the BKPs to match the Schecter feet, so that they would fit the cavity and allow me to direct mount the pickups with the threaded inserts in the body and the 3mm philips head bolts used to mount the factory pickups.

This is the Diamond Decimator neck pickup, complete with its foam blocks:

a6RnN5c.jpg


Here you see it with the foam removed, compared to the Black Hawk neck. Note the differences in the feet:

IonkBbR.jpg


Here you can see the shape of the cavity and the threaded insert:

rYFXwB1.jpg


I threaded the slot-headed vintage style height screws (which always come with BKPs but which I never use) into the BKP base plate and then flipped it over and dropped the Schecter pickup over those screws, using this as a jig for filing the feet of the Black Hawk to match the Diamond Decimator

yhXMt5F.jpg


You can see the small amount of material that had to be filed off here:

3JFRyv4.jpg


The test fit went well:

dn2TFru.jpg


To install the neck pickup though I had to remove the bridge pickup. You can see it here on the right compared to the modified neck pickup, which by this point has had its screw holes drilled out for a 3mm bolt

wBYYtQ8.jpg


I this photo you can see the old file used plus the hot glue gun that I used to glue the foam blocks to the Black Hawks:

VsjD1kE.jpg


These are the pickups screwed all the way down:

K6FTVtm.jpg


Then I just had to connect the BKPs to the selector switch and the push-pull switch:

deahGn9.jpg


The last step was to restring and tune. I think it looks sick with these pickups!

X00ZTzv.jpg
 
Well I tested the guitar through my Peavey 3120 and while they seem like a clear improvement already there are couple of wiring and set up issues to be addressed before I can give a full assessment. (1) the coil split on the neck was working last night but today is acting like a mute switch, which suggests a bad solder joint - I will have to remove the pot and do a cleaner job of soldering the switch connections; (2) the string gauge I put on might be lighter so I will have to wait a couple of days before doing a proper setup; (3) I need to fine-tune the pickup heights to get the best tone out of these, but I should probably wait until I have adjusted the trussrod and bridge saddles

Overall it is clearer, less fizzy, and less compressed sounding already
 
Last edited:
The best I can figure it the issue is not with the coil split wires - I desoldered the connections, cut the wires back, and resoldered them and it did the same thing when I closed it back up - but rather with the strange little cluster of wires that manufacturers seem to like to use with the grounding all handled by shielding on the hot wires. For whatever reason when the coil split is engaged and the neck pickup selected the guitar is mute. The rest of the time it was fine, so I can't work that out. I would have thought that the issue would be on both full humbucker and coil split. Anyway I am desoldering the whole harness and rewiring the factory components with new wire. None of that shielded wire rubbish, just red (hot) and black (ground) wires running around. This also lets me run a star ground on the tone pot, which is better because it keeps the volume pot wiring cleaner. Anyway it is late here so I stopped work until the morning, but here are three photos, one of it before I took it apart again, one of the clusterf*ck of ground connections on the factory wiring near the coil split switch, and another of my new jack wires and the connections on top of the tone pot. I've grounded the bridge wire there too.

7lPuFAA.jpg



xVqf3m7.jpg


TER0b1A.jpg
 
Dave,
That guitar looks fantastic! I absolutely love the green colour. Glad you sorted out your wiring issues.
I have played several Schecter guitars and I really wanted to like them. I just seem to get along with the feel of the necks for some strange reason.
 
Dave Sloven said:
Just picked this up. Haven't had much of a chance to play it yet but it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up. Guy advertised it last Saturday for $900, realised the next day that a couple of shops had started advertising them new (for 'Schectember') for just over $1K, so he dropped the price the next day to $700.
I accidentally sent him an offer of his asking price due to stupid buttons on Gumtree and then I apologised and asked if he wanted to do trades, to which he basically responded that he is not interested in guitars and just wants the cash. I sent him a real offer today of $550 (thinking that he'd try to barter me up to $600) and he basically told me okay but said that he couldn't go any lower than that though ... so I picked it up for $550. Not the best negotiator or photographer in the world ... the following are from his ad and I had to rotate half of them!

OFJO2JI.jpg


zqsHWnb.jpg


3GxM0cP.jpg


RQeZ2qm.jpg


9jqV1iF.jpg


hXvSKZ9.jpg


eJnnJ2l.jpg


The guitar itself is thin and light, and feels almost as light as an Ibanez S Series, but without the weird mounting of the electronics. The pickups are Schecter Diamond Decimator, which I am assuming are made in one of their Asian factories, perhaps the World Music factory in Indonesia, which makes this guitar. In the USA they sell a variant called the CR6 with Schecter USA Apocalypse pickups, but I suspect this change was done to keep the price low in Australia, the EU, etc. It is also probably the case that the CR6 is finished in California.

Here's a (somewhat annoying) youtube review:


We tried it quickly at band practice tonight and it seemed a bit fizzy. Might be that the pickups are adjusted incorrectly. They looked really high to me. I've wound them right down and will try setting the height on Sunday. I also have a Bare Knuckle Black Hawk set that I can try in it.


Blyat! I found a review in Russian

Click to expand...


hey brother that very nice guitar, love the green finish... you need to make the video and show us how it sounds, i can see you upgraded bear knuckle pick ups, im looking to put them in my next guitar, looking to get jackson adrian smith sig and put nailbomb or holydiver..

anyways congrats on you guitar happy music playing..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top