Hey dudes (:

I have a 7 strings ibanez (RG 7421 loaded with dimarzio PU's), and i am thinking of buying a Schecter c-7 (blackjack or hellraiser).

I play mostly modern metal, and really heavy one (:
like some meshuggah-style, and metalcore...
and i use pod xt live with all the metalpacks...

i wanted to ask:
what do you think about this guitar?
if you will compare it to my ibanez it will be great!

i know it has a 26.5" neck (the ibanez has a 25.5"). how is he? too big? too thick? or prety much like the ibanez?

and what about the sound?
which one do you think is better (blackjack or hellraiser)?

thanks (:

The neck is nothing like an Ibanez. It's thick and 'meaty', though very playable. It really grows on you.

Build quality wise, well the Koreans have come a long way in the last few years it seems, and the Schecters are very well made.

The longer scale will get you more tension using the same gauge strings at the same tuning as your RG. This, IMO, improves the clarity of the low B, especially on riffs/rhythm playing.

The 2 guitars are equal IMO, sound is subjective. If you like EMGs, I would go for the Hellraiser. On the other hand, if you prefer Dimarzios or Duncans, the Blackjack is the better choice. More do to with the way each guitar is routed than anything else.

One side note, the upper fret access is a bit better on the Hellraiser. The Blackjacks last couple frets are over the body, and slightly hard to get to. If you use th 23rd and 24th fret often, this could be an issue.

And just to liven this post up a bit, a photo of my C7 Blackjack(which has swapped pickups-Dimarzio-and hardware-chrome-):

(I will take any excuse to pimp my guitar)

Really sweet. Was thinking about getting chromed tuners for my RG7321, and that just brings the point home even more.

Does the neck feels *way* too thick or too long? will it be a problem for an Ibanez player...?

Does the extra tension makes the high-strings hard to play? (for soloing and stuff...)

I can't see any different between the high frets on the BJ and the Hellraiser...

Why did you replace your pickups...?

Ask Lefty Robb...

If you like the feel of a Louisville Slugger with strings on it, then Schecters are for you..


I'll tell you what though, after playing on my Hellraiser for 3 weeks straight, then getting my Jackson back from the shop, my Jackson felt like a toothpick.

Toshiro, nicely done on the mods, makes me wish I owned one just like it.

Every Schecter 7 I have played has felt a little thicker in the neck but after playing around on one a little longer than usual (Drew's Hellraiser played real nice after 15 minutes of really playing it), it does grow on you. I will always be an Ibanez guy but I do enjoy playing Schecters even though the neck is a little more meaty and thicker for my tastes.

It's way thicker than an Ibanez. I wouldn't say it's unplayable or anything. My other guitars all have Original Wizard necks, and this isn't a problem for me.

I don't notice a problem playing fast on the high frets, in fact the extra distance between frets from the longer scale makes some patterns easier.

As for the cutaway difference:
2006 Hellraiser:

2006 Blackjack:


Pickups are subjective. I don't like Seymour Duncans, at all.

I have a Schecter C-1 Classic. i LOVE it's neck.

Does the C-7's neck feels alike? or should i ask:
does the C-7's neck in comparison to the RG7421
feels the same like the C-1 Classic in comparison to a 6 string RG...?

And which guitar IN YOUR OPINION sounds better, hellraiser, blackjack, or RG7421 with dimazios (TZ7 and PAF7)...?

Never played a C1. Obviously it's going to be similar to, or the same as, a 7 string version of this, though.

Not 100% sure on the 7421, the C7 is thicker than the 7620 I owned.

IMO, the Blackjack with the Duncans swapped for Dimarzios sounds the best.

ah nice pic of your axe toshiro.... dimarzio d sonic 7 in the bridge?

I have a C-1 Elite white that I absolutely love as well, it plays very nice, Schecter has impressed me alot. It's a great playing and great sounding guitar. If I could only have it in a 7, it would be perfect, I know the neck would be a little thick but like I said, Drew's Hellraiser wasn't all that bad after a while.

Yup. Great pickup, clear, tight, everything you could want in a 7 string.

Not a hell of a lot to add to what Toshiro said here, but I just thought I'd chime in with my two cents here - I've had a Hellraiser for a month or so now, and liked it enough to grab a Blackjack over the weekend.

Initial thoughts are that I'm actually digging the Blackjack more - the EMG's totally shocked me with their lead tones (there's a clip floating around me doing a convincing-enough David Gilmour on the thing), but I couldn't quite get the sort of low-ish gain growly/crunchy rhythm tones I like out of them. They're just a little too focused, EQ-wise, and "tight" for a big, growly rumbly rhythm tone without some SERIOUS gain (at which point they sound tight, defined, and brutal) in play, and I don't like that much gain. Also, while I initially figured I'd just swap it for a Jazz based on other players' recommendations (who I trust rather a lot, I should note), I'm absolutely digging the '59 neck. It's gorgeous clean, and at the moderately saturated levels I play at is just this gorgeous neck pickup lead tone. It's a bit muddy for rhythm, but only communists and terrorists play rhythm on the neck pickup anyway.

The upper access is weird - Toshiro's right, the Hellraiser's neck joins the body one fret higher than the Blackjack. It's not a huige deal for me as I'm more of a middle-of-the-neck soloist, but it's strange considering how similar the two bodies are.

The controls on the Blackjack are probably a little more "familiar" for an Ibanez guy - you've got a master volume and master tone, and a 5-way wired up more-or-less the same as Ibanez's Special-5 wiring. The Hellraiser, meanwhile, has a neck pickup master volume, a neck-and-bridge and bridge pickup master volume, and a master tone. This is pretty cool for Morello-like killswitch stuff, but is something you have to keep in mind if like me you like to ride your volume knob a bit while soloing. Of course, as the neck 707 kicks all kinds of arse for lead playing, I don't even see the point of switching to the bridge unless the gain's way up anyway.

The other surprise is it could be my imagination, but I think the Blackjack's neck might be sliughtly slimmer than the Hellraisers. This isn't as far fetched as it might seem at a glance in that the Blackjack is maple while the Hellraiser is mahogany and maple strikes me as the slightly stiffer wood. Either way, if you're used to a C1 then you should have no trouble moving to a C7.

I don't know if I'm going to keep both - they're both awesome guitars, but while the Hellraiser (in black cherry) is a total showstopper in the looks department, there's something attractive about the understated Blackjack vibe, and tonally it's more "me," I think. We'll see - I'll give it a month or two.

wow!! i have never noticed that the blackjack has a maple neck! i thought it was mahagony too...

which combination fo you reccomend:
mahagony-mahagony or mahagony-maple...?