Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid C-8 TBB

It's a beautiful guitar, excellent workmanship, the potentiometer layout doesn't suit me at all, the active EMG pickups don't suit me at all either - I find them quite sterile, so changes had to be made, the neck pickup was replaced by a DiMarzio D Activator 8 Bridge DP820 - I originally wanted a Dimarzio Evolution Bridge but I couldn't find one, the bridge was replaced by a Lundgren M8 which brings out the best in this guitar.

Brilliant 8 string, scale length and string gauge provide a comfortable amount of tension that allow for chugging on the lowest string whilst still being able to solo higher up the neck on the higher strings. The EMGs are a pleasant surprise and don't have that overly aggressive bite that one might expect from a set of active pickups, I've had no issues getting crushing tones out of them both directly into an interface with Neural DSP plugins and from more traditional amps. The guitar itself feels super comfortable to play with access all the way up to the highest frets on the high E string with no issues, though the higher string tension from the extended scale length takes a little bit of getting used to.

The finish on the body is beautiful and the carbon fiber binding looks really slick. The one downside would be that stainless steel frets would have been a nice inclusion at this price point but it isn't a deal breaker for me. No issues so far with it holding tuning, tuned half a step down to F with the factory gauge strings.

The guitar arrived very well set up and played really nicely right out of the box. I may lower the action a little when it comes time to throw on new strings but it was perfectly playable and comfortable on arrival.

All in all, incredibly happy with my purchase and will be playing this guitar for a long time.