Schecter 6 String C-1 Apocalypse, Rusty Grey (1300)

I personally own this guitar and it is a great instrument in my opinion. I have been playing for 20+ years and have owned and played quite a variety of guitars over that period of time (Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Epiphone, Ibanez, Paul Reed Smith, C.F. Martin, Taylor, Yamaha, etc). This one is crafted in South Korea and is set up and finally inspected at their California, USA shop. The overall build quality is quite good. It has a carbon re-enforced thin 'C' shaped set neck, and the fit is as tight as a glove. The neck is straight as an arrow and the action is well suited for my style of play (rock, metal, blues, etc.). It does not look as thin as an Ibanez Wizard neck, but it feels similar to me. The playability is comfortable, fast and clean, and I have no problems reaching the 24th fret (it has a very generously spaced cut near the bottom of the neck). The intonation is spot-on, and it keeps tune/pitch well. The body resonates beautifully due to the Swamp Ash wood construction. Even though this guitar build seems to be geared toward heavier genres such as metal/rock/etc., it has quite a bit of versatility due to the fact that it has coil splitting, which I absolutely enjoy (the top knob is a push/pull, and it works well). The pickups in this guitar are American made by Schecter and IMO they have a great sound with plenty of output. They sound very well humbucked through a nice distortion amp (e.g., Peavey 5150), and in single-coil mode they exhibit a gorgeous sound on a quality clean amp (I play through a USA Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10). As a few other people have mentioned in other reviews of this guitar, it does have a couple of issues to note (cons): One is that portions of the pickup cavities are unfinished and still bare raw surface wood, which should have been addressed before they were shipped from the factory. Another design flaw I noticed was that a .047 low E string would barely fit through the capstan hole when I changed the strings (stock strings are .010-.046). I didn't have a file small enough to bore out the hole, but with a bit of coaxing, I managed to work the string through. Anything bigger than that, and you may find yourself having to bore out the hole with a metal file or replace the capstan/machine head altogether. Other than that, the guitar is in fantastic shape (luckily I did not spot any fret/board/heel/binding/nut/truss rod issues as another reviewer had once noted with his Apocalypse C-1). Although the body style is 'Rusty Grey', it highly resembles a camo green. Another interesting feature is the guitar's body finish--you can actually feel the roughness of the wood grain, which adds a nice touch to the instrument. Overall, I would give this guitar a solid 8 out of 10. I would definitely recommend this as an excellent beginner/intermediate guitar. It is certainly a keeper in my book, and is a great addition to my collection.