Review

Screw the ‘ace of spades’ fret inlay: the Schecter Blackjack’s real trump card is up its sleeve. It’s the only axe here that features a 26.5” scale length, meaning that you should be able to ditch the pitch through the floor to Korn-style ADGCFAD tuning, and bask in bottom-end ecstasy.

Contoured, bound and buffed, the Blackjack seems pretty sleek… until you start fretting and realise that the neck is seriously chunky, to the point of cancelling out the benefit of the ultra access cutaway. The flipside is the monster warmth and sustain, helped along by the sheer mass of the mahogany body, and working best when you detune by a 5th and start churning out single-note rhythms like it’s 1999.

The Seymour Duncan units are great for this sort of mayhem, while the longer, almost baritone scale means this is easily the most convincing for nu-metal, making your ears flap, but not your strings. We like.

Next: Schecter Blackjack C-7 verdict