New Guitar Day...(sort of).

[Keregioz]

So, I decided to remove the paint from my Schecter C7 Blackjack. I gave it to a professional to do it which was more expensive but he did hell of a better job than I would do:

One of the reasons I decided to do this is because I've heard from a few people that the paint jobs in schecter guitars is not that good, the layer of the finish is really thick and that supposedly has a really negative effect on the sound and how the guitar resonates. It turns out it's true about the layer thickness, the guy I gave it to do the job couldn't believe his eyes and said it was an incredible pain in the ass to remove it.
Personally, after playing with it a few minutes I can't say I can tell any huge difference. I did a comparison though, and I thought maybe you guys would be interested to hear for yourselves. I tried to make the comparison as fair as possible. It's the same setup for both clips:
schecter-->elixir cable-->instrument input on saffire pro 24.
The strings are new in both clips, but in the first clip I had already played them a few hours and they were different brand if I remember correctly so that may be one of the reasons for the difference.

Before I removed the finish:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/316805/BlackJack C7 W/DI_P.wav

After:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/316805/BlackJack C7 W/DI_W.wav

My personal opinion is that there's a difference but not really significant especially when you run it though an amp. I was expecting something more drastic. Fortunately that was only a secondary reason for me to remove the finish, the main reason is that I was fed up with the black color and wanted a new look for the guitar. I think it looks better now.

 

[FIXXXER]

OMGF!!!!
this looks awesome man!!

cheers
S.

 

[Djunn]

Oh dude, I have an aged white C7 Blackjack and was thinking about doing this since months! How is the feeling of the neck? Is there a thin lacquer finish on it now? I think I'm going to do that too.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Looks great man! I wonder how he kept the binding intact while stripping the paint...

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Looks really good! The binding can me maintained if the paint removal is done very carefully. I did it on my project LP, and while I lost a half of a millimeter here and there, it's mostly still intact!

 

[Keregioz]

Oh dude, I have an aged white C7 Blackjack and was thinking about doing this since months! How is the feeling of the neck? Is there a thin lacquer finish on it now? I think I'm going to do that too.

Yes, there's only a thin layer of finish now. The neck feels good, slightly better than before but if you want it to be real smooth you should put a satin finish or tung oil. The neck of my carvin is tung oiled and it feels awesome.

I wonder how he kept the binding intact while stripping the paint...

Yes, I was surprised too, he did a really good job. If you inspect it closely you can see a small amount of black finish in the transition between the binding and the wood at some places but it's not really noticeable and it certainly doesn't bother me.

 

[Djunn]

Yes, there's only a thin layer of finish now. The neck feels good, slightly better than before but if you want it to be real smooth you should put a satin finish or tung oil. The neck of my carvin is tung oiled and it feels awesome.

Nice to hear. I have sweaty hands and I totally hate painted necks. The only reason I keep this guitar is I love how it plays, I guess it will be better after removing the paint. Cheers.

 

[sprack]

Wow, I'm really surprised the wood underneath is decent quality. Usually the fully painted ones get flawed pieces to hide it. That looks amazing.

 

[DominikJW]

Oh man this looks tiiiitz! Now you made me wanna do the same with mine

 

[Scott Horner]

Yes. This looks awesome. Hard to believe it was done after the fact.

 

[BrettT]

Damn that looks sexy as hell...really makes me want to do the same to mine.

 

[22km Tombstone]

Yes yes! Looks great. I love me some natural finished guitars!

 

[zakky]

looks very nice!!

 

[006]

tits, looks great.

 

[Keregioz]

Thanks guys.

 

[RaNk]

Wow, I'm really surprised the wood underneath is decent quality. Usually the fully painted ones get flawed pieces to hide it. That looks amazing.

+1

You're a brave man. But all that doesn't matter because the end result is super nice.

Both clips sound good, but the 'before' clip seems to be brighter (more open). The other clip sounds like it's recorded with the tone knob turned back a bit, or picked closer to the neck. Whatever, the guitar itself has to sound better without that thick layer of paint. Good result.

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

That's so nice! And it doesn't have that "active" symbol on the 12th fret either, which the current Blackjacks have... double win!
How old is that guitar?

 

[DEFIED]

Wow that looks beautiful! I love natural finishes.

 

[Keregioz]

+1

You're a brave man.

Haha...to be honest I was prepared for much worse but I didn't really care, any look would be preferable than plain black, which I find really boring, as long as the playability wasn't compromised.

That's so nice! And it doesn't have that "active" symbol on the 12th fret either, which the current Blackjacks have... double win!
How old is that guitar?

If I remember correctly it's about 6 or 7 years old.

 

[JeffTD]

Late to the party but that looks awesome (very similar to my Schecter before I blow-torched it!) and I think the sound difference is more about how the guitar resonates in your hand and how that extra 'life' causes you to play differently than anything else. Either way, glad you like the results!