Schecter ATX C-1 blackjack modification!

  The Schecter ATX C-1 blackjack guitar is a very nice instrument. It's got a set in mahogany neck on a mahogany body plus an ebony fretboard. So it's a Gibson-like sounding guitar.
  A friend brought in this beautiful satin black atx for a few mods and a setup.

Pickup + Electronics mod:

 The original Duncan AHB active pickups are pretty hot but they sound a bit dark when played through an over driven amplifier. We tried quite a few tube and solid state OD amps/preamps with this pickup configuration and we came to same conclusion: active pickups are good for metal rhythm guitar playing but the solo tones lack a bit of brightness and character. This issue could be solved by replacing the 100nF tone pot capacitor with a 22nF one. The 25K tone pot in series with the 100nF cap, form a high cut filter even when set to max.
  To get those Gibson style P.A.F. sounds though, a pickup change is the best solution. We decided to install a combination of passive Dimarzio Air and Gibson pickups on the guitar. To get even more tones out of the guitar, we wanted the pickups to split in single coils (mute one coil of each pickup).  Therefore, I installed three new 500K Alpha Log pots for the volume and tone control as the old 25K ones are only suitable for active pickups. A push pull 500K pot with 6 pins provided the split coil function for the passive pickups.

  Once the new pots and pickups were soldered and checked, the guitar was set up with a fresh set of 0,010" strings in standard E tuning. The tones are totally different with the new medium output passive pickups. There's more note definition, brightness and clarity even at maximum gain settings.
  The clean sounds are now awesome and the OD tones have more character. There's also sufficient pickup output and sustain for metal riffs and shredding solos!
   The tone woods used for the construction of this high quality Korean made guitar deserve a nice set of passive pickups that doesn't filter out any frequencies and/or harmonics using on-board boost/cut opamp circuitry.


Here are the original C-1 atx specs:
http://www.schecterguitars.com/products/guitar/Blackjack-ATX-C-1.aspx

Construction:	Set Neck w/ Ultra Access
Available Bodies:	- Mahogany - Mahogany w/Quilted Maple
Neck:	3-pc Mahogany
Finger Board:	Ebony
Frets:	24X Jumbo
Inlay:	Active Symbol
Bindings:	Aged Multi-Ply
Tuners:	Schecter Locking
Pickups:	Seymour Duncan Active Blackouts AHB-1
Electronics:	Vol/Vol/Tone/3-Way Switch
Available Bridges:	- TonePros TOM w/Thru-Body
Scale:	25.5"
Hardware:	Black Chrome
Available Colors:	- 3-Tone Satin Sunburst (3TSSB) - Aged Black Satin (ABSN) - Aged White (AWHT) Here are a few pictures of the guitar: Cheers, Thanos