Re: Anyone try a Mitchell MD400?
This is an extremely good guitar for the price point. Locking tuners, Tusq nut, coil split, coming in at $400 for the lower priced version.
I agree with the comparison to Schecter C-1, perhaps from a few years ago when Schecter necks seemed to be bigger. The 3 knobs are also Schecter-esque.
MD400 actually has a fairly chunky neck. I'd put it between a Gibson 50s and 60s neck. I like this neck a lot.
The stock pickups are very decent. They are both rails in an HS format. My only knock against them is that there a steep volume drop from the bridge to the neck pickup. However, one could also use this to one's advantage by using the neck pickup as a "clean" tone and bridge pickup as a dirty tone, with no amp channel switching needed. The neck rails is along the lines of the Dimarzio single coil/humbucker-ish rails pickups, and the humbucker is a generic but good sounding hot pickup. Now that I think about it, maybe it's a little Dimarzio-ish also; I can't think of a Seymour Duncan analogue.
The main thing that keeps me away from the guitar is the glossy finish on the neck. It is sticky and slows one down. That is easily remedied, I suppose, by sanding, but it doesn't make me immediately like the guitar.
If I got the guitar (maybe I'll look for it used), I would just: (1) get a locking Tonepros TOM bridge, (2) ditch 1 knob for a master volume/master tone setup, and (3) sand the neck to a matte finish. No pickup swaps necessary.
The feel and nice feature set of this guitar suggest a Schecter made in China.
