I need a new guitar. Any suggestions?

Ive had my strat (which was my first electric guitar) for about 9 years now. Its the only electric Ive had, and I want another one. I am completely at a loss for what I should be getting though.

I play mostly Heavy Metal. Favorite band is Megadeth, and I also play things from Children of Bodom, to Symphony X, to Iced Earth, and a lot of speed metal artists.

Since I have shorter than average fingers, a wide necked, jumbo fret guitar is not going to be the best bet for me. Any suggestions as to what I should look at?

Oh, and I want to spend between $500 - $1,000 (no more, including tax).

Ibanez makes great metal guitar at a reasonable price. I would suggest a epiphone les paul custom because of the ease of getting great heavy metal tones because of the weight and tone, but you mentioned no fat necks. For someone who plays strictly heavy metal, maybe the Ibanez Xiphos XPT700. It would be an enormous change from your strat, but a good one for your style of music.

By the way, you never mentioned if you liked double locking tremolo bridges....

Bridges scare me lol. A strat is pretty straight forward to change strings on. Id be scared of doing something wrong and screwing up the whole bridge setup with anything else. Not a determining factor though. Im just more concerned about sound/playability right now.

Oh and as for body style, I don't want anything crazy. I play sitting down 99.9% of the time, so Vs and stuff are out.

apart from the locking floyd rose id say go with a jackson. the have a very nice smooth neck that does feel good in your hand.the floyd rose though youll need to block it (place a block under it) any time you change strings/adjust anything on it. there are also guitars like the kirk hammett from esp they have the floyd rose but its not too hard to get the hang of one.

For up to $1000 you could get a used Jem in in perfect condition or a top shelf Prestige - both are Ibanez models. Necks are very thin and pickups are hot as hell, they comes with Edge Pro trem systems which are great, not scary at all - they stay in tune perfectly once set up correctly. I own both a Jem and a Prestige that's why I would recommend them - Jackon soloists are also nice but I prefer the Jem by far.

I was actually looking at the Prestige line. Someone in another thread recommended the RG1570, so Ive looked into that one. Only problem is, Guitar Center is pretty much the only music store around here, and they only special order them, so I can't play it beforehand.

As far as the Jem goes, is that the Steve Vai line?

My friend just got a PRS 513 for his 18th b-day. He uses it for the jazzy style of a prs, but I've never played such an amazing guitar, and I know for a fact they're wired pretty hot for metal too.Very pricey though unless you go used. Like I said though, I've never played such a nice guitar and I've sorted through Guitar Center's stock. :rolleyes: You just get this feeling of... "Hey, I've never done this before, but for some reason I think it could work. (starts to play as if possesed by the satanic master of guitars, Then overlooks the $3,000 price tag and buys it straight up) :rolleyes:

Actually the Xiphos is very comfortable to sit with and is not a V, but oh well. I certainly enjoy my Ibanez RG, Great metal tones, and for about $600 bucks you can have one of the best sounding metal guitar out there just by putting on Dimebuckers or EMGs or Evolutions. The RG is a nice body shape, and you can find them with or without the tremolo bridge. I think Ibanez makes some of the best metal guitars out there for the price, although I do like a good Les Paul with the Zakk Wylde EMGs on it, best metal guitar ever in my opinion. Also I might add that if you want to go for maybe a more straightforward Gibson type guitar with the tune-o-matic & stoptail type bridge, go for the Gibson SG special or the Faded special and upgrade the pickups to your liking. SG's are great for metal if you know what you're doing. Happy hunting!

P.S If the tremolo bridge "scares you" then for the price, I would go with one of the SG specials. The rhythm guitarist in my band has the faded one, and it sounds great, but the pickups are ugly, and could be better, so I would change those if I had your price range. And yes the Jem 555 and 777 are the Steve Vai signature (downright beautiful guitar!)

I've been doing a bit of reading up on the Xiphos (cool shape - actually looks comfortable to sit with) and the pickups look very interesting, d'Activator passives with active tonal attributes. The main problems I see with this guitar are 1) the Edge III tremelo - it's one of the lowest quality on Ibanez guitars and is notorious for going out of tune and 2) although the neck is a through fit (which is a good thing) it is painted which ruins it for me. My feeling is that if this model takes off you could see a 7 string model next year pimped up with a 25.5 scale 3 piece wizard neck and Lo-Pro tremelo (As per the Jem and Prestige models). That would be a killer axe for metal.

I like it alot. A good tremolo setup by a professional is all you need to keep it in tune. I do not have a xiphos currently but I do have an RG series withn the edge III. I don't really have problems with it going out of tune. This guitar is very comfortable to sit with. I have played them frequently. Its sounds especially wonderful through a vox valvetronix amp. But that's just what I have played it through. I would highly recommend this one if you have the money. And about the painted neck, it's not a problem really. It slides very nicely once you get used to it. My personal preferance is the blue/green chamelion finish. It looks killer.

Don't be scared of Floyd trems... they're not difficult at all, just different. :)

A used JEM or JS would be my suggestion as well... RGs and the 540r (Radius) might be slightly cheaper on ebay... and are almost the same guitar minus the pickups / inlays.

The Ibanez Js 100 (joe satriani series) is really nice and sounds great, you may want to check that out, although i'm not sure how it does with heavy metal.

A good fixed-bridge option could be the Ibanez RGA121 which is one of their Prestige models. It's basically an arch top RG with a fixed bridge. Natural finish and it's got a mahogany body (better than Basswood used on RGs IMO) and maple neck. I'm thinking of buying one myself. Too bad guitar center rarely has a display instrument that has a proper setup to try it out.

Like I said earlier, try out an Epi Les Paul standard. Then pimp it out with whatever pickups you want. It's got grovers tuners on it, but I don't know if you like the color and everything. You could put some money into that and have a great metal guitar (may I suggest the EMG Zakk Wylde set, although many people fear active pickups). So a Epi LP standard with EMGs would cost you around $600 USD. Or you could go for a Epi Lp custom and pimp IT out for and even nicer axe. That one with EMGs would be around $800 USD. Or maybe if you want the word Gibson on your headstock you could go for the Gibson sg Special or get the Faded special and then put some awesome pickups on that one. Those are my MAIN suggestions so far.

By the way, all of those have stopbar tailpieces and TOM bridges. String changes can't be any easier with those.

Hi, I like so many of the suggestions here. I've played the Gibbys, PRS, Ibanez and others, however, I always come back to Fenders. Starts and Teles are my friends.

http://www.fenderpick.com

:)

Mueh.....fender.....Mueh... I'm definitely not a fender fan... They're not versatile at all, I guess it's just not my style.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Looks like I got my hands full with trying trying out guitars. Keep the ideas coming if you can think of anything else. Im going to check out some Ibanez guitars and maybe the Les Paul. LP's are usually too big for my taste, and its hard for me to play them sitting down. Can't deny that the have great sound though.

Try out a Gibson SG special, or the faded one. They're really nice to sit with, and very light.

Originally Posted by: hunter1801I was actually looking at the Prestige line. Someone in another thread recommended the RG1570, so Ive looked into that one. Only problem is, Guitar Center is pretty much the only music store around here, and they only special order them, so I can't play it beforehand.

As far as the Jem goes, is that the Steve Vai line?

The guitar center staff can have another store in the chain send one in. All they have to do is run a search on the computers for the guitar then call and ask for it if it's availible. Employees hate doing this though and you have to hope that both the person you're talking to and the person they call are bright enough to work the transaction on the computer. It is really easy to do.

Originally Posted by: Sasuke199Mueh.....fender.....Mueh... I'm definitely not a fender fan... They're not versatile at all, I guess it's just not my style.

I have an old squier I've gutted and thrown three duncan humbuckers in (one stacked). I also rewired the tones to split the front and middle pickups. I'd say it's probably the most versatile fender squier ever.

The S1 fenders with all their phase, parallel/series, 5 way switching, and over dramatic wiring scheme should be versatile. I haven't taken the time myself to test their 15 or so tones. Maybe someone on here can vouch for them.

On a solid state amp if you want aggressive EMG Kerry King set (Zakk set + 20db boost) is the way to go. Passive pickups sound wicked raw on good tubes though. If you like rock tone, you have to at least try winding up even a basic SG on a respectable amp. And they are uber light weight.