weepingminotaur
Well-known member
Picture it … Sicily, I mean Atlanta, 2019.
You are an amateur metal guitar player with no pro aspirations or delusions of grandeur. Music is your hobby, not your livelihood.
You have roughly $1000 USD (give or take a bit) to spend on a guitar that will be tuned to E flat standard, and playing mostly metal, specifically thrash. A ton of Megadeth, Testament, and Slayer, some Judas Priest, Death Angel, Exodus, and Pantera, a bit of Load-era Metallica, a bit of Black Sabbath. You get the picture. Maybe once in a while you’ll do some Stevie Ray licks, so you can feel versatile, but for the most part, this will be a metal axe through and through.
You want 24 frets, for soloing purposes.
You do not want X, V, lightning bolt, or any other offset medieval instrument shape, because you prefer classic styles — Strat, Les Paul, maaaybe SG, in that ballpark. You do not want any loud colors or weird patterns, for the same reasons.
You are emphatically not a guy who scoops his mids or cranks the gain to insane levels. You like to have just enough gain to do the job, but not a whit more.
You are scale-agnostic. In other words, you don’t care if the axe is Fender, Gibson, or PRS scale.
Your primary amp is a Boss Katana 50. You’ve got an MRX Fullbore distortion pedal, and a Boss noise gate, and that’s about it. You have no plans to acquire more amps or pedals at the moment.
You plan on using hybrid .10/.52 D’Addario strings on the axe.
You are resolutely a six-string player. No seven- or eight-string guitars for you.
You are a passive pickup player. No EMGs welcome.
You want a fixed bridge. No trem system welcome.
You have no interest in acquiring used guitars from whatever year or era. You want to buy new, and that’s that.
Which guitar, of the ones listed, do you choose? If you select Other, give me some good reasons, as Tracy Chapman said, and I’ll turn right back around.
EDIT: Disregard the Ibanez poll option, as I have been correctly reminded that this particular model is well out of the $1000 USD price range.
You are an amateur metal guitar player with no pro aspirations or delusions of grandeur. Music is your hobby, not your livelihood.
You have roughly $1000 USD (give or take a bit) to spend on a guitar that will be tuned to E flat standard, and playing mostly metal, specifically thrash. A ton of Megadeth, Testament, and Slayer, some Judas Priest, Death Angel, Exodus, and Pantera, a bit of Load-era Metallica, a bit of Black Sabbath. You get the picture. Maybe once in a while you’ll do some Stevie Ray licks, so you can feel versatile, but for the most part, this will be a metal axe through and through.
You want 24 frets, for soloing purposes.
You do not want X, V, lightning bolt, or any other offset medieval instrument shape, because you prefer classic styles — Strat, Les Paul, maaaybe SG, in that ballpark. You do not want any loud colors or weird patterns, for the same reasons.
You are emphatically not a guy who scoops his mids or cranks the gain to insane levels. You like to have just enough gain to do the job, but not a whit more.
You are scale-agnostic. In other words, you don’t care if the axe is Fender, Gibson, or PRS scale.
Your primary amp is a Boss Katana 50. You’ve got an MRX Fullbore distortion pedal, and a Boss noise gate, and that’s about it. You have no plans to acquire more amps or pedals at the moment.
You plan on using hybrid .10/.52 D’Addario strings on the axe.
You are resolutely a six-string player. No seven- or eight-string guitars for you.
You are a passive pickup player. No EMGs welcome.
You want a fixed bridge. No trem system welcome.
You have no interest in acquiring used guitars from whatever year or era. You want to buy new, and that’s that.
Which guitar, of the ones listed, do you choose? If you select Other, give me some good reasons, as Tracy Chapman said, and I’ll turn right back around.
EDIT: Disregard the Ibanez poll option, as I have been correctly reminded that this particular model is well out of the $1000 USD price range.
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