You have to have a little bit of harshness to get an aggressive tone! Not buzzsaw harsh, but it needs a bit of a rough kick to it.
I have both the custom and custom 5, and do play some pretty heavy stuff. The custom is nice and tight; not excessively aggressive but the trade off from that is it's nice and defined.
The custom 5 isn't aggressive at all by my standards. It has the bass response (plenty of it) but not the kick in the face mids needed for the style Pac's talking about.. Tbh, it's weak for metal in standard tuning. The guitar I have it in is now tuned in C standard, and sounds ok.. probably because the fat strings I'm using help fill out the mids a little more. I'm still in two minds about whether or not it should go.. it works for definition+bass response with my guitar tuned low, but I can't help thinking I could get something else that would work better. It's a very plain but open metal sound under gain : it works but doesn't have much character
Most aggressive...Dimebucker is like a big knife and the Metal Live Wire is like a sledge hammer - both very agressive, had a metal live wire for years, have a Dime in a Hamer.
....the Metal Live Wire is like a Tone Zone times 10! Too much gain for hi gain amps these days, but I liked the sound of it
I vote for the Wagner Shredder. Does the high gain thing well without muddying up. Retains string definintion under extreme high gain. Cleans up nicely when you back off on the volume control.
I vote for the Wagner Shredder. Does the high gain thing well without muddying up. Retains string definintion under extreme high gain. Cleans up nicely when you back off on the volume control.