In the near-to-medium-near future I am hoping to get a new guitar and amp, of an expensive nature.

I like playing metal of the likes of Sonata Arctica, Children of Bodom, Stratovarius, Symphony X and Dream Theater. So I want something which can achieve both the nice sexy clean sound as well as the beautful and smooth overdriven/distorted sound.

The guitar has to have 24 frets and have a fast neck, it should preferably be quite light, nowhere near the weight of a BC Rich or Gibson.

The amp should sound awesome, but have dimensions no larger than that of the Marshall MG50DFX (I have to haul all this to and from university several times a year).

Money is not an issue as long as guitar/amp aren't excessively expensive.

GOGOGO!

I would reccomend, if you like metal, an ESP of some sort or another. Pick one to fit your budget. They have EMG pickups.

EMG>*

Anything other than ESP? I find it somewhat difficult to find high-end ESPs in England.

Hrm. as far as guitar goes, look around the good brands. if you want a really sexy guitar and have no budget limit, get a paul reed smith. the CE 24 is particularly nice.

I'll talk to you some more about this. buying an expensive guitar is a really serious matter.

Rickenbacker

This man knows the truth.

PRS > *

For the amp, I'd look into a Mesa Boogie Road King if you've got the money for it. It uses many different preamp/poweramp tube combinations, sorta like a modeling amp, but for real. It's all footswitchable, meaning you can get a nice, clean twang, or searing distortion, or everything between.

http://www.prsguitars.com/showcase/current/custom24.html

I meant the custom 24. sorry.

also, if you want something really metal:

http://www.jacksonguitars.com/gear/gear.php?partno=RR1_Rhoads

or anything in the USA select series. this is definitely up to par with high end ESP's. and also, jacksons have a really slim and fat neck, as opposed to ibanez/esp round and thin neck.
I loved the feeling of the RR when I played it, you would probably feel the same.

Yeah, and then you can plug your amplificator into that mixificator thing and then do the thing with the strings and.. and....

Bah, I don't know anything about guitars.

*bows head in shame*



*walks away*

Yeah, I'm going to have to vouch for Jackson guitars here as well...

[url]www.jacksonguitars.com[/url]

I like EMG pickup's as well, and the pickups on one of my Jackson guitars was given me massive headaches with feedback - so I just switched the pickups to EMG myself. Things great now...

I just love the necks on Jackson - can move so fast, some killer body designs (Especially for metal music), and it's a solid piece of work.

Lots of metal bands use Jackson too

Some i can think of are - Savatage w/ Chris Caffery and Edguy is another power metal band that I know use Jackson.

It's really a personal preference thing...

To me the feel of an ESP (the one's I've played) are real close to a Jackson, and they look alot alike in some designs as well. One band I played with - drummer was like "Your guitars look almost identical". I was playing Jackson - other guitarist was playing ESP.

Whatever you do, metal forever! \m/

I have to say I'm a big fan of Seymour Duncan pickups.

I have a '59 on the neck, it's so smooth for clean tones, and a bit of a round distortion type on the overdrive. and I have a jeff beck for the bridge. Wow. The lead tone is really biting and responsive. I know my other guitars will have the same pickup =P

Here are some brands to check out: Carvin, Jackson, Ibanez, ESP and Ernie Ball Music Man.

Carvin guitars are custom made and really, really nice guitars. They're great for metal and great all around. Really nice necks. Great 7-strings too.

Jacksons are good, but more metal-oriented than anything else. Most Jackson's don't feel particularly "organic" to me.

Ibanez makes guitars in every price range. Their JEMs and more expensive (higher model number) RG series are really nice. I like the RG 2120X; it has piezo pickups as well as magnetics to allow you to get an acoustic sound.

Ernie Ball custom-makes their guitars too. The John Petrucci model is a very versatile guitar. It, too, has a piezo bridge. Its neck is the most comfortable neck I've ever played. They look awesome too.

As far as amps, if you're just looking for a small practice amp, I wouldn't pay too much. Line 6 modelling amps are pretty nice in their versatility. Their smaller combos will probably be the best combo amp bang for the buck unless you feel like getting a really awesome tube combo, like the Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+. I'd say unless you're going to get a big rig, it's not worth shelling out too much for a combo.

If you do want to get a head or rack setup, most Mesa Boogie amps are great, particularly the hyped Mark IIC+ and the Mark IV for crunch and leads, and the Rectifier series for the searing modern rhythm sounds. The Triaxis and Quad are great preamps.

Bogner, Soldano, ENGL, and Randall all make really great high-end amps too.

I don't really get what you mean by the neck comparisons. "Slim and fat"?

Usually Ibanezes are known for pretty thin necks.

get a Martin. lolzors

I mean a jackson neck is more this (Washburns are like this too):

|)


while a standard esp/ibanez/etc, would be something like this:

|)

I don't really know how to show it that well on an forum like that.

Heh heh, 'amplificator'. I'm going to use that.

"How the hell do you work this series of amplificator?"

PRSes are nice guitars, but they're not particularly great for metal. Their necks aren't fast (neck profile is fat and PRSes are notorious for their huge neck joint) and they're really heavy. Heaviness can mean better tone, but it's all about what kind of tone you want.

High-end Ibanezes are great for metal. My RG (Wizard II neck) has the fastest neck I've played on. Not that I need it. I suck at soloing.

Vai and Satriani play Ibanezes. So does the guitarist from Sonata Arctica. And so does Paul Gilbert.

Paul Gilbert > *

http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/series.asp?s=js&l=e - Satch's guitar, isn't she sexy?

Satch has an awesome guitar, but it only has 22 frets

If you're looking to spend over 1000 USD (I dunno what that would be for you Brits) on just a guitar, then look into the Ibanez's Steve Vai Signature JEM7V. Yes, it does have 24 frets.

i'm looking to spend about £1,500 on a guitar.

PS, that's about $2,700.

Damn.

Honestly, you should look into a PRS guitar.

if you have more than 2000$ to spend, get an Ibanez JEM. it's the best rock guitar you'll ever have. and it'll last you for life.

If I were going to spend that level of cash.. I would probably be leaning toward a PRS or a REALLY nice Gibson... Like a signature series of some kind... Iommi SG perhaps?

Paul Gilbert's model is sexy as hell. All maple neck, basswood body, 24 jumbo frets, H/S/H - all DiMarzio, and a Prestige neck (plays like a dream, my buddy owns an older model Prestige RG). Check out "Technical Difficulties" by Racer X and listen to the tone on this hottie.

And check out the Road King! Looks like a great amp.

Let's assume that I don't want to spend £3,000 on an amp head.

Hughes and Ketner makes some great amps for less money. Some might argue that Line6 makes some decent stuff too, but not everyone would agree on that. Crate is also a great brand and reasonably priced. The lead guitarist in my old band plays a Crate preamp though a Marshall PA and 4x10, sounds awesome.

Det, if you're willing to drop that much on a guitar, ignore most of what I said. Carvin is the only option in my list that I think still suffices. They make really nice custom guitars. Conklin makes some nice guitars but they're more on the crazy side of guitar building. If I think of any more brands, I'll mention them. You might want to look into custom guitar shops.

Here. I know it's not that expensive, just thought I'd throw this one out there.

But yeah, I'd look into a custom shop axe.

For an Amp, I suggest trying out a Peavey 5150 MkII. "Designed" be Eddie Van Halen, and used by Various metal heads like Devin Townsend (strapping Young Lad).

A Peavey 5150 does the whole Rectifier metal tone pretty well. Its cleans are pretty lacking, though.

Personally, I'm inclined to disagree. The 5150 MkII is a great heavy tone amp of professional quality, however falls short of the power of the mesa. The 5150 MkII clean tone, however, is better than a mesa. I think you'd be struggling to find clean tones recorded using a mesa on a CD, and I've been to concerts of big bands where they have separate amps for clean and dirty sounds.

Edit: I just re-read your post. You weren't actually comparing clean tones of 5150's and rectifiers, just commenting on the 5150 clean tone in general. I personally think it has a great clean tone, but you really need a nice marshall or matchless for really nice clean tone.

I'm just making a list of amps or components which I think are great.

Mesa Boogie Triaxis
Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+, III, IV
VHT Power Amps
All ENGL Amps
All Bogner Amps (though the Uberschall is a one-trick pony, it does the really distorted rhythm tone really well and has nothing else to offer)

Some sound clips of really good amps: http://www.rocksolidamps.com/sounds.php