Guitar/pickup advice

[innovine]

I am looking for a recommendation for a nice guitar and pickups.

I am into post-metal and post-rock bands like Long Distance Calling, Pelican, Russian Circles, This Will Destroy You, and so on. Low, crushing heavy tones, and soft warm cleans.

Would the Ibanez ARZ700 be a good choice? Its got EMG 81/60 and I am concerned that this is maybe too aggressive and sharp, and fail at some of the warmer clean tones. It's a pretty guitar though I'll be running the guitar into a Pod HD500.

Suggestions would be nice!

 

[Harry Hughes]

I'm really into post-rock and post-metal too and I wouldn't want to use the EMG 60/81 personally. Could probably get away with an EMG 85, but I think passive pickups are much more ideal.
As for guitars, you could either buy that Ibanez and sell the pickups and get a Seymour Duncan JB/59 set, or perhaps look into the ESP Eclipse EC-1000 model that has the JB/59 right away.
Telecasters and strats could no doubt work well for the genre.
Perhaps a used Les Paul, since that's common among post-metal bands it seems, but play them first before you buy.
Ultimately, your best bet is to end up with that pickup combo I've suggested. It will have you covered for high gain post-metal chugs and sludge and also great cleans with the neck pickup

 

[innovine]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Here's the sort of sound I'm after, I really like the intro guitar tone

I like the Ibanez (its a ARZ800 not 700) looks, but from a quick test and reading about it it seems to be an aggressive metal guitar, and not much else. How much of the agression comes from the pickups? I don't mind changing the pickups if the rest of the guitar is still suitable. My local store doesnt have the ESP you mentioned so if I went that way I'd be buying off the internet without trying it. Not so fun.

The Ibanez only has two knobs, will that be a limitation if I change the pickups? The ESP you mentioned has 2 volume and 1 tone...

Strats and telecasters seem to be a jungle of different models, I don't know where to begin, and am not keen on the looks. I've no idea how they all sound :/

 

[innovine]

I've ordered the EC-1000 vb with jb/59's. Thanks for pointing it out to me, from what I've read it'll be great. Can't wait to get it