New guitar help

[ribbed]

Hi,

I am looking to get upgraded equipment soon. I am currently playing an American Fender Stratocaster, and my dad just bought me a Line 6 Spider III 150W he got a great deal on. In the past I usually played blue scales and a variety of classic rock songs and basically all in standard tuning.

I'm recently getting more into bands that play a majority of drop C and drop D tuning, like a lot of metal bands. My friend has been playing the drums for 15 years and now that I have a large enough amp, he wants me to start learning bands he plays: A Day to Remember, Trivium, Bless the Fall, All That Remains, ZAO, August Burns Red, In Flames, Taken. I would say I'm a moderate player and can play most of the songs from these bands. I'm realizing my fender is not able to get to the right tone that some of these other guitars I've tried at shops can get, that deep clean grunge sound. When I bought my guitar when I was 13, I didn't get a lot of information on the style of pick-ups, pick-up placement, string sizes, pedals, etc, and haven't tried researching it until now. I've also noticed I can't get a long sustain on my notes from pinch harmonics, and I'm not sure what there is to do to improve this..maybe string types.

I'm 22 and I'm looking to spend what I can afford, about $700-$1100. I've heard about ESP guitars for this style of music, but not much else. Any advice or information on brand/make of new guitars or anything else you can think of, that would be much appreciated and awesome.

Thanks for your time,

Adam

 

[Judzfell]

I'm no expert but what I can help with is...

For drop d and drop c, and medium gauge string will do, not out of the ordinary.
Pinch harmonics like distortion , so you may want to find ways of adding more? like a pedal. I own a grunge pedal and death pedal and both can hold them for long enough, they price about 60 bucks each. Plus playing around with the pedal settings might give you the sound you're looking too achieve. Both pedals receive awesome reviews.

Hope I somewhat helped.

 

[waif]

I have a Schecter Hellraiser C-1 FR, which fits nicely in your price range and works fantastically for the sound you're going for (obligatory disapproval of trendy metalcore). It's also a sexy little bitch.

You should also check out the Les Pauls in that range, as they're pretty good for the sound you want (thick, heavy, and ballsy).

 

[WindsOvCreation]

I'd recommend either a Schecter, Ibanez, or my personal favorite manufacturer, an ESP.

If you really want your pinch harmonics to come through and be clearly defined, then you're going to need high-gain pick ups. The stock pickups you're going to find in any low-to-lower-mid-range Ibanez are going to be shit, and you'll have to swap them out if you want a good sound and defined harmonics. If you do end up needing to swap out your pups, I'd suggest Seymour Duncan (high-gain model), or the DiMarzio X2N and Evolution (I would go with an Evo in the neck and an X2N in the bridge; your bridge pick up will have real crunch on the low and end sound good on the highs, and switching to the neck pup would give you the crispest, clearest leads you'll ever hear).

If it's just sustain in general that you're worried about, then you should look for a guitar with a neck-through construction (the neck is glued into the body of the guitar, and appears to be one piece) as opposed to a bolt-on neck (which looks how the name suggests). Ibanez does not offer many if any guitars that have a neck-thru construction in the lower-range models as far as I'm aware.

I don't really like Schecters; the necks are too bulky for me. Ibanez makes some great necks (Wizard II and Wizard Prestige), but I still found that my ESP plays a lot tighter and faster than my old Ibanez RG.

Another thing to take into consideration is fixed bridge vs. tremolo bridge. A fixed bridge will usually give you more sustain if it's string-thru (the strings are fed through the guitar instead of just the end of the bridge), but a tremolo bridge will allow you to do dive-bombs, etc. I'd be very wary of purchasing a guitar with a tremolo bridge unless you know it's going to be reliable. Some of the cheaper ones go out of tune with the slightest dip of the whammy bar.

With all that being said, I think ESP is your best bet. You can get a model with neck-thru, much better pups than a comparable Ibanez, a faster neck than Schecter or Ibanez, and either a fixed or trem bridge, all for about $400.