The pickups are more important than the guitar, assuming you're not playing a beater.
I highly HIGHLY disagree with that statement...unless you are somebody who uses nothing but EMGs, that's simply not the case. That's like saying the microphone is more important than the singer.
My best sounding/recording guitar for metal is by far my Peavey Destiny Custom. Second to a US Charvel San Dimas, an ESP m-i custom, and probably my Jackson PC-1 is also on that level. I used to have a master series Lag Arkane that sounded pretty awesome also, but no longer.
The Destiny is short scale, heel-less set-neck, mahogany body, maple neck, THICK maple cap, ebony board, with a Kahler Spyder. H-S-S with 24 frets, superstrat. Pretty unique specs. It sounds absolutely ruling. Utterly brutal. It's such a metal beast that I can't even use it for other genres, it screams. I disagree with the people who talk crap about tremolos. I have 12 guitars right next to me with Floyd Roses/Kahlers...some of them have Tremol-Nos or are blocked. I hear no correlation between tuning stability/intonation/tone loss between hard tail guitars and guitars with tremolos, assuming you know how to set up and play a guitar properly. A good sounding guitar is a good sounding guitar, and trust me, good sounding guitars with tremolos exist. I have owned more than a few of them. And in my experience they hold tune better than say a Gibson Les Paul made in the last 10 years does.
I agree with the people saying that the country of origin doesn't mean that a guitar is definitely going to sound worse...But I am too much of a guitarist to subject myself to cheap korean/chinese/indonesian guitars...I just can't do it. It makes my soul cry
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PS. That BRJ from the last page looked RIDICULOUS! Can't believe you sold that man!