need help... solve my confusion on this pls

Hey guys..... I'm a total thrash metal freak.... Pls solve my little confusion.... Am going to buy a new guitar after having played my les paul for 6 years now..... Have thought of baaswood+maple combo since mahogany bodies are heavy to carry.... Also will be customising the pickups straight away.... Suggeations for which ones to buy EMG/SEYMOUR DUNCAN &ACTIVE/PASSIVE and also for a decent guitar with a nice playable neck preferably flat..... my previous gig was jackson js35 kelly or bc rich kkv2 (unfortunately met it's demise in the little accident i had with guitar ending up in a cracked neck) along with boss gt10 and marshall amp....

You can play thrash metal even on a Givson.

Its the amp that is mainly responsible for thrash metal sound.
And the guitar is there for playability reasons ...


Besides, you've owned Les Paul (presumably Gibson) and Jackson Kelly. I am sure you would know better which guitar suits you, than most ppl in this world

Naah.... The les paul i own is an epiphone lp100 and is the first guitar that i got..... And kelly has some big interference problem with pickups.... Besides i have used only the basswood/maple and mahogany bodies.... I know almost nil of the others like alder etc..... Also i have never used the emgs or duncan.... Even the kelly had jackson ones..... Thus the confusion.... Suggestions pls.....

Also does anybody know any shop in india where i could get to try or buy the esp ltd truckster(hetfield signature) les paul style guitar????

I personally dont prefer active pickups because they sound sterile to me. I had tried and 81/85 set on a mahogany guitar. If you really want the best passive pickups available try the Bareknuckle Pickups. Though they are a bit pricey but they are the best passives according to me. I had heard these in UK and i had also seen one on bajaao. Try out emg actives yourself and if you like them then go for them.

Also i had a lot of trouble in finding guitars worth more than 35k in mumbai. For my Ibanez S570 itself i had to specifically order it from the guitar store as they didnt carry it in stock. If you dont have anything against floating bridges that is a nice guitar to consider as it lighter inspite of being made of mahogany due to its thin profile. Change the pickups on it and it is a really good guitar. Just checked it weighs 2.9 kg.

Originally Posted by ayu135

I personally dont prefer active pickups because they sound sterile to me. I had tried and 81/85 set on a mahogany guitar. If you really want the best passive pickups available try the Bareknuckle Pickups. Though they are a bit pricey but they are the best passives according to me. I had heard these in UK and i had also seen one on bajaao. Try out emg actives yourself and if you like them then go for them.

Also i had a lot of trouble in finding guitars worth more than 35k in mumbai. For my Ibanez S570 itself i had to specifically order it from the guitar store as they didnt carry it in stock. If you dont have anything against floating bridges that is a nice guitar to consider as it lighter inspite of being made of mahogany due to its thin profile. Change the pickups on it and it is a really good guitar. Just checked it weighs 2.9 kg.

Have you tried BKPs?

I actually enjoy using floating bridges since most of metallica and slayer songs require extreme whammy... I'll be sure to check the guitar as well as the bareknuckle.... They are actually available at my local store and if they are worth it, i'll surely push my budget more..... Thanks for the info anyway....

Originally Posted by rickkkyrich

Have you tried BKPs?

Technically yes, but didnt play very good back then as i had just started out a month ago, i played them but it wasnt really meaningful. One of my cousin's friend had them on his guitar and he played and i heard it they really sounded awesome. But then again he was playing a JCM800 so that adds to the sound as well. And i can confidently say that they are better than any seymour duncan or dimarzio for modern metal sounds. There are others too like Lollar and the cheaper Irongear . I had also heard irongear at the same time and they are good if you dont want to break the bank but BKP's are better.

Just went to the store... He had the 520ex model.... Pretty decent pickups for an ibanez considering i was at max overdrive.... Little bit of interferrence.... No luck with the bareknuckles however..... But the axe was mind blowing... Sheer art... Really loved the playability and the ease when i could reach the last fret and still had room to go at least 4more fret below.... Nice action..... And the biggest part is it costs me only 30k so i have loads of room for new pups..... Hope that i get the sound sample from aomewhere soon..... Thanks ayu135....

That 520ex is a very old model and is no longer in production. I dont know for how many years it has been lying around that shop. And considering it from 2006 or something like that, 30k is steep for it. Also i have come across some ZR bridge owners who have guitars made before 2008 claim that the tremolo arm on it is flimsy and breaks, many people have broken it in the past even with regular use. The holder is the culprit.

Originally Posted by boogeyman

Hey guys..... I'm a total thrash metal freak.... Pls solve my little confusion.... Am going to buy a new guitar after having played my les paul for 6 years now..... Have thought of baaswood+maple combo since mahogany bodies are heavy to carry.... Also will be customising the pickups straight away.... Suggeations for which ones to buy EMG/SEYMOUR DUNCAN &ACTIVE/PASSIVE and also for a decent guitar with a nice playable neck preferably flat..... my previous gig was jackson js35 kelly or bc rich kkv2 (unfortunately met it's demise in the little accident i had with guitar ending up in a cracked neck) along with boss gt10 and marshall amp....

For flat neck..You should definitely check out the Ibanez S series guitars. They have those Wizard 3 or 4 neck...Extremely flat.

If you opt for S series i dont think so u need to change pickup on those. Its just the matter of u getting good processor/pedals and a good amp.

Regarding pickups..EMG actives are good...Pretty fat and pretty high output...
Seymour duncan imo are pretty sweet sounding...
Dimarzio have pretty good passive pickups and high output ones.

If you are really looking for some high output pickups u shud get the ones with ceramic magnets..Beefy..fat roar thats how i can describe those...

There is a chart available on the Dimarzio site showing which pickup has what output. U can google for it.

Guys.... Here's a list of all the guitars i shortlisted after hagging over the prices for more than an hour... Ibanez s420 - 27k, s570 -35k, esp ltd hammett signature withdual emg81 -36.5, hannemann signature emg 81/85 -37k, and others.... Which one.... He also agreed for s420 with duncan sh2n and dont remember i suppose sh 10b at bridge for 36k.... Which one?????

Originally Posted by boogeyman

Guys.... Here's a list of all the guitars i shortlisted after hagging over the prices for more than an hour... Ibanez s420 - 27k, s570 -35k, esp ltd hammett signature withdual emg81 -36.5, hannemann signature emg 81/85 -37k, and others.... Which one.... He also agreed for s420 with duncan sh2n and dont remember i suppose sh 10b at bridge for 36k.... Which one?????

Since u r an experienced player u better choose what suits ur style better on ur own....

I wud go for S570 over 420...Somehow when i had played on both of these..I found that S570 was better sounding. Also playability of 570 was better than 420. Somehow it felt good to hold S570 and i lately i have bcum a huge fan of Mahogany wood. Love the heavy solid feel.

The other two signature guitars are i guess basswood and alder.

I wud blindly go for S570 from that list of urs but that does not mean that you shud follow any one of us blindly...Play the hell out of the shortlisted guitars and choose one urself..Its a feeling that u get when u hold the guitar in ur hands...It cannot be expressed in words but thats the time when u feel that this is the one.....See if u get that sorta feeling while playing on any....

As for the pickups, since you are a thrash metalhead, go for seymour duncans. I suggest you get a mahogany body because it feels better and It has a darker side to it. So it is better for metal. If you go for mahogany, get the Seymour Duncan Distortion Mayhem Pickups Set. Comes with an SH-6b and an SH-6n. Passive pickups. Here is a video that compares different pickups. Seymour Duncan Pickups - Metal (Blackout, Invader, Full Shred, Duncan Distortion etc.) - YouTube Guitars are different but the body wood is mahogany and the fret board is rosewood.

I would like to add my 2 cents here. Buy the stock guitar as of now, with the stock pickups. Play it for some time and them decide about the pickups. Dont change the pickups just because you have to, change them if you feel that the stock pickups feel inadequate to you in any way. And be sure what you want out of your new pickups, what was lacking in your older pickup that you want in your new ones.

Before you buy the new pickups make a list of all the features you want. Was the output too low? Was there not enough sustain? Were the lows too muddy or overpowering the other frequencies? Were the mids too low or too high? Were the highs too much or too less? Was the sound nasally or something like that? Then make the list of prospective pickups that have all the features you want and then ask people who have played them what they sound like. Dont just pick up a random pickup just because it says metal, or super distortion or something like that. Your playing style will also matter a lot. And always be sure of what you want the end result to be when you think of changing your pickups.