If I could have my perfect guitar built for metal, exactly to my specs...this is what I would like:

Mahogany Strat style body
Thru neck
String thru body (6 string)
Fixed bridge
24 jumbo frets
400mm or 25.5" scale
Ebony or Rosewood fretboard
H-H pickups - (I used to be insistent on active...not so sure anymore. I have seen some great sounding passives lately!)
Simplistic controls...no coil tapping, only a 3 way switch...one volume, one tone knob

Nothing too fancy! A lot like my Ibanez except for the bolt on neck and the Floyd.

What would your dream metal axe be built like?

Mahagony Body Flying V Shape
Set Neck 3 piece maple clear finish
Ebony Fingerboard with either block or NO inlays
24 frets Jumbo with 26,5'' scale
Floyd Rose recessed or stop tail
Sperzel Locking tuners
H-H with Bareknuckle pickups
1 master Volume, pickup selector

This post has been edited by ZakkWylde: Sep 20 2009, 02:17 AM

what you described sounded like a schecter c-1 hellraiser, and its not even expensive

Hellraisers don't have a neck through, they have set necks

sorry, i didn't know it ment two differnt things.

No problem mate!

Set Neck means the neck is glued into the body (usually at the 17th fret)

Neck Through means that the neck is also the middlepart of the body, on piece of wood from the headstock to the bridge; additional wood is glued on at both sides to create the body shape (so called wings)

Third option would be bolt on, where the neck is bolted with 4 or more screws onto the body

Mine would be...

SG body
H-H (EMG 81TW and 89 for coil tapping)
3 way switch
24 XJ frets
Kahler tremolo
Two volume and two tone knobs
Reverse headstock
Locking tuners
Bolt on neck
Dragon-style inlays, like the one's in some PRSs

This post has been edited by Raph: Sep 20 2009, 03:04 PM

One more thing...these barbed wire fretboard markers! \m/

http://www.custominlay.com/detail.aspx?ID=641

This post has been edited by Praetorian: Sep 20 2009, 05:28 PM

Not a metal guitar, but it would include:

Strat body, ash or alder
vintage fender or callaham vintage styled tremolo bridge, would have to experiment a bit with different arm lengths
22 fret 9.5 inch radius fender maple neck, standard headstock
schaller locking tuners
pickups: need to experiment with single coils for the neck, but something along the lines of a custom shop 54 or 69, texas special or something. Nothing in the middle. In the bridge, a seymour duncan p-rails, and knobs would look like a master volume, master tone, and 3 way toggle where the second tone knob would usually be to switch through the p rails settings.

Something I would like to know about this story. How do you compare all this stuff ? And how do you know how one kind of pickup sounds ? Did you try them all ?

And is there a list somewhere on the web where you can find a list of all that material ?

I spend a lot of money to buy pickups and I try them out in diffrent guitars. It also helps to have a hughe guitar store arround like I have so it's easy to test out a lot of diffrent stuff to get an impression on what things sound like...

If you google any guitar product, and add review at the end...you will get a great list of user reviews of whatever it is you are interested in. Mostly from Ultimate-guitar.com...a great site!

Think I will plan a trip to my local guitar store some day.
Thanks, I will check ultimate-guitar.com as well.

Sounds exactly like my ESP Horizon Custom.









For my own dream metal guitar, I have one like this (different headstock and I have rosewood fretboard)...



The action is very low and neck is extremely thin = very, very fast. Alder body, bolt-on neck, 24 frets.

I'm about to update the electronics to:

Neck: Dimarzio YJM
Middle: Dimarzio Pro track with parallel/series switch on push/push pot
Bridge: Dimarzio Evolution with parallel/series switch on push/push pot, and 2-way switch for coil tap. (Already installed)

That should cover every conceivable tone that my ESP won't get.

Strat body, maple neck and fretboard, 24 frets, 25.5" scale, neck through, Original Floyd, Spurzel Locking tuners, one tone, one volume, three way switch, no coil tap, passive pups, HH.

Nothing really that hasn't been built elsewhere in this thread.

the schecter blackjack atx w/ fixed bridge, its mine now, and its amazing

Nik Huber Orca body (Les Paul modified).
Solid black, or very dark see-trough black.
Mahogany body with Maple top.
Mahogany neck, with Ebony or Brazilian Rosewood.
Black Pearl inlays.
Ebony pickup-rings, tuners and backplates.
Häussel CT-HB-Tozz, or Bareknuckle Miracleman pickups.
Ebony binding or Black burst edges.
Black Hardware.

That should do it

I'm waiting for a quote on that guitar,
but it'll probbaly be a year or two before I've saved up enough money