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Posted by: Praetorian Sep 20 2009, 01:50 AM

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?

Posted by: ZakkWylde Sep 20 2009, 02:16 AM

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

Posted by: vampire18 Sep 20 2009, 02:16 AM

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

Posted by: ZakkWylde Sep 20 2009, 02:18 AM

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

Posted by: vampire18 Sep 20 2009, 02:05 PM

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

Posted by: ZakkWylde Sep 20 2009, 02:09 PM

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

Posted by: Raph Sep 20 2009, 03:00 PM

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

Posted by: Praetorian Sep 20 2009, 05:28 PM

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

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

Posted by: JVM Sep 22 2009, 04:34 AM

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.

Posted by: Keilnoth Sep 22 2009, 12:52 PM

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 ?

Posted by: ZakkWylde Sep 22 2009, 01:58 PM

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...

Posted by: Praetorian Sep 22 2009, 02:13 PM

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!

Posted by: Keilnoth Sep 22 2009, 02:18 PM

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

Posted by: OzRob Oct 2 2009, 07:39 AM

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.

Posted by: NoSkill Oct 2 2009, 03:12 PM

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.

Posted by: murphy13 Oct 18 2009, 03:21 AM

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

Posted by: audiopaal Oct 18 2009, 03:56 PM

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