Official buying advice thread

[Feathers & Flames]

Thanks man.

[Pђoenix]

Paul Gilbert has a fantastic legato exercise for finger strength, incorporating his most famous style of lick. He demonstrates this on his GOOMY instructional DVD.

Edit: Here's a quick tab.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/fjm6c5

[Destruction_Preventer]

For the guitar I really like the Dean Razorback.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...tar?sku=514870

And for the amp I was thinking a Line6
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ier?sku=482276

The guitar/amp I have now is the Ibanez jump start electric package.

What do you guys think about this combo and will it be a good upgrade? Also I would like to know if I should replace the pick-ups.

Also I will be playing mostly metal.

Thanks

[ParsonsMatt]

I don't recommend Dean guitars. Their USA line is nice, but their imports are crappy guitars. Check out LTD, Ibanez, and Agile for good guitars in your price range.

The Spider amp is all right, but I personally prefer the sound of the Vox Valvetronix.

[KingVEE]

although im not a fan of dean.. they arent crap, for 5-600 that setup isnt that bad, i would honestly save up for a better amp, but if you cant that spider will do just fine.

[ParsonsMatt]

Here's what I would do with $600-

Guitar: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...tar?sku=512492

Amp:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...Amp?sku=483003

I've played that guitar before and for the price it is fantastic. I'm also pretty familiar with the Valvetronix amps and they sound very good. The Ibanez will be a stage-worthy ( maybe even recording-worthy ) guitar after you upgrade the electronics and hardware.

[BlackMetalWhiteGuy]

I have the Spider III 15 W and it's great for a practice amp, but I wish it had an overdrive tone option. The clean tone is okay, and there are three distortion tones, which I think is a bit excessive, since it still lacks one of the three fundamental tone options (clean, overdrive, distortion).

I play an ESP LTD F-50 guitar with it and it's a great guitar for me. It stays in tune better than my Carvin DC-400 (which retails for $1200) and the A string on the Carvin always rings even when I'm not playing it. I've never had any similar problems with my ESP, though.

[Unsanctum]

my band just moved from marshall to two peavey 6505s, the mod metal choice of head but understandable really as whatever circuits are in the motherfucker, it cuts through beautifully

[Symbiant]

ESP and Randall or go home!!!

[Destruction_Preventer]

What do you guys think of this guitar?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...tar?sku=512896