Official buying advice thread

[WeAreInFlames]

Thinking about getting a new guitar. Budget: Under $500 Styles: Power Metal, Thrash Metal, maybe Death/Thrash and even Black Metal. Mostly power metal, but I would like to keep my options open.

My current guitar (in black):
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ar?sku=519783\
I love it very much.

I'm not desperate to get a new guitar, so I don't want to get anything that isn't a significant improvement. But any suggestions would be nice, because otherwise I'll just blow all my cash on more fucking cds.

[ParsonsMatt]

A really nice bass amp for pretty cheap is the Ampeg BA-115.

[sceloporus]

Originally Posted by ParsonsMatt

A really nice bass amp for pretty cheap is the Ampeg BA-115.

My only consern with that model is that I like punchy tone and I'm not sure if a 15" will be bright enough.

[metalbeard]

I've been into Metal and Classical music since I was 11/12, and played the piano for about 2 years up until college work got heavy and I had no time :/

Taking a gap year now and I want to play the electric guitar because I fucking love metal. I have no clue where to look, so if its any help here is the sort of stuff im into:

Metallica, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Children of Bodom (love Alexei's style), Lamb of God, Rammstein, Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth...

Don't know if that was necessary, but what guitar and specs would you recommend?

Thanks a lot,
Metalbeard

[sceloporus]

What's your budget?

[metalbeard]

Ideally no more than £400, or $800 for you Americans.

[sceloporus]

Wow nice budget for your first electric!
You might want to split it it 300 for a nice amp and 500 for a good guitar. What kind of body style do you want? Strat, v, Explorer, les Paul?

[devilfish063]

Hi everyone..
Can anyone recommend a cheap distortion pedal that's decent enough for metal. I'm pretty short on cash so it doesn't have to be good enough for Hypocrisy or something, but at least somewhere around early Pantera. Or maybe a cheap sound processor would be a better solution?

[BlackMetalWhiteGuy]

Exactly how short on cash are you? I don't know that much about pedals, but if you can give us a price range, someone on here will be able to give you a recommendation.

However, a quick eBay search reveals that Marshall, Digitech, Ibanez, Rocktron, Rogue, Boss, DOD and... Dinosaur? all make pedals that can be found in what I would consider to be the "short on cash" range. The only pedal I've ever used though was some kind of DOD and I thought it sucked. However, I've heard great things about anything made by Boss.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...dal&category0=

EDIT: Also, if you check out MusiciansFriend.com, most of their products have user ratings, and all the pedals that I've looked at so far have soundclips available.

[devilfish063]

Thanks for the tip, i'll check out MusiciansFriend!

[Pђoenix]

I'd recommend a used Ibanez to cut down costs and still get a good starter axe. But as Sceloporus said don't bust it all on the guitar, buy a decent amp.