Seeing that the selection in Musicians Friend is somewhat limited, what are some rare/unknown guitar makers out there? I'm looking for a guitar that would fit well for metal tones and I don't want to have to settle for an Epiphone or Jackson.

This company is unknown or anything but they make killer guitars for metal and are pretty hard to find:


ESP

Moser

i love esp

Damn, Neil Moser is the man, thanks for suggesting that.

there's like a million companies, but boutique shit is always a ton of money... go to all the second hand instrument shops you can find and play with everything.

luckily, i have a "ton" of money

Hah, maybe I'll buy a guitar similar to Jerry Garcias. Take it away from it's psychedelic element, and it looks almost as "evil" as some BC Richs.

http://www.ranguitars.com

i like ESP's best for metal (EMG pickups rule for heavy shit, but not the active ones... they suck), but i also use my SG and it pounds. not a fan of jacksons, mainly b/c of the tremolo (can't understand why people like those). jackson has one neck-thru model that i like, but it's really expensive. epiphones are just not as good as gibsons.

Winter Guitars http://www.winterguitars.com



their website sucks right now, but I own the above guitar, and even before having it set up it plays awsome... I'm looking at a set of DiMarzio pickups for it though (DP102 - X2N for the bridge and a DP196 Virtual PAF (airbucker) for the neck). I haven't decided what I want to use for a replacement for my single coil in the middle position yet though... I'm thinking either a dual-rail single coil, or a mini-humbucker...

Dual Rail!

Dead Language said:

yeah, I need to see what DiMarzio has for nice dual rail pickups...

This is what I may or may not buy...

http://www.gearhounds.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/goddess.jpg