Has anything actully designed specifically for metal every been any good?

[Sifu Ben]

Funny, I've got a Vendetta and I love it, and it certainly plays better than the Schecter Blackjack I tried while shopping for such a guitar. I also tried a LTD Viper (what was before the 400 series? 300? 350? Damn I'm old) which seriously did nothing for me. I think it's somewhat unfair to compare your ESP Horizon  with a Vendetta 4 when pricewise it's closer to the MH250. The Ibanez that you purchased must surely have been more expensive too?
USA Deans certainly can't be accused of being overpriced (OK, maybe the USA Razorbacks, but hey, that's signatures for you), as they're available for sub Les Paul money with PRS+ quality. You can even get customs for the price of a PRS "artist" upgrade.
The Japanese Hardtail pros they did last year are awesome bang-for-buck if you can still find them.
The most divisive thing with Deans is the neck profile, if you can't get on with it, you're not going to like them, but some people don't like thin Us either.
I would say, owning one and having played other Deans in the £300-£400 range, they're right at the top of the pile in terms of build quality for that section of the market.

[MDV]

I would say, owning one and having played other Deans in the £300-£400 range, they're right at the top of the pile in terms of build quality for that section of the market.

Absolutely. In that price bracket they pretty much own all. Hell, a mate of mine got one (I forget the model) for 70 quid and in build acoustic AND amped up tone you'd think it were £300 or more. Its a utilitiarian looking les paul special-alike.

[noodleplugerine]

Funny, I've got a Vendetta and I love it, and it certainly plays better than the Schecter Blackjack I tried while shopping for such a guitar. I also tried a LTD Viper (what was before the 400 series? 300? 350? Damn I'm old) which seriously did nothing for me. I think it's somewhat unfair to compare your ESP Horizon  with a Vendetta 4 when pricewise it's closer to the MH250. The Ibanez that you purchased must surely have been more expensive too?
USA Deans certainly can't be accused of being overpriced (OK, maybe the USA Razorbacks, but hey, that's signatures for you), as they're available for sub Les Paul money with PRS+ quality. You can even get customs for the price of a PRS "artist" upgrade.
The Japanese Hardtail pros they did last year are awesome bang-for-buck if you can still find them.
The most divisive thing with Deans is the neck profile, if you can't get on with it, you're not going to like them, but some people don't like thin Us either.
I would say, owning one and having played other Deans in the £300-£400 range, they're right at the top of the pile in terms of build quality for that section of the market.

I'm not comparing the Vendetta to my horizon!

As I said I bought an Ibanez (RGT42DXFM) and the Schecters in the same price range I've played (Hellraiser closest in price I guess) are better guitars that the Vendettas I've played aswell.

But anyway, I really don't want to talk about LTDs, I don't know enough about them except for the 1000 series (which are superb), but either way, I don't take slights to the Japanese ESPs quietly :P

[mikey5]

it's the second time i hear of blackmachines in my life... and it's the second time in half an hour that i say they're one of the sexiest THINGS i saw recently (girls are in a different league, of course... :))

Are you a Girl???
I hate the metalzone. I also Hate Mesa Boogie rectos. I have to say I think that I love Engl. They make some really good stuff. I wish they would make a distortion pedal. Anyway those are good, but I have to agree with some of the diehard vintage gear lovers. I love amps that sound good clean and distorted, and never would I buy an amp just because it breaths fire on all settings. I also hate modern music. Music died around 1995

[dheim]

Are you a Girl???
I hate the metalzone. I also Hate Mesa Boogie rectos. I have to say I think that I love Engl. They make some really good stuff. I wish they would make a distortion pedal. Anyway those are good, but I have to agree with some of the diehard vintage gear lovers. I love amps that sound good clean and distorted, and never would I buy an amp just because it breaths fire on all settings. I also hate modern music. Music died around 1995

sorry to turn down the lesbo-goth thing, but i'm actually NOT a girl!  :lol:
if i were the girl in my avatar (a brazilian model called roberta murgo or something like that) i think i'd spend quite a lot of my time watching myself in the mirror, so i wouldn't have the time to play guitar at all...  :lol:

anyway to go back to topic it's strange that you hate rectos and love engl... i think they have one of the tightest distortions around, and when i think about "modern" sounds that kind of thightness is the first thing i think about.
of course you're right if you refer to mesas as the standard sound of certain kinds of modern nu-metal and things like that, but -despite standardisation- i don't see rectos as particularly modern sounding amps...
as regards amps able to sound well as clean as distorted i fear this is a peculiarity of modern gear... marshalls which dominated the whole rock and metal scene in the 70s and 80s were not exactly brilliant when it came to clean sounds, at least in my opinion!
why do tou say that music died in 1995? what happened then?

[dheim]

i'd like to say a nice word for the metalzone... everyone here refers to it as the example of bad-sounding cheap metal equipment, but i used it for years when i lacked the experience required to get at least decent sounds with no professional budget, and it exemplifies the kind of teenage gear we talked about before... something a kid can plug into a cheap amp to get heavy sound impossible to obtain otherwise... and at least for a while it works! i think that it's still a nice transistor distortion - if used wisely . a kind of cold distortion i'm no more interested to have, but at the time i played mostly doom-black metal, and it fit well the range of sounds i looked for. it gave me even a nice lead tone!
the basic advice is - obviously - to avoid the infamous mid scooping every one seemed to force with those pedals!

[MDV]

I'm about to order a duncan twin tube mayhem. Thats made for metal. We'll see how it works out!

[mikey5]

Around that time of 1995 music as we know it was popized. Lots of bands were produced without much quality lyrically or musically. Some of the older dudes like Aerosmith-AC/DC still put out a decent record or two, but I don't know it just seems like music lost some serious quality. Maybe people stopped selling their souls for rock n roll.
Sorry I was just curious. I thought it would be an odd avatar for a dude to put up. I find that Messas can be tonally fragile. Like one day you turn it on and your like blown away and then the next day you have to find the sweet spot again. I dont like all Engls mind you. I like the more classic designed ones. I played through a sovereign and I liked that and also the Ritchie blackmore model.

[nfe]

Frankly, I think if you can't find good music post 1995, it's because you don't look hard enough. Or quite specifically don't look at all so you can have your wee elitist grumbles. :lol:

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

Around that time of 1995 music as we know it was popized. Lots of bands were produced without much quality lyrically or musically. Some of the older dudes like Aerosmith-AC/DC still put out a decent record or two, but I don't know it just seems like music lost some serious quality. Maybe people stopped selling their souls for rock n roll.
Sorry I was just curious. I thought it would be an odd avatar for a dude to put up. I find that Messas can be tonally fragile. Like one day you turn it on and your like blown away and then the next day you have to find the sweet spot again. I dont like all Engls mind you. I like the more classic designed ones. I played through a sovereign and I liked that and also the Ritchie blackmore model.

Every era had their share of untalented yet somehow popular bands.  IMO, you should broaden your musical horizons and really search for good music.  And turn off the radio. :lol:

Frankly, I think if you can't find good music post 1995, it's because you don't look hard enough. Or quite specifically don't look at all so you can have your wee elitist grumbles. :lol:

I agree with the first part and would add that it can also be hard to know where to look.  As for the second part, I used to think sort of like mikey5 but now I've gotten into some really great new bands so I don't think he's being elitist at all.

[nfe]

Around that time of 1995 music as we know it was popized. Lots of bands were produced without much quality lyrically or musically. Some of the older dudes like Aerosmith-AC/DC still put out a decent record or two, but I don't know it just seems like music lost some serious quality. Maybe people stopped selling their souls for rock n roll.
Sorry I was just curious. I thought it would be an odd avatar for a dude to put up. I find that Messas can be tonally fragile. Like one day you turn it on and your like blown away and then the next day you have to find the sweet spot again. I dont like all Engls mind you. I like the more classic designed ones. I played through a sovereign and I liked that and also the Ritchie blackmore model.

Every era had their share of untalented yet somehow popular bands.  IMO, you should broaden your musical horizons and really search for good music.  And turn off the radio. :lol:

Frankly, I think if you can't find good music post 1995, it's because you don't look hard enough. Or quite specifically don't look at all so you can have your wee elitist grumbles. :lol:

I agree with the first part and would add that it can also be hard to know where to look.  As for the second part, I used to think sort of like mikey5 but now I've gotten into some really great new bands so I don't think he's being elitist at all.

I was using "you" in a general fashion, I didn't mean him specifically, just the majority of folk who hold that opinion. Elitist is probably the worng word since normally I would think of it being people who think you have mainstream tastes if you don't love the Trasylvanian inderground bands that released a demo yesterday but I couldn't think of a better term.

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

No worries. :)

But I can't believe you haven't heard that demo yet, noob!  It made Abboth's corpse paint run from all the crying he did when I showed it to him :!:

[MDV]

No worries. :)

But I can't believe you haven't heard that demo yet, noob!  It made Abboth's corpse paint run from all the crying he did when I showed it to him :!:

Zogborath says that its not rough and raw enough, and instead of recording it in a gothic castles tool shed it should have been in a cave with sticks as instuments and tin cans with bits of string instead of mics. He says guitars and mics are for posers. HAIL SATAN!

In addition, REAL metal must be tracked and mixed by a demonically possessed pitt bull that has injected vodka into its eyes. Anything else is FAKE. HAIL SATAN!

[dheim]

Sorry I was just curious. I thought it would be an odd avatar for a dude to put up.

 :lol: eheheh... i was thinking about changing it and was waiting for the first question like yours to do it... i mean, noone around here can be REALLY Yoda or a cat with sunglasses and a paper pipe on his nose, but i could easily be a wonderful girl actually playing gothic metal (i don't think i'd ever have problems getting my music published, in the case...  :))...

anyway i agree with the previous comments... you should look elsewhere and maybe try a bit of a genre shifting... if you love classic rock well... there's nothing better than classics. i think it's something that monsieur Lapalisse could have explained very well...  :)

in general i think it's quite a clichee (not referring to you, but i know many people on similar positions) to say that rock/metal/pop/gregorian chant and so on died when the X musician shot himself in the head/was killed by the Burzum guy/confessed he was gay and left the band/was abducted by aliens...
well... i love medieval music, but if it were the ONLY kind of music i loved i could say that music died around 1300... it wouldn't be exactly true, though.  :P

[MDV]

Yoda you cant be

Yoda rasta getup in and a joint and a bottle of JD has ammuse you enough to use it as an avatar you can