Are 'Metal Guitars' actually different?

Funkfingers

ROOG said:
'beware' that most RGs are fitted with a 'Floyd Rose' style bridge. Having checked out what a Floyd Rose was, I concluded that it looked 'clever' and very technical, but why beware? 

The Floyd Rose double locking vibrato - and its many clones - is quite a feat of engineering. I consistently hated it with a vengeance until I had to dismantle a German-made one to change the sustain block. Finally, I realised how they are supposed to be. 

Unfortunately, the majority of licensed FR vibratos are made from cheaper, inferior materials. These detract from the precise fit and operational stability. They also wear out more quickly. 

In the specific case of Ibanez, they have used a variety of FR-licensed designs. Of these, the only one I consistently like is the original Edge. This has its fair share of cast zinc parts but manages to remain stable - even after thirty five years.

The most frustrating FR-licensed vibrato I have experienced is the infamous Jackson JT6. I have one on a Charvel mongrel. I dare not change it for fear of altering the guitar's sound for the worse.

merciful-evans

I used a MIJ Jackson Soloist exclusively for at least 16 years. I never once used it for metal. I just used it because it was the best guitar I had ever played. 

Years later I bought the nearly identical Jackson Elite which had active high output pickups. I could not get a usable (for me) tone playing live so sold it for that reason. 

So 90% of these 'metal or trad' differences are about looks & style, with a few practical differences here & there. I did use the FR for about a year, but eventually blocked it up because it was frustrating not being able to do double stop bends (the strings detune and go flat when you try). They are great at what they are designed for but if you dont need that, then leave them alone. If you buy one and dont get on with FR, its easy enough to disable by blocking the trem cavity. 

hollywoodrox

Jeff Beck used to use a pointy Jackson to great effect.   Phillip knight has a good video about blocking a floyd. 2 point trems like on fender /squier are very nice .

metal guitars will have a flatter radius meaning it is easier to set up a low action without strings bottoming out on bends and it will generally feel flatter , a lot now have a compound radius which means you get a more rounded handful at the headstock for chord type stuff and flatter higher up for lead playing.

i do love pointy guitars (well pointy head stocks ) Jackson ,bc rich ESP .

skullfunkerry

Creed_Clicks said:

Doesn´t Bill Steer in Carcass play a Les Paul Junior or Melody Maker? 
Yer guy in Cigarettes After Sex plays one of those Parker Flys, which you wouldn´t associate with ambient slowcore style music.
Would be interested to hear if there any ambient post rock style bands, apart from the math rock guys or non metal bands using these RGs? They seem to be a workhorse. Not sure I´d be a fan of the FL.

I bought a Charvel Spectrum years ago from a chap on eBay, and he told me that there was a guy in a jazz band he'd seen a couple of times who played a bright orange one strung with flatwounds

Creed_Clicks

@skullfunkerry possibly not as odd as it may appear, seeing as there was an overlap with jazz/metal/shredding there for a while. Not sure if you ever heard the Death album "Individual Thought Patterns"? It´s a death metal album with jazz influences all over it, fretless bass etc..

timmypix

Creed_Clicks said:

@skullfunkerry possibly not as odd as it may appear, seeing as there was an overlap with jazz/metal/shredding there for a while. Not sure if you ever heard the Death album "Individual Thought Patterns"? It´s a death metal album with jazz influences all over it, fretless bass etc..

Ditto Death - "Human", which was basically Chuck Schuldiner + Cynic, and Cynic are basically jazz with growls and distortion.

guitarfishbay

Metal is a style and can be played on realistically any solid body guitar with a bridge pickup, though humbuckers are usually preferred.

Metal guitars covers a span of instruments that may have aesthetic looks or hardware specs that suit a particular sub genre of metal.

There are a lot of subgenres of metal so there's no one typical metal guitar.

A pink Ibanez RG with Floyd Rose is metal (80s/glam/hair).

A black baritone 6 string might be aimed at the nu metal crowd.

Something with 7 or 8 strings could be aimed at the djent music crowd, or could be prog players who use the whole range of the instrument.

One of my favourite recent metal bands are Loathe, and from what I understand they play Squier Baritone Jazzmasters.  It's really about how you play rather than the instrument itself, but having the appropriate spec definitely helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srGBy5HPiSQ

Lestratcaster

Depends what you class 'metal' as these days. To me its the 80's/90's style of standard or at the lowest, Eb tuning with powerchord and single note type riffs.

Then the 2009's metalcore surge came about where more bands started drop tuning down to A and the double bass drum would match up more to riffs and breakdowns. More syncopation rhythmically with a mix of singing and screamo.

I think Baritone guitars came about more with such low tunings, with the longer neck adapting better to thicker strings.

Never played an Ibanez or a Jackson, etc, Jim Root uses a Tele/Strat for 'metal' so why not haha.

NelsonP

For me an Ibanez RG is more of a rock / heavy rock rather than metal guitar . With a long suit in shredding.
Vai, Satriani, Gilbert etc really brought them to life and established their place in the world. That stereotype is a bit unfortunate since today it is a cliche and they are actually very good and very versatile guitars.

They are very different from a strat - the wizard neck is one of the thinnest in the business, the fingerboard radius is wide and flat, it has two humbuckers and a single coil and the inbetween sounds, whilst a little strat like are actually pretty different and higher output than a strat. They can never quite do that jangly thing a strat does.They have more contouring on the body, including white a deep heel cut.

The Floyd is by far the most stable trem system I've ever used. But changing the strings is a bit of a pain - one at a time, you need to snip off the ball ends, release the nut locks and lock them in at the trem end. But once they are in they literally never go out of tune.

Back in the day, Metal guitars were BC Rich Warlocks or Jackson Vee's. So for me, metal guitars tend to either be be pointy, have ESP on the headstock and / or have active pickups etc. and (increasingly) have 7 or more strings.

imalrightjack

I bought a Haydn Williams Evo with a Hannes-Schaller bridge (fixed) and it's the best 'metal' guitar I've owned.  It has Seymour Duncan Pegasus and Sentient pickups.  It doesn't have a particularly thin neck.  But it sounds great, playing old school thrash, etc.

Moloch

Creed_Clicks said:

Doesn´t Bill Steer in Carcass play a Les Paul Junior or Melody Maker?

Yep. He used to play Les Paul Customs, but had to stop due to nerve issues in this hands that are aggravated by the weight.

For me (as a metal player) the amp is far more important than the guitar. Obviously a flat radius and slim neck will make for a slicker playing experience at speed, especially on lead, but I've played metal on everything from a Gibson ES335 to a custom built superstrat.

ROOG

hollywoodrox said:

I do love pointy guitars (well pointy head stocks ) Jackson ,bc rich ESP .

The look is growing on me too. 

As I don't own a tremolo equipped guitar at the mo, would a guitar fitted with a Floyd Rose be a reasonable place to start? Then I can do the whole pointy thing plus tremolo all in one.  :0)

hollywoodrox

ESP /LTD are really nice I remember having an explorer shape one that played wonderful , it had a tendency to neck dive though

professorben

The Edge trem in the RG or S series Ibby are fantastic, apart from the PRS trem it’s the only one I’d use live as an actually floating system. 

Of course you need a back up, but seriously who gigs without a backup? 

Metal guitars are not really a design in their own right like a jazz box as such, just more developed from traditional guitars (mostly Strats)
Les Pauls seem to just get Active Pickups installed. 

Hotter or more feedback resistant Pickups
Thinner faster necks
Bigger frets 
More stable vibration systems
Cool colours or graphics

 Traditionally the metal guitarist is looking for greater technical proficiency in their music so requires a guitar that will makes that easier, the above refinements to a Strat will possibly make it easier, obviously changing anything about the design will change the sound. 

That was the 80’s

 these days a metal orientated guitar will have more strings, active Pickups and prob fanned frets and multiple scale lengths, as the demands of the music evolve so do the demands of the instruments. 

Metal guitar design is pretty much the only area of guitar manufacture still pushing to improve the instrument. 

professorben

ROOG said:

hollywoodrox said:

I do love pointy guitars (well pointy head stocks ) Jackson ,bc rich ESP .

The look is growing on me too. 

As I don't own a tremolo equipped guitar at the mo, would a guitar fitted with a Floyd Rose be a reasonable place to start? Then I can do the whole pointy thing plus tremolo all in one.  :0)

Absolutely. 

But as with anything low quality bites harder the more complicated anything becomes. 

The new Genesis RG reissues are great, but if you don’t want to spend a lot you can pick up a Japanese made RG with a top quality trem system and prob upgraded Pickups for around £3-400. 

FelineGuitars

The Blackmachine guitars became very popular with the tech metal players but capable of so much more besides - ask @Bucket from this forum 

professorben

FelineGuitars said:

The Blackmachine guitars became very popular with the tech metal players but capable of so much more besides - ask @Bucket from this forum 

Connor doesn’t frequent these shores anymore. 

But his FB feed shows his B6 doing some pretty diverse stuff. 

Daiganzen

Ok so i am sure it hasn't been mentioned but a major proponent of Metal Guitars are the fret board Radius. The standard is a 12" radius but More modern Guitars have Compound Radius Between 12"-16" This makes Shredding or playing hast easier. Most Standard Fenders are 9.5". After that Its pickups and colour of the guitar that makes it metal

Kittyfrisk

Two pages & no mention of these ;-) 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/134583/james-trussart-steeldeville-gator-with-bigsby-and-tv-jones-powertrons/p1

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/114929/trussart-deluxe-steelcaster-cream-on-steel-gator-with-piezo/p1

mbe

Jackson is your friend.

Compound radius fretboards coupled with the Belcat pickups in the entry level JS series which have more fire in their bellies than the low end Ibanez efforts.