Guitar purchase question

[Lunahorum]

I was considering getting a new guitar because my current one is more or less a piece of junk. Although it is still useful, I feel that it is about the right time to upgrade to a better guitar. This one constantly needs retuning and the action is too high, 3mm at the 12 fret. The action any lower causes fret buzz. I guess because of uneven frets. It is a Samick Malibu MB-50MBS and I think it was $350. Maybe a fret replacement/Neck fixup would be a better option financially?

My budget is ~$700

I play Children of Bodom, Sonata Arctica, Dream Theater, metal stuff like that. I am going to the guitar store to try some models out, but I would also like your advice too!!

**I do not want a tremolo system because it seems to jack the price of guitars way up, and I do not feel that a tremolo is necessary for the majority of musical concepts. Although it really does enhance the music I think - at least metal stuff. O well I don't want one unless I can get it for ~$700. Not a licensed piece of crap bridge. Going out of tune makes it completely worthless. I would be willing to spend a little bit more if that's what a good guitar costed.

Anywho, please help me out

**possibly may go with tremolo if it is in the price range. I am probably wrong, but I think A guitar under $700 with a tremolo won't be very good.

[SnappleMan]

Search Ebay for Carvin guitars. End of discussion.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Carvin-DC127-Killer-Guitar_W0QQitemZ130242539553QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item130242539553&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318

BOOM! Not a Floyd, but a Wilky bridge is great none the less.

[Lunahorum]

ah a carvin. Those are very nice, and I was considering them. I hate to buy it blind though. Carvin is a custom shop place without the middle man right? You have a Carvin as well SnappleMan I remember? You like it I take it?

[SnappleMan]

I have 3, love them dearly.

[Fishy]

possibly may go with tremolo if it is in the price range. I am probably wrong, but I think A guitar under $700 with a tremolo won't be very good.

Ibanez RG's for around that price will have an ibanez trem (which many people actually prefer to the original floyds) and do the metal job just fine. Their stock pickups are a little blunt tone-wise but they always have the energy and output needed for that kind of stuff, and you can always replace them later on. Definitely worth trying one in your price-range out imo.

You usually get a lot for your money with Ibanez. Their mid-range models are brilliant compared to some other manufacturers.

[Nekofrog]

Carvin custom shop = awesome. Great. Go for it.

If you can't afford that, get a used Carvin custom. Their resale value drops as soon as you receive a new one.

If you can't swing that, go Ibanez. I have a general buying guide for Ibanez should you want it, there are models you want to steer clear from.

[Fishy]

Yeah, some of them aren't so great, but if you get anything with prestige on it, you're damn safe far as i've heard.

[Sixto]

Gogo Ibanez. And yeah, "Prestige" is pretty much a fail-safe.

[Nekofrog]

The only issue with that is, there are very few hard-tail/fixed bridge prestige models. Most are trem. This is not a death sentence however, as there is a little product called Tremol-No that can be had for a fairly cheap amount. It's the gold standard for turning a floating trem into a solid fixed bridge; and it takes very little to actually install it. Look into that if you can't find anything otherwise.

Here are some VERY good Ibanez fixed bridge models:

Ibanez RGA-121

http://www.zzounds.com/item--IBARGA121

Ibanez SZ520

http://www.zzounds.com/item--IBASZ520QM

Ibanez SZ720

http://www.zzounds.com/item--IBASZ720FM

Don't let the low price on the SZ520 fool you; some versions of the 520 are being discontinued (mainly colors), so the prices have been slashed to get them out the door.

I've owned both SZ520's and SZ720's (I still have my SZ720, but it's in California and I'm in Indiana) and they are tremendous guitars.

All Ibanez guitars will, at some point, require a pickup change if you want a sound more tailored to you. But that actually goes for almost every guitar, unless you buy one with stock pickups that you know are for you.

[Lunahorum]

Carvin custom shop = awesome. Great. Go for it.

If you can't afford that, get a used Carvin custom. Their resale value drops as soon as you receive a new one.

If you can't swing that, go Ibanez. I have a general buying guide for Ibanez should you want it, there are models you want to steer clear from.

ya I'd appreciate a buying guide please.

Thanks for the links. I will be sure to try out any ibanez prestige models I see at the guitar store. Also I would prefer to have a trem if it didn't go out of tune. Otherwise I don't want that piece of crap funking over the guitar. So the ibanez prestige trems are pretty reliable? Even these new ball bearing Z trems instead of the knife edges? Thanks again. Oh one more thing - I like to tune down to Drop C and other metal tunings. Would I be able to do this on a trem guitar without too much of a hassle? Is there anything apart from putting in another trem spring to handle the thicker gauge that I have to worry about (eg the bridge/nut string holes not handling thicker gauges say 11-52 or w/e)?

[Fishy]

Mostly just setting it up for that tension. If you don't know what you're doing, pay the shop to set it up exactly how you want it. Once its set up properly, it'll stay like that. Google Jemsite for an in-depth setup guide.

Generally speaking, the ibanez trems are brilliant. I've got a jackson dinky with a floyd copy, and the feel of the ibanez trem is so much better. They stay in tune well, feel really smooth for whammy stuff and you don't need to cut the balls off the strings on most models. Floyd rose's are a thing of the past these days, they've made few changes since the original concept, ibanez are setting the trend these days imo.

[Sixto]

If you're going to be changing the tuning often, I'd probably definitely stay away from a trem-loaded guitar. With a floating bridge like Ibanez's LoPro Edge, once you detune one string, the rest of the srings get a little tighter, so you'll have to detune those, too. It's quite the hassle. For a fixed bridge guitar of good quality, maybe look into some of the Schecter guitars. They're made in the US and always come setup really well. This one is badass, and even comes with kickass active EMG pickups, which is what most metal guitarists prefer.

[Nekofrog]

Schecter is also great, if you can deal with baseball bat necks (some people prefer them).

Ibanez trems have a caveat, and it's gotten even worse in recent years with their naming system.

Prestige trems = all good to go. It's all a variant of the Edge or ZR trem (ball bearing).

I'll copy and paste this from an old thread:

Here's a quick guide to Ibanez trems:

RG series:

Anything that's an RG5xx and up will have a fucking AWESOME trem. Better than an Original Floyd Rose in stability (but maybe a bit stiffer than an OFR).

RG5xx and up all feature the Edge trem (in some variant, Edge Pro, Lo Pro), one of the best you can get of any guitar manufacturer.

RG4x and below all feature the Lo-TRS, a much cheaper and less worthy trem (some are junk, some are decent). Ibanez has now renamed them to "Edge Pro III", so don't be fooled by an Edge Pro II or III, they ARE NOT A REAL EDGE. They will not work like an Edge.

On the S-series, if you get a guitar made after the advent of Ibanez's ZR-trem, you'll get a ZR on almost every S model save for the REALLY low end ones. The ZR trem is amazing, many prefer it even to the Edge series due to the fact that the ball bearings make it so that the string tension is not what's holding everything together (break a string, and all of the other strings remain perfectly in tune on a ZR).

If you get an older S, then the same rule applies as with the RG. S5x and above will have an Edge, S4x and below will have a TRS. There aren't a whole ton of old S's around anymore, despite the fact that the ZR has only been around a few years. I've seen far more used S's with ZR's than old TRS S's.

I can't tell you anything about Jackson/ESP/anyone else licensed trems, except that they all pale in comparison to the Edge and ZR.

Just as a related note, if you're confused as to the way Ibanez names their stuff, it's really actually very very simple.

For 6 string guitars, they usually use 3 numbers. The first number in the set indicates the model level. It starts from 1 and goes up. As each number goes up, so does the build quality. Starting with 5, it usually means that the guitar was built in Japan. 4 is usually Korea, and anything lower Indonesia (though this is not always the case).

The second number in the series indicates the pickup configuration. Here is where gets really tricky. A 2 in the second digit indicates a Humbucker/Humbucker configuration. A 7 indicates Humbucker/Single/Humbucker. A 6 indicates a Humbucker/Single/Single -- EXCEPT when the 6 is followed by a 5 in the last digit, that is a Humbucker/Single. The final digit (except in the previous noted case) indicates whether it's a trem or a fixed bridge. A fixed bridge will end in "1", whilst a trem will be "0".

For example:

RG520 - Japanese built guitar with a Humbucker/Humbucker config that utilizes an Edge trem

RG470 - Korean with a Hum/Single/Hum config utilizing a TRS or Edge Pro III trem.

RG565 - Japanese with a Hum/Single config with an Edge trem.

RG621 - Japanese with a Hum/Hum config and a fixed bridge.

A lot of info, I know. And the sad thing is, Ibanez isn't the most consistent with its own naming schemes, so the rules don't always apply.

[Lunahorum]

ah Thanks I appreciate it.