Schecter Loomis, hell of a guitar and can't beat it for the money. Quality is excellent and the ash and maple combo cuts through the mix like nobody's business. If you can get a chance to play one, check it out for sure.
Make tons of sweet faces and rock star poses. And like the rest of everyone says, jam out at practice like its live, turn the lights down and shred it up. Just try not to put any holes in the ceiling like myself. It's embarrassing everytime I try to explain that one...
Job for a Cowboy, Skinless, Danza, 3 inches of blood, Skeleton Witch, All that Remains...played with Emmure at a Garage show in Upstate NY before they got big hah.
About a year ago I was in the market for an 8 string and I had the same dilemma. It was between a Schecter Blackjack ATX8 or the Ibanez RGA8. I actually had opportunity to play them side by side and for me it was a no brainier...I went with the Schecter. It just seems that you get way more for...
I think your best bet would be a Peavey JSX. I had one and it does everything you've described and then some... Definitely check it out. Also, any particular reason used is not an option?
If someone is talking to me while I'm playing guitar, I sometimes whip out quick some blues licks as if their singing something and I'm backing them up...
I would go with Schecter. I own the Loomis 7 and love it. For the price, Schecter's quality is amazing and personally I love the feel of the necks...then again its all within the hands of the player. The only thing I have to say about EMG's is 18volt mod those babies!
Engls have a more solid state sound which is why I think most people flow towards those amps for playing djent styles. With that being said, the natural compression produced by these hi gain heads matched with a noise gate makes for a fairly well djent styled tone...as we all know djent is all...
I just picked up the MXR Noise Clamp for $80 new and couldn't be happier, best noise reduction pedal for that price especially for metal (super fast gate.) I used to have the smart gate which was awesome and had great features but it's not as fast as the clamp. It did preserve the tone a little...