Anything with a good feeling neck - fretwork and string spacing matters most, I prefer not to wide neck and can handle most profile except the very thin and wide ones like some Ibanez which make my hand cramp after 5 min. If I had to pick one brand it would for sure be Music man. The Luke, JP...
I love the Bare knuckles medium output pickups, which can bring you open sounding PAF-like respone with a medium output, somewhat hotter than the more vintage spec'd PAF-style pickups. I love my Abraxas and the Black Dogs seemt to be the most popular choice among the bunch if you want classic...
I would easily go for Mayones, I have first hand experience with both brands (owned Skervesen, played several Mayones). Also worth to think about is that Mayones are more expensive - but if u can stomach the price you will get a guitar a few steps above... Mayones is really one of the top...
Mayones.... stunning. Tom Anderson... Same here. That Misha sig would have been a dream guitar, but would never buy a fiddle with that big band logo on neck in that price range.
Some amps need an Overdrive to get the sound and feel that I want - and some doesn't. I prefer when I not have to use an overdrive. Just plug and play - save for some boosting and a small touch of delay for soloing.
This is very hard. Lead tones are very personal and it's both the sound and especially the feel of the amp that matters to me in a good lead sound. What price range do you talk about? Tha helps a lot. And how heavy rhythm sounds do you need? Many more hard rock oriented amps sound better for...
Strat derived bodies. I really like classic vintage fenders, but also newer variations like Suhr, Blackmachine, Skervesen, Daemoness, KXK and so on. Les Paul style is very good looking also. The traditional gibson shape or the older versions of PRS Singlecuts. To mention is that these body...
The EVH5150 III is popular, and for good reason... But personally I don't like it too much either. If you want similar tones but more pissed off and thicker when plugging straight into the amp - I vastly prefer the Peavey 5150/6505 series to this new version.
I just realised how hard it was to find an amp in sub 1200 price that does brown sound convincingly. Egnater Renegade seems to do a decent job even tough it lacks something in the tone to be a true brown sound. The EVH 5150 50 w is great but I am sorry to say that I think it's no brown sound...
Sounds good, but a little more would have benn great as mentioned above. I am an advocate of loud vocals but, they might have been slightly too loud. But that's nitpicking.
All the guitars are very good sounding, the cleans are really beautiful. The only thing I feel is that the whole song feels like it is mixed very loud (almost as you expect it to clip). So maybe lower the levels a little? Other than that the drums sound a little bit to digital especially from...
The all or nothing feeling you are talking about... I feel the same when playing some pickups with too much output. So my suggestion is to get a set of pickups with slightly lower outputs. A Peavey 3120 with a lovepedal boost can bring you enough gain (in my opinion) no matter how weak pickups...
I would say - since you are living in the US - that Music Man might be the most bang for the buck high end guitar that you can find over there. They are very, very good instruments. Sounds great and have maybe the best playability while still feeling somewhat traditional in my opinion (faster...