lead playing

Hi Everyone, I am in the market for a new set of pickups for my Ibanez Iron Label Xiphos (6 String). I am tuned to Drop C with Ernie Ball Beefy Slinkies, and I play progressive metal / metalcore, and I am heavily influenced by bands like TesseracT, Lamb of God, August Burns Red, ERRA, and...

So I've become more of a lead player nowadays. I'm looking for a switcher/looper that can change my amp channels and pedals and midi capable. It seems like there's a lot more out there than I previously knew about. I'm looking for one that's not so hard of a learning curve as well. I know about...

I really need to fix my messy right hand. It's annoying me. So I was wondering what you all used to learn perfect muting techniques for lead and just general right hand playing. Any vid lessons? Any books that helped? Anything would be much apprieated. Edit: I play tech metal and some blues...

Does anyone else do this? I've been getting into it recently since I whacked a tremol-no into my seven string (it still rules), and been playing lots of lead and heavy rhythm stuff in ADADGAD and GCGCGCE tuning. It's wierd at first, but not nearly as hard as you'd think. There are lots of...