Your preferred guitar for shred

[HungryGuitarStudent]

As the title indicates, I'd like to know what's your preferred shred guitar (model or specs) and why.

For me, at the moment I'm playing with a Strandberg Boden Prog 7. On the plus side, I love the Fishman Fluence pick-ups and the ergonomics of the body, specially when playing in a sitting position with the guitar resting on my left knee. I also like the Endureneck; I can play for a longer time than on a traditional neck (e.g. an Ibanez Wizard neck). That being said, on the negative side, the scale length, fanned frets and neck thickness are not ideal for shredding IMHO. For tapping arpeggios, I'd prefer standard frets (i.e. not fanned). Moreover, in order to be able to do wider strecthes, I'd prefer a thinner neck with 25.5 scale length. I'm starting this thread out of curiosity and also because I'm considering buying a new guitar for the reasons mentioned above.

 

[Drew]

Any good strat or superstrat, really.

 

[Defyantly]

Personal preference for myself mainly because it is what I own. I prefer my jackson js32 rhoads hardtail over my hardtail schecter gryphon. Although the pickups are better in my schecter (entwistle nemesis) my jackson is much more comfortable. I play in the classical position w/ a strap so the v shape is really good at that.

 

[tedtan]

Jackson Soloist (SL1 or SL2H), though most super strats work well for me.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

depends on the day, most of the time I grab my carvin dc600 or jackson star if I don't want to play a guitar that fights me. If I want to fight my guitar and get really aggressive I grab my prs mushok. That guitar makes me work for every riff but I love it to death.

 

[mastapimp]

Any guitar w/ low action and a floyd for satch/vai/becker kind of stuff. Neck profiles and radiuses don't make a difference to me and most are super strat in shape. Hands are big enough to compensate for any of those changes. With that said, I guess you could consider these as my "shred" guitars: Jackson USA SL1, Jackson Custom Shop WR7, Jackson USA Broderick 7, Charvel Guthrie Govan, Mayones MBC Regius 7 (non-floyd, but extremely low action).

 

[jaxadam]

24 fret trem-equipped dual humbucker superstrat.

 

[Leviathus]

Ibanez JEM/UV

 

[Rosal76]

As the title indicates, I'd like to know what's your preferred shred guitar (model or specs) and why.

My Ibanez RG665 Prestige guitar would be my preferred shred guitar. I have small hands/short fingers so the guitars ultra thin Super Wizard Prestige neck helps me out a lot. I've tried playing the most difficult music (for me) on this guitar and have tremendous success. From difficult Marty Friedman/Van Halen/Randy Rhoads/Joe Satriani guitar solos to difficult riffs from Necrophagist/Obscura to difficult classical pieces, the RG665 had always come through for me.

* If the solo/song requires long finger stretches, ex. Spanish fly from Van Halen and certain Chris Broderick and Jeff Loomis guitar solos, I have to go to one of my B.C. Rich guitars that have the shorter/easier 24 3/4 neck scales.

 

[Drew]

I guess to update my answer a little further... anything that doesn't have a non-recessed Floyd or tune-o-matic, since those kind of fuck up my picking hand, and anything with a straight neck and medium-jumbo or larger frets. Those are about the only two things, off the top of my head, that I don't have trouble adjusting for.

 

[Dayn]

Well, I would've suggested a Boden Prog 7 as that's what I have and prefer over my Ibanez... but if I didn't have that, like most people here, I'd get a superstrat like an Ibanez. If I didn't have my Strandberg for shred, it'd be an Ibanez, no question.

 

[BenjaminW]

Les Pauls are usually what I go for when it comes to shredding. Especially my LP Axcess with a Floyd. Makes the LP much more versatile when you've got a Floyd on. It's a bitch to tune and set up though which sucks.

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

Les Paul for shredding ?? Damn, I never would have expected that. No judgement on my end, just unexpected

Thanks for the answers guys. For 6 strings, I love the Jackson SL2H and my Ibanez SRG 2520, Wizard neck is hard to beat.

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

Right now I'm hesitating between a Kiesel V7 with thin neck, jumbo SS frets (25.5 scale) with a 5 piece neck and the Strandberg Singularity 7, which also has a thin neck and 25.5 scale length but has NiAg frets, which I'm not super enthused about (also, I don't know if they're jumbo). I'm thinking in this case Kiesel will give me more bang for my buck. Am I wrong ?

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Right now I'm hesitating between a Kiesel V7 with thin neck, jumbo SS frets (25.5 scale) with a 5 piece neck and the Strandberg Singularity 7, which also has a thin neck and 25.5 scale length but has NiAg frets, which I'm not super enthused about (also, I don't know if they're jumbo). I'm thinking in this case Kiesel will give me more bang for my buck. Am I wrong ?

kiesel is a great deal provided you don't go crazy with specs. you can get a bare bones kiesel with stainless frets for under 1600 easy.

 

[Casper777]

For me on a 6, hard to beat a Musicman JP and that awesome neck (the JP 15 feels the best to me among all the different iterations)

 

[noise in my mind]

Hello kitty

 

[JustinRhoads1980]

Something that just plays great, looks great, sounds great, and is priced reasonably. Also has some of the basic things I would look for in a guitar like an fr etc.

 

[mguilherme87]

For all-out shredfest mayhem, I'd most likely use my RG 7620. I can play pretty much the same on all my guitars, be it an american strat, a Gibson SG, an LTD EC401fr, or the RG...but the RG is definitely designed more ergonomically for shredding and the likes.

 

[Drew]

Right now I'm hesitating between a Kiesel V7 with thin neck, jumbo SS frets (25.5 scale) with a 5 piece neck and the Strandberg Singularity 7, which also has a thin neck and 25.5 scale length but has NiAg frets, which I'm not super enthused about (also, I don't know if they're jumbo). I'm thinking in this case Kiesel will give me more bang for my buck. Am I wrong ?

I wouldn't touch anything with Kiesel on the headstock, but that's just me.

If I were looking for a good seven string shred guitar at a fair price, I'd be all over used RG1527s.