Ok. It goes like this.

I want to buy a new electric guitar, and I need an advice from anybody who has experience with guitars of the two brands: Gibson and Ibanez. These are the only ones I'm interested in. Epiphone is also an option, but... I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't.

I need a guitar for heavy/trash/speed metal (mostly).

Which brand is better for that? Ibanez or Gibson?

I would really LOVE to buy a Gibson Flying-V or Gothic but on the other side people like Steve Vay prefer Ibanez GRX (I think), and I also heard that Ibanez is the best for metal. Anybody owns a Gibson or an Ibanez? Would you mind posting a review please?

Thx.

I'd go with the Ibanez if I were you. Gibsons are more for pure hard rock, not really the type of music I think you're aiming at.

I've never played an Ibanez but I frequently play on a Gibson. The Gibson is the type of guitar I want to play stuff like Metallica and Green Day or something simple like Ramones or Sex Pistols on. Also, if you want to get a Gibson for the purpose you're looking at - you better get the Flying V. Don't go for a cheap Gibson or you'll be disappointed.

I'd go with the Ibanez as well. One of the big factors for me would be that the Ibanez guitars usually come with a floyd rose tremelo, while the Gibsons do not. And personally, I find a floyd rose bridge to be a lot more comfortable when playing really fast stuff. As well as the cool Slayer/Morbid Angel/Rick Rozz solos that you can reproduce with the tremelo.

As for sound, I can't say much for guitar, but I have an Ibanez bass. It sounds really good, better than the fender/gibson variety. Although, I played my friend's Ibanez Iceman and it sounded good as well.

IMO I'd go with a Jackson.

My advice is to simply get whatever guitar you like. Good natural sustain is always nice, but it virtually doesn't matter any more.

Honestly, everyone I know is getting any number of digital preamps. With the exception of natural sustain, just about every effect of guitar construction can be reproduced.

Recommendation, find a guitar that is comfortable in your hands and that plays well.

Then get a J Station (http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/aug00/articles/jstation.htm) or some similar device. All of your guitar needs are taken care of. Having heard both the J Station and one other whose name escapes me (it's downstairs, I'm just lazy), I would say that the J-Station rocks, though the musician in question reminds me that he would have bought a different unit if that other unit had S/PIDF, so it's a matter of how important that is to you.

I'm watching a friend record his album using a Parker Nite-Fly, a J-Station, a Tascam 4-track mixing board and an Apple G4/500 Cube (he was using a 1st generation iMac until his apartment complex suffered a power surge that destroyed many appliances, the iMac included; the session recordings, though, were recoverable).

Oh, and apparently he can hook his bass into the J-Station, though I think he's a fan of clean bass with post-production compression. Catch anyone flanging, panning, or chorusing a bass and he'll fall over laughing.

two cents,
Tiassa :cool:

With the exception of natural sustain, just about every effect of guitar construction can be reproduced.

Yes, but there always is a slight, difference between the effect made by the original hardware and the reproduced one.

Frankly, I'd prefer to have a bunch of high-quality stompboxes and guitars rather than one super-multi-effect pedal that simulates the sound of every pickup and humbucker and every effect imaginable.

Recommendation, find a guitar that is comfortable in your hands and that plays well.

That would definitely be either a Gibson or an Ibanez.

It's also a question of who-is-your-guitar-god and what-kind-of-stuff-you-play?
Mine is Kirk Hammett. I like his emotionless heavy style. He has lots of Gibsons, so in order to "be more like him", I would love to buy a Gibson, preferably one on which he plays, and if it has his signature, it would be great.
On the other hand, I love 80s heavy stuff which sounds great when played on an Ibanez and it has features like the Floyd Rose, like Jesus said.
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The J Station sounds great, though!

Thanks Tiassa, Jesus and Tyler. :)

I have a Les Paul Custom, and 3 Ibanez Universes... and I played metal/hard rock with them as a pro for almost a decade.

My highest respect!!! I admire heavy metal veterans.
No, really I would salute you if I saw you.

Just curious... why only these two brands specifically? How long have you been playing?

I love these brands. I played both and lots of other brands, but I fell in love only with these two.
I've been playing for about 3 years on a sucky guitar which is supposed to be a Fender Stratocaster, not even original.
I don't consider myself to bee "GOOD". I'm ok. I can play almost all Metallica solos, but I find Testament solos to be slightly challenging and Cacophony and Children of Bodom - impossibly super challenging.

You can't get too far in 3 years.

Steve VAI plays Ibanez Jems (6-string) and Universes (7-string), and those guitar lines are his signature editions.

Dammit! I wrote Vay! Again! :o

Kirk Hammett endorses ESP guitars, not Gibson. Even his Les Paul style guitars are ESP's. He has a Les Paul according to some websites... but every time I've ever seen him playing, he's got an ESP in his hands.

ok, ok! Ibanez, Gibson and ESP! Happy now? :)

I would recommend play-testing as many brands as you can and narrow your choices to those which feel/play the best. With the right amp, amp settings, and effects, you should be able to produce a tone which satisfies your taste. The folks at the music store will probably allow you to try each guitar with a couple different configurations. I would also pay attention to any similarities between the guitars that catch your fancy, such as the type of pickup installed. I have had a Gibson SG since about '80 and recently installed a seymour duncan screamin' demon pickup in it. This modification puts me within a hair of tonal nirvana.

I would also recommend (if you can afford it of course) having the in-store guitar tech, or some other luthier, "set-up" the instrument for you. Most of the guitars hanging on the store wall are in decent shape from the factory, but a qualified tech can properly set the string height, intonation, neck relief, pickup height, pole height, etc.. All of the above will further improve the instrument.

Finally, I would recommend picking the highest quality instrument you can afford. For me, it has been 25 years of playing. At this point, I will only purchase an instrument which as a certain level of quality. However, as someone who already owns more than one guitar, that's easy for me to say.

To answer the ibanez vs gibson question directly, it seems as though most modern metal guitarists favor guitars other than gibsons. I must also say that I hear a lot about the lower quality of the instruments gibson has been making the past several years. In comparing my SG to some newer LPs, I would have to echo those sentiments. One other point to note, I believe both guitar players for metallica use EMG pickups. These pickups are battery powered (or active) and tend to produce a powerful "hot" tone. Check out

http://www.hamptonplace.com/tonedepot/muskh.htm

for a list of his equipment. Being a fan, you may already have it!

I hope I have been helpful.

DanielGuitar

Welcome to Sciforums, DanielGuitar! :)

Wow! 25 years! I salute you!

Thanks for the advice.

Being a fan, you may already have it!

haaahahaha

You're saying it like that equipment is a bunch of lollipops :rolleyes:. I wish I had it!

Ok, I admit. I was wrong. There are no Gibson Kirk Hammett signature guitars. I read it from some unreliable source.

What do you guys think about ESP guitars?
They're pretty good value.

hey, i dont play guitar but i play bass. I have an Ibanez and i would'nt trade it in for anything else in its price bracket. 4 string Ibanez GSR 200, its quality, minimal fret buzz and a nice fine neck. Ideal. Need to get a big amp to anoy the neighbours and i think i'm gonna experiment with a squelch peddle (who says you have to stick to the rules?) I have just bought a 5 string Ibanez bass acoustic, its brilliant for jamming with freinds that play acoustic guitar and the benefits of the extra string are cool. Hello, to all the bass players out there! :D

That's not fair. How come everybody have elite guitars and I have a lousy 21-fret Parksons Strat with buzzing frets, rusted whammy bar and screwed up pickups?

I want to die.

And.. just wondering, who is you bass god, Captain_Crunch?

bass god ...mmmm, havnt really thought about that. But, i would have to say: Tim Commerford.

Rage Against the Machine, right?

Well, I've never really listened to them. Is he good?

I bet he's not better than Cliff Burton RIP. :p

Gibson...Ibanez guitars are for women.

Originally posted by Snxke
Gibson...Ibanez guitars are for women.
How do you work that out?

If you cannot decide which "Brand" of guitar, to buy, you don't know what sound you want. You should not even be playing.
Try all the guitars & decide on a sound, not a brand name. Your music will be much better. Your vision of "Your Music" should reflect you, not someone else's sound.

wise words from ratbat. :D

Well, I agree, but there are some other factors except for the sound. Things like the fretboard, the bridge, the pickups, etc. They can affect your speed or something else for better or for worse.

I would also suggest, going down to your local music store & sitting for several hours & try all the guitars. Trust me, you will know "The One'"almost instantly. The moment you pick up, the perfect guitar, you will feel it. Please don't go for the instrument because of the name.
I, myself, don't care for most any Fender product. I love the sound of an Ibanez or a Rickenbacher, but that is my taste.


ROCK ON!!!

I own a gibson les paul gt. i love this guitar not only do i use it to play lamb of god trivium and children of bodom i also play songs like paradise city, love me two times by the doors ect. i do not like the ibanez as much though it is a good guitar brand in the long run if you want to play anything other than metal ur screwed.

Cesar seems to like the Jem: http://youtube.com/watch?v=WBjzHBSzxug

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=cesar+huesca&search_type=

I decided to elaborate. Cesar does a lot of covers, such as Vai and Satriani, as well as songs by people such as Santana, Eric Johnson, Metallica and Alter Bridge. He has some pretty good chops, and in almost all his videos he's playing an Ibanez Jem -- you can get quite the wide range of tones from them.

Finally, I would recommend picking the highest quality instrument you can afford.I'm not an electric guitarist. I was an acoustic guitar-picking folksinger for 20 years and then switched to electric bass, which I've been playing for 30 years. But Daniel's advice is the best that anybody will ever give you. Get the best axe you can possibly afford. Buy it on credit, beg somebody to give you money, do whatever it takes. (But not crime, do not ever invest a musical instrument with bad karma or you'll be a failure.)

When I was in high school I started out with a cheap guitar because I didn't know any better. I didn't realize how much it was holding me back. Eventually I got a pretty nice Japanese twelve-string and discovered that I could play much better than I thought I could. Then just out of curiosity I walked into a shop and played a Martin 12-string and it was like going to heaven so I bought it. Yet... it wasn't the top of the line. One year later I traded it in on a Martin D-12-35, the "dreadnought." Suddenly I was truly a professional guitarist. The person was always there, it just took a professional axe. (I'm not knocking the D-12-20 for a rhythm guitar but the 35 is better for flat-picking folk-rock solos because of the resonance.)

When one day I screwed around with a bass and discovered that I was born to play bass and just didn't know it (I can be forgiven, there wasn't much bass going on in the 1950s when I started out) I decided this time I was going to get the right instrument for me the first time. It turned out not to be particularly expensive, but it was one I had a good vibe for the first time I saw it. It's a Ventures signature model Mos-Rite and these days it's practically a museum piece. (But then so am I.) I replaced the bridge with a Badass and had it painted purple so it's not even "authentic" any more, but it is ME. My hand lies on it just perfectly, I don't have to hold my thumb against the E string to find my way like so many bassists do. The heft is perfect. (It's really lightweight and I have a bad shoulder so that's very important.) I can play it the old-fashioned way with my thumb, with my fingers, or with a pick, and it swings easily into the perfect position for any of those playing styles. I could never play guitar without looking at the frets but I can do it with this bass.

It doesn't do funk because when it was built in the 1960s the sound that we now call "funk" was called "noise" and basses were deliberately built to suppress it, but I don't do funk either so it's not a problem. I play metal, reggae, salsa, country, folk, whatever. Just no funk but no funk band would hire me anyway.

This is my only axe. I've been playing it for thirty years, I play it very well, and it's all I need.

Buy the right instrument to start with and you'll get off to a better start. Don't waste your time.