Recommend me a guitar!

Tellox

My current guitar (Jackson KE3 Custom) has gotton a little worse for wear, and Im deciding where to go next. I'm looking for something that would get a good maiden/pantera tone, with nice low action for some easier sweep picking.

Someone recommended me this;
http://www.haloguitars.com/gvkguitar.html

Thanks to a sale, and the dollar falling flat, its going fairly cheap @ €580 excl. shipping. Looks the absolute business, but how does it play and sound? If anyone has any experience with these guitars, your input would be hugely appreciated

Voodu Child

Tellox wrote:

Someone recommended me this;
http://www.haloguitars.com/gvkguitar.html

Those guitars are terrible by all accounts. Made in china, with very poor QC and cheapest parts possible.

You'd imagine they'd be trying to show their guitars at their best on the website, but I can pick out flaws and lousy contruction on most of their high-res pics of guitars. Crooked components, shoddy paintjobs & rough fingerboard edges all over the shop. Looks like pure crap IMO.

Butt ugly too, though that's in the eye of the beholder obviously.

Karl Hungus

Yeah, I've heard some very poor things about Halo also, so definetly one to avoid.

Voodu Child

Karl Hungus wrote:

Yeah, I've heard some very poor things about Halo also, so definetly one to avoid.

If you look at their 'endorsee' list, there's literally hundreds of bands and artists, none of whom i've ever heard of. It almost seems like they've more endorsers than standard customers.

The story goes that they were just randomly offering 'endorsee deals' to any shmoe who had a myspace page. Obviously, the temptation of a custom made endorsee guitar at 'cost price' was too much to resist for a lot of guys.

Though with the subsequent bad reviews of quality etc, you'd wonder how many of these guitars were actually 'custom made' and not just straight from China, and you'd also wonder if the guys actually did get them at 'cost price' :rolleyes:

Karl Hungus

Indeed, well enough Halo bashing for now, I think the guy was asking for a recommendation?

He's obviously into the metal styled guitars, so I'd put an Ibanez Xiphos on the table, it's neck-through, and comes with DiMarzios, so I'd say a good purchase.

Voodu Child

The Edwards E-FR-130GT would probably suit the OP too.

It's in a similar vein to the Halo guitar he linked to, but with much better build quality. They arent cheap, but 2nd hand ones crop up occasionally in the U-box.



There's also a Grass Roots version of the FR guitar, cheaper, but probably still better than the Halo.

Dord

Hi Tellox, you shouldn't be afraid to look at used guitars. check out http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box for some nice ones.

Here's one I just found, you might like it....

Tokai Fivestar



You could pick this up for under €350 inc. shipping & customs/vat (approx)

Tellox

Thanks for the replies
http://www.thomann.de/ie/ibanez_xpt700_rch.htm has taken my fancy, but how does it sound and play? Like I said, looking for a nice tone which can do maiden/pantera sort of stuff fairly well, and nice low action to make sweep picking that bit easier. (Bloody impossible to do it on my KE3).

To be honest, I'd like something sort of close to a strat - except look nothing like it. I know its a completely stupid thing to say when it comes to guitars, its how it sounds etc etc, but I cant stand the look of strats.

Doctor J

Tellox wrote:

http://www.thomann.de/ie/ibanez_xpt700_rch.htm has taken my fancy, but how does it sound and play? Like I said, looking for a nice tone which can do maiden/pantera sort of stuff fairly well, and nice low action to make sweep picking that bit easier.

Although a wee bit heavier than Maiden and Pantera, when Necrophagist last played here Muhammed played one of those Ibanez and, I'll be honest, I can't recall a gig with a greater sweeps-per-minute ratio, so yeah, they've got good tone and you most definitely can sweep on them

gizmo

The Xiphos was reviewed in this month's Guitar World actually and they had nothing but good things to say about it. The only con they listed was that there was no case included in the price, it could be bought seperately for €170 though. In terms of the pros, "Wicked Tone from the DiMarzio D-Activator pickups, Extremely fast neck, Double locking Edge III Trem" where the main points. The clean tones through a Road King were also highlighted so its at least some way versatile.

nij

The Ibanez RG350 is excellent for a metal tone, and is fairly affordable.

shredhead

what is your budget? look at esps, deans, jacksons, ibanez off thomann, they are good for metal.

also what do you want in a guitar like what construction ie. bolt on or neck through. a fixed bridge or tremelo. how many frets etc.

your ke3 should be good for that sound. is it the one with real duncans or duncan designed.