Hey guys, I'm currently about to invest in a new guitar since my current band is starting to get gigs and things are becoming a bit more serious, I think it might be time to move beyond the low end Ibanez Gio I've been using for years.

Basically I'm looking in the price range of $800 to $1,000 and I've come down to basically these two guitars:

An Ibanez S model

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez-S770 ... =475543721

Or the Laguna Greg Howe model

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Laguna-LE92 ... 1427124.gc

Does anyone have any experience with these guitars? I was leaning towards the laguna (despite the extra cash) but I think it has a licensed floyd, and those tend to cause problems.

Ibanez. Played Lagunas before; neck isn't fast at all, pickups are shit, and bridge is horrible.

I've actually heard good things about the Greg Howe model, though I personally swear by Ibanez. Depends on what kind of music you're playing I suppose. The GH model would be more suited to hard rock/hair metal than thrash/death/etc.

In my case, I'm playing in a progressive metal band so I'm trying to get a guitar that's fairly versatile, but still able to shred pretty good. I like to have a bit of a more smooth fusion esque lead sound, but a bit more crunch for the rhythm. I'm tempted by the Ibanez because it's got a ZR tremolo system which in my memory worked very good for phrasing as well as a certain amount of harmonics and effects, but the Laguna has better pickups (at least on paper it seems to) so I'm a little unsure.

I think I may have found a better alternative. The Kramer SM-1: http://www.zzounds.com/item--KRMKMVR

I'm going for the white one with the seymour duncans. I can't seem to find it anywhere, but a real floyd rose, with neck thru design, real seymour duncans, ebony fretboard, and 24 frets for $920 seems pretty hard to beat.

What do you guys think?

You have $1000 to spend and want to spend it on one of these two? Are you joking? Neither. Not the Kramer either. Kramers are awesome axes, but I wouldn't spend that much on one. If you want a Kramer, get a Striker 211 or something cheaper.

My votes would be...

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SoCal1CB/
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SanDimas1BK/
Or any Charvel. They are fucking amazing guitars, especially for that cheap. The San Dimas has Duncans and the So-Cals have Dimarzios.

ANY used Carvin. There are people out there that would kill over Carvins. Not even to have one...but listening to someone disrespect the name can be cause for severe beatings. They are definitely my favorite guitars.

Anything in the Godin Redline Series.
http://www.godinguitars.com/godinredlineseriesp.htm

The PRS SE Series stuff is really nice too..


I could go on and on man. Yamaha, Schecter, Malden, Peavey, Framus, Vanquish, Parker, Hamer, Agile, ESP/LTD, Jackson...so many awesome brands out there man.

Can I get a bit more info in what you want? Body wood? Neck/Fretboard Wood? Want a Trem system? How many frets? Anything you specifically don't want? What amp are you running it through? What music? You should make an account on the Harmony-Central forums dude. This website is great for asking about music stuff, but for guitar and amp stuff...that place is heaven. http://acapella.harmony-central.com/index.php

I frequent the amp forums over there for all my questions. Guys are nicer.

I couldn't agree more, every Ibanez I play feels like a BC Rich starter guitar, cheap wood and hardware.



I agree about checking out other brands. I have never played or used a Peavey product that wasn't good and fairly priced. ESP guitars are great, some of the LTDs are easily the best quality in their price range. Schecter makes great stuff, Parkers are great lightweight guitars.

Harmony Central can be a bit misleading though, since people tend to either overrate anything they are happy with, or hate on anything they don't like. I find there isn't quite enough critical balance in the user reviews there, much like most user-submitted reviews anywhere.

Ibanez S series are good, they're pretty versatile and have one of the best floating trems around, if that's what you're looking for. However, if you want less headaches with changing strings, tuning and downtuning, go with a fixed bridge model like the RGA7.

Another guitar I'd look into is this one: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/ ... ric-guitar
Never played a Steinberger, but man do I want to try one so bad. Very interesting bridge and neck design.

Also, has anyone heard of 10-32 Guitars? They make some highly customized live-oriented guitars with some really nice features, including the Ibanez ZR bridge, 27 frets with thumb groove, and magnetic cavities for fuss free access to internal components and easy storage for a wireless transmitter. I haven't seen a price for them yet but I'm sure they'll run for around $1,000.

Yeah I still haven't bought one yet. I'm a very skeptical person and extremely picky when it comes to buying stuff. I do appreciate any suggestions though. Some of those suggestions seem like good alternatives, but some I'm not so sure about.

I probably should provide some more information I want. Typically I prefer 3 pickup guitars (but two can be good too), I don't like active pickups, I would like it to have 24 frets, I want a locking tremolo system that allows for subtlety but also more extreme things at times, and I have a preference for neck thru construction. But the last one doesn't really make too big a difference. I should also probably mention that I want the guitar to have a really good clean sound as well as a very good distorted sound and preferably be able to get a good, almost funky clean tone out of it. I also don't like any explorer type shapes because they are extremely awkward to sit with. I typically tune standard and mainly play progressive and power metal in my main bands, and I do jazz fusion and prog rock in a side project. I do dabble in other styles too though.

EDIT: Also, I prefer guitars that DO have a tone knob.

Which ones did you like and did you not care for?

Also, about the harmony-central thing...I think that's true anywhere online. They are a very good resource, even if they are a bit biased.

The Charvels seemed pretty good, though I didn't like the fact they only had 22 frets. The godin's looked promising except for 22 frets and the EMG's which I don't like very much.

Look into some used Carvin's dude. Or even get one new, but you may have to spend a bit more that $1000, but not a lot. They're semi-custom guitars. That means they give you specific hardware and pickups, but the paint, neck, inlays, fret number and a bunch of other stuff is up to you. Can't hurt to get a quote man.