Well I really like these guitars, 799 new, and are amazing http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/ESP-LTD-Deluxe-EC1000-Electric-Guitar?sku=516629 Its an ESP EC-1000... I HIGHLY recommend this guitar

Cab wise, you can pick up a used Marshall cab for around 400-500 easy on craigslist ... you absolutely can't go wrong with a solid marshall cab (Avoid the MG / MC and AVT series cabs if you can)
Amp wise go for a Marshall JCM900 / DSL or TSL or JCM 2000... or if you can find one a Mesa single or Duel Recto head ... any of these heads are great choices and are in your price range USED.. new they would be out of it, but used you can get them.... this whole setup would definately push right at the 2,000 budget, but you would get a setup that would be amazing for just about anything.

Sounds good, but I'm still unsure of the difference between passive and active pickups.

The most basic explanation is active humbuckers use an external power source (a battery) to amplify the strings sound on your guitar, where as a passive humbucker uses magnets basically (actually much more complicated than that)..... I prefer passives but ALOT of metal players prefer active humbuckers because of how well they handle high gain.... but passive more truly replicate the true tone of your guitar.

Looks like I'm going to have to hit up a guitar shop and screw around for a few hours.

It's been said many times passive is better live and active is better for the studio. But it's always down to personal preference.

I would personally say that the no. 1 choice for guitar is Jackson while my no. 2 choice is Ibanez. Make sure you get a REAL floyd rose, not that licensed crap or just dont get one at all. I personally like EMG's (got 81 and 85 on my Jackson). Jackson and Ibanez achieve the sound I want but you might think different for what you are after - I like clean, warm, extremely heavy distortions - I'm not to into the sludgy sound you get with doom metal and the like.

I find for a much warmer and satisfying sound at home, its much better to use my POD x3 pro and a QUALITY speaker set up (I use a 5.1 surround sound set) rather than use an amp. If I could make the epic volume that I want in my flat I would probably go and try out a million tube amps untill I find the best distortion I've ever heard. But I dont have $5k to spend on an amp.

Hope this helps, and I hope I'm not repeating anything thats been said I didnt really read the topic lol.

This post was edited by dysgenics on Sep 5 2010 03:04am

Thanks for all your help everyone. Now I've got a general idea of what I want. Once I get funds (not anytime soon) I'll post pictures of what I bought, etc.