I want a seriously metal guitar. I want it to sound similar to Thordendal from Meshuggah. I love his sound. Any ideas?

u do realize half the deal with sound is distortion/what not

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/ESP-LTD-MH400-Electric-Guitar?sku=516684

this guitar is really, really nice for the price it costs. i'm not really into metal that much and i tend to stick to fender guitars, but this is the guitar i would get if i happened to come by 700 dollars.

ok first of all, Meshuggah has 8 string guitars tuned to Eb i beleive so you have to start of there. Second of all the guitar only gives CHARACTERISTICS to your sound. Sustain, bright, mellow, dark. It doesnt give you the actual tone. For that it is all up to your amp. So tell us, what amp do you have and what guitar do you have.

Never spend that much money on a LTD.

An old saying I learned when I was hanging out at guitar center is "Most people who think they want EMG's really want a dual rectifier." That means that most people think having a really "metal" guitar will make their tone that much heavier, when in reality it's more important to have a nice amp.

Godly amp for under $1k: Peavey XXX 212 combo. They don't make them anymore, and I have one that was made in the last year of production. This amp is sick, and it's fairly inexpensive. Other options are the Mesa Boogie dual recto (better, but more expensive), bogner uberschall (same deal, very expensive), and a ENGL Fireball (also ridiculously expensive).

Im gonna have to disagree with that about the LTDs. I have a ltd v-500 and it plays fantastic, i did however pay blem price (500 enstead of 700) but i only happen to have stumbled upon it like that and was planning on paying full price eventually. LTDs are awesome guitars, of course they are no ESP or high end jackson but hell if i was stuck with my ltd for the rest of my life i would not mind one bit.

I will agree with the amp, like i said amp = your tone.

What he says.

To have a good tone, you need to have a good amp. When you have an awesome amp then you can get an awesome guitar. I used to have a Squier and play it through a beginner's amp (Peavey but no idea on model), and let's say it didn't sound awesome. However, like 1 year after my bro let me borrow his Peavey XXX Tube amp and the tone was much much better. And now, about 3 months ago, I bought an ESP and let me say the tone is ridiculously inredible.

So yeah, search for an amp before buying an awesome guitar.

Oh, and yes, don't go for LTDs. If you want those models, go directly with ESPs.

Edit: And I think Meshuggah's Guitarist is using a 7 or 8 strings guitar.
Edit2: 8 strings like aokmaster15 said So try to aim for that if you're certain that's the sound that will fit you.

This post was edited by Darkshade on Aug 20 2008 03:15pm

He seems to use custom 7 and 8 string ibanez guitars. I'm sure these are ridiculously expensive. From what I've seen, it looks like he keeps the treble strings of his guitars taped off, since he doesn't use them and he doesn't want them to give unnecessary feedback.

Here's a list of amps and effects he uses:

* Amplifiers and Effects used Live:
o Line 6 Vetta II Head Units
o 33 MIDI Breath Controller (built by Johan Haake)
o Clavia Nord G2 Engine
o Digitech Delay Pedal
o 2 Unknown Pedals (probably MIDI controllers that control parameters of the Vetta Head Units)
o T.C. Electronics Pre-Amp

* Other Amplifiers and Effects used:
o Marshall Valvestate 8200
o Mesa/Boogie .50 Caliber+
o Mesa Engineering Dual-Rectifier
o Marshall JCM800
o Marshall 1960A cab
o Line 6 POD Pro
o Rocktron Juice Extractor
o T.C. Electronics Chorus & Flanger
o Homemade "Les Amp" Head Unit
o Homemade 1x12" Cabinet
o Yamaha Breath Controller
o Volume Unit (Yamaha BC controls amount of volume that the unit will allow through)
o ADA Rackmount Delay

Note that among this list is the Dual Recto , digitech delay pedal, and Chorus and Flanger. These are all very cool effects.

I'd suggest an Ibanez. (check out the jumpstart packs... u get amp and guitar for bout 400). You could try dean, esp possibly.

But I have only an Ibanez, so that's the only thing i can vouch for.

i play through a multitrack recorder which goes to 2x JBL speakers .... i use a metalzone distortion pedal. I can't really play it at the moment because i only have a semi-accoustic guitar (i much prefer clean accoustic sound over clean electric), however it feeds back too much with the distortion.

keeping this in mind would anyone change there advice?
Thanks for the help guys =]