As much as I like jackson, the qc issues and lack of variety hold them back. I'm esp and schecter are the best. But jackson has some really awesome artist signatures.
I'm a ESP/LTD, Ibanez and a jackson guy but you're correct. Ibanez and ESP has the best overall QC, even the Ibanez Indonesian made guitars have good QC. I love Jacksons because they sound great and look super metal but their QC has been horrible. It's best to buy a older MIJ or USA made jackson if you want good quality.
The QC issues you bring up were also with both esp and schecter. These companies went with Indonesian builds and they're all built in the same factories. The serial numbers somehow tell the build location and one of three factories was having big QC issues, and that's where the problem feel. As of today, I think it's pretty well corrected. I'll stick to Jackson.... Playability to me is pretty well on line with Ibanez, but loaded better at better prices. At the same time, I'm not worried about variety. Give me versatility. I have a Korean km7 FRS..... They were QC nightmare and I have some of the problems. Still a great guitar.
Thanks for actually sharing your opinion, most channels would have just shared the results. I agree ESP/LTD is the best of both the budget and high end metal guitar. The Black/Arctic Metal and 1000 series are the best things to happen to metal players in a long time.
I like Ibanez and Schecter because they were brands that were played by bands I was listening to back in the early 2000's right out of high school. So that was the selling point for me. I like the comfort of the necks on those guitars. It all comes down to personal preference. I'm still wanting to try a multi scale guitar.
ESP is the metal master lol and I'd say Solar is potentially there. all Solar needs is more exotic woods and a custom shop and solar will have it in the bag.
I was an Ibanez guy for the first 25 years of my career or so. My favorite was a DT200 (was, cause i sold it, it was getting too heavy for my aging back). That was until i bought a Jackson RR3. I then became a Jackson guy. But i recently bought a Schecter, and i love it. When shops finally get a decent inventory, like prior to this whole armageddon thing, i might look for another Schecter.
I have 6 guitars and 3 basses and every single one is a different brand. Now that I think about it they all have different pickups too. Cort 8 string multiscale, Jackson Kelly, Schecter Ravendark flying V, Dean Mustaine flying V, ESP LTD, Cordoba electric classical guitar, Dingwall bass, Spector bass, Ibanez bass. I have also owned bc rich warlock, Washburn, and an old white Kramer flying V I'd love to find again. Best brand? Never heard of it. All that said I picked Jackson on the poll cuz the Kelly is my favorite that was on the list of brands.
I own a Ibanez, a 90s MiJ Jackson, a couple Epis, and an LTD (and a few other brands not really relevant to the convo). Jackson was my favorite up until recently. I still absolutely love my Pro series MIJ, but new Jacksons are just lacking in quality (control), variety, and bang for buck. I bought an LTD EC1000 last year and it's just fantastic. Fishmans, ebony board, SS frets, awesome color flip paint, locking tuners, just flawless. It blows away everything in a comparable price range and even a good bit above Jackson (and just about every other brand) offers. And the new 22 offerings seem like they're going to continue that trend. I'd love it if Jackson can return to form and/or if other brands rise to the challenge, because I love options and competition with just make everyone else raise their game. But as it stands, I have to agree ESP/LTD is at the top of the heap currently.
I own two Jacksons--one being a Pro Series Rhoads and the other a Pro Series Monarkh. My first guitar was an Epi Les Paul that still feels like "home" to me, and I pretty much use that as my yardstick for guitars. The one guitar I want to get my hands on is some form of an ESP Eclipse. I tried an LTD eclipse a few years ago in a guitar store and it was the only time I think I would have purchased a guitar on the spot if I had the cash on me. Those are literally the definition of a modern, hot-rodded les paul for anyone looking for a more sleek version of a classic guitar.
Can totally relate to your comments about growing up looking at the musicians you admire. I had many metallica posters and now 25 years later still love esp/ltd, Jackson and gibson.
Caparison is a really quickly growing brand!! Way out of my price range..but cool brand!! Great endorsees as well!! 1. Joel and Adam from KSE 2. Courtney Cox of the Iron Maidens. 3. Michael Romeo of Symphony X
Caparison guitars have been killing it since 1995, yes they are expensive, but they are exclusive and perfectly priced for such a high quality in what you get in a guitar.
@@corbanjohnson8694 i have played usa jacksons and esp japans, as far as quality, craftsmanship with caparisons in my opion it is top notch. I've never picked up a shitty caparison guitar that had a flaw in it. Now playability, that's all how you set up the guitar for your preference, for what your looking to get out of it in general. But in my experience any guitar can sound like and play like shit if you just dont know what your doing. Highly recommend the caparison you wont be disappointed.
Ernie Ball Music Man. Completely lost interest in any other guitars once I got a majesty (and can’t get more original than that guitar). Just simply the best guitar I ever played, and sounds amazing with any amp. The Jason Richardson signature is a great guitar too.
I voted for Schechter since I have 3 hard rock basses from them, but I would also mention that Harley Benton is coming in with some good hard rock guitars and basses!
I'm team Ibanez & Schecter. I own 2 Jackson soloist from the late 80's, 2 Charvels from 89, 7 Ibanez's from 86- 95, 1 hellraiser from 2010. BC Rich, Kramer, Fender, ESP Lynch model guitars I've owned & still have. Planning on buying Kiesel guitars once I sell most of my collection.
I can’t say the best but my favourite is Schecter. Especially the PT SLS ELITES, I just change the fishmans for EMG Daemonums or Hot 70s and there you go! 🤘🏼🙂. The ESP ltd Te-1000 Black Blast has been tempting me for a while now too!!! 😁
I’d personally say Ibanez, they have always been the metal players guitar, from kiss in the 70s, Steve vai in the 80s, Korn in the 90s to bands like meshuggah, between the buried and me and periphery, also they have some of the best quality control
I love my Jackson V, but I just ordered a Solar 7-string with fishmans and an evertune, so I imagine it’s going to blow my socks off and be my favorite guitar once it arrives. Can’t WAIT! 🔥🤘🏻
Since ESP is my favourite brand and their guitar fits my hand shape the best out of most brands, I gotta choose them. Their qc is amazing and they provide a lot of different models to choose from. You can go full on crazy designs like the FRX or the stream, some classic slapper or eclipse, the iconic horizon series. You can defiantly find at least one model you like. They also provide a rather wide range of price options. You got the more affordable LTD and Edward’s, the slightly more expensive E-II, then the expensive but amazing Japanese ESP. I truly think ESP is amazing as a guitar brand.
Charvel for sure is definitely one of the best. So many out there and hard to say whose the best. But if I had to pick. Charvel,Jackson,Esp,Balaguer,Solar,Jericho are my go to guitars. Still so many others I could chose so I tried to keep it short with what I enjoy. Great video brotha 👍🏻
My mom worked a second job for long time to buy me an Ibanez and afford my guitar lessons. She died at 49. Ibanez will always have a special place in my heart.
I'm going to throw one in here for Caparison. I mean, when you think about it, you want to love Jacksons, but lately the quality control issues have been crippling. Well, who made all of those awesome made in Japan Jacksons that were as good as or in some cases even better than the made in USA ones? It was Caparison! It's the Jackson DNA and custom shop quality, without any of the QC issues modern-day Jackson is facing.
I feel it's whatever the player feels best with. I personally love Gibson style guitars (ie Epiphone and Japanese Gibson clones). I love the way a Les Paul feels and sounds. I like the shorter scale length and chunky neck. I don't like the feels of traditional "metal" guitars.
Couldn't ever deal with the pickup selector being in between the volume and tone knobs on Jackson guitars. Maybe cause I've mostly used Ibanez...who I think have the switch in the perfect place. ( other brands put it there also....like Solar)....I also HAVE to HAVE the arm curve/ cutout whatever....(not the sqared off edge)....again RG Ibanez guitars have it,like some other brands. Any brand similar to Ibanez are cool for me
ESP is the most willing to be willing to experiment with specs with the LTD 1000 stuff. They were the first big line to adopt evertunes, whether you like them or not. They started the Fluenece + evertune formula that a lot of people no consider beat to to death. They’re not just ahead of the curve, they tend to be the leader with “modern” specs/trends. Not an esp fanboi, i don’t even own their stuff, but their product manager clearly knows what he’s doing
Schecter (at least in the $700-$1500 range). By far the best value for the money. Made in a great factory in Korea, stainless steel frets on all their models above ~$1k, fishman pickups, I mean the list just goes on. For classic metal stuff though, I like EVH and Charvel.
This didn't age well. Barely any stainless steel models left at affordable prices. Fake inflation +import costs make Schecter not the best bang here in Germany
I guess this is even niche within metal (I equate them to stoner / doom / "shoegaze metal"), but Dunable is pretty cool too. I know it's essentially another take on a Gibson RD, but man those R2's do look sick.
Right now I have several Jacksons, a Gibson SG, an Ibanez RG. No comnplaints. However I really want an ESP and/or Solar although I have little experience with either...
You should do a series on checking out guitars from boutique guitar brands. I recently got into Woodrite guitars and fell in love. Still mad didn't get Matt Pike guitar. They sold out in a day!
I want to love Jackson but no matter how much I spend on the new stuff there’s always something going on with them lol. ESP,Schecter and Ibanez for me.
I used to think bc rich was awful due to the awful cheap models they had. I tried one of their new mockingbird and put money down on it! It's definitely going to be my metal guitar!
So I am a Gibson and epiphone fan, I love them, I love my sg, and eventually will own a les paul or 2. However, metal for me, I am a huge ESP fan, I own 4 ltds and I love each one. But my new favorite is my mayones regius. Favorite metal guitar and brand, no questions asked at this point. Gibson, esp, mayones, those are my favorite
Back in the day Kramer ruled metal. They almost put Gibson & Fender out of business until Grunge hit. New Epiphone made Kramers are great axes as well, but not as good as the originals whose parts were made by Sports & well ... ESP. So it's funny that in full circle ESP is still on top.
I’ve been playing for over 20 years and during those years I had all the brands you can imagine: from Jackson and Ibanez up to Gibson and PRS and I’m totally agree on your points about nostalgia, price, features and Artists. I’m a Les Paul lover but now I’m mostly playing 8 string and after trying several brands even I like Ibanez, ESP is the only brand that fulfills all my needs as guitarist and found the EC 208 is the perfect guitar for what I’m looking on a 8 string
At the $1000 level, Japanese Ibanez guitars from around 2016 are amazing metal machines. I know we’ve moved on from EMGs in metal but dude those guitars still rocked
What are the best pickups now? What did we move onto since the EMGs? Last electric guitar I bought was a Hellraiser Avenger about 15 years ago, which did have an EMG 85 and an EMG 81, which were top of the line then.
@@kyleheaser351boombaby it seems to me like fluence moderns are the “stock” Metal pickup of this era in so far as that exists. Bareknuckle pickups are one brand who’ve spent the last decade really pushing the boundary in terms of the palate available to players (I’ve played a lot of sets now and I find the Juggernauts to be unrivalled) and their popularity is definitely part of the shift away from EMGs in guitar RU-vidr culture. I know that the pickup sounds informs the style and vice versa, so it’s probably also the case that “modern” metal doesn’t lend itself to mid-compressed fizzy high gain the way thrash or butt-rock do. The sheer variety of tones you hear in the average metal song today, the prevalence of drop-tuning, and of course fatigue have everyone looking for the next great sound and EMG hasn’t been a big name in that sense for a while. They’re happy with the “Ronseal” tag line
Solar and ESP, hands down. Originality to me has no bearing bc Idc who made it first - I care who made it *best*. When I look for a guitar it’s: -Who has the best bang for the buck? -Am I going to have to do upgrades at all? -Small branding details (ex I like aggressive/angulars) To me Solar and ESP are the best because if you buy one for the avg of $1000 USD, you have the good pickups (Duncan Solars are incredible) and the hardware is top notch. No upgrading necessary.
Personally, I'm an Ibanez guy. The RG is just a timeless classic, and I can't imagine a situation where I don't immediately look at an RG first when I'm considering getting a new guitar for whatever reason. But lately, I've started getting pretty curious about ESP/LTD.
Agreed on Jackson's prices. They charge more for less. As far as brands go I've always for whatever reason gravitated towards schecter and PRS. PRS is the nostalgia part. And schecter is kinda my benchmark for quality on a budget. I got my c1 platinum for 400 new in 2018. Has emgs and grover tuners. Hard to beat it.
in my opinion ESP is the best guitar brand - they release beautifully crafted, visibly stunning pieces of work & even the lower end models still stand tall against higher end titans. my favorite guitar of all time is my esp ltd mh 350nt, only $700 but plays like a mf dream.
I own a Solar 1.6 BLB with fishman moderns and also own a schecter omen with Jim Root Sig Daemonons, Gibson silver burst les Paul, and fender strat HSS with EMG Kirk Hammett sig pickups and by far I love my solar the best. Love the neck profile, and it’s playability is unmatched for me. Never played an ESP so can’t talk on it as well as Ballaguer or Jackson.
Big Jackson fan here, but lately not impressed with anything they have. Sticking to my early 90's early 2000's MIJ Jackson's. I finally was able to afford a Caparison Horus and the build quality and attention to detail is so spot on and the over all feel and playability is 110%.
Schecter and ESP/LTD are my go-to brands, and I'm not a brand guy but when I'm in the market for a new guitar the specs I'm looking for and the build quality I expect is always found in these 2 brands. I will say ESP/LTD get's credit for doing things Schecter was doing before them like Stainless Steel fret's on production guitars. Schecter started doing that at least a couple years before ESP/LTD did. Brands I avoid. Gibson & Jackson. Both have had build quality issue problems. Gibson's build quality has improved but they are so afraid to do anything new in part because of their longtime fans. Jackson's quality has tanked ever since Fender bought them. Which is odd given Fender's are usually pretty good as are other brands they own like Charvel (which Fender bought about the same time) for example.
I am about to buy me a Ltd Ec1000 baritone coming out later this year because its dark black, baritone and looks damn slick. Esp is always way up there for me despite having my own Custom Guitar.
i started off playing lots of fenders and squier in my teens and 20s and 30s, now in my 40s 2019 got my first ltd jh 600 the quality is amazing.i recently got my first solar v2.6 and i like very economical is one the best features on it really. i would like to try a charvel out. i would like to try more jacksons but not enough to say i would buy one or not. id did have an ibanez rg 550 mij back in the day but couldn't get along with 16 radius. the only fender i have anymore is the fender kc jaguar. its such a monster.plus i grew up when nirvana blasted out in 91.
Prs guitar ms have stepped up when it comes to appealing to the rock/metal community. For example the archon and the mr 15 amps and some of their guitars are geared towards metal players
Schecter and ESP are the best brands of Metal guitar the Schecter E1 is completely badass so is the ESP EX explorer. ESP are the kings of Explorer shaped guitars because they own Schecter and Wylde Audio which make badass explorer shaped guitars.
My favorite is Schecter, although I must admit ESP caters more to metal than any other. I love my old Jackson's too, but they've been slacking these past few years.
Schecter is 110% the best! In todays modern market. ESP has dropped the ball. The LTD quality has gone down, while prices have gone up. Obviously any straight ESP guitar is going to be great, but what used to be 2-3 grand, is now 3-5 grand. It's ridiculous. But Schecter has some GREAT 1,000-1,500$ models that are 100% worth every penny. The Evil Twin is great!
@@Sgt6217 I have the Explorer body style Evil Twin. If you do get one, you should check out the new one, Its a strat body, with a sustainiac pickup in the neck! With a solid hip shot bridge. I want it so bad! But I would feel stupid buying two evil twins.
@@9hk38f lmao I guess I'm stupid? I also have two c-1 platinum blue and black and banshee Mach 6 and Mach 7. My favorite is the C-1 evil twin so I got one for drop D and another one for C standard.
i own a dean, fender, jacksons and i haven’t had the ability to get any esp or ltd guitars but the ones i’ve tried out have been phenomenal same goes for schecter. however jackson is the brand i keep coming back to its a brand that works for me and in case anyone cares im mainly a thrash and death metal guy.
Jackson is my #1. I see a lot of comments on their QC but I’ve never had a problem with any of mine and I own Japanese, Korean, Mexican and Indonesian made. Also really like my schecter and Esp Ltd guitars too. Just gotta get an Ibanez now.
My choices for metal/hard rock: Older MIA/MIJ Jackson guitars, PRS especially old CE24s or DGTs, LTD esp. Ec-1000s, Schecter (especially for rock), lastly Gibson (but I have to mod the pickups)
Got to go with ibanez for innovation, originality, variety of finishes and tones/pickups. all the other brands seem to mostly use the same formula. esp for example all the shapes are copies of existing shapes mostly black and white finishes humbuckers almost exclusively . Just my opinion but tone seems to take a back seat on a lot of these brands
Idk, my personal experience, I went to the music store every day and coveted Ibanez RGs. I also loved Vai and Satriani, and to me, the RG was the ultimate best guitar. Over the years, I have bought and sold 2 Ibanez and today don't have any in my collection or any that I'm looking at. I think your tastes can morph as you learn and play more instruments.
My vote was ltd / esp I like they're slight twist on classic designs. I didn't think of keisil another one to consider is prs they're a sleeper I know most won't agree but there playability translates to everything.
I’ve heard negative things about qc with korean jacksons. I was going to buy a mick thompson jackson until I read multiple reviews discussing issues with them. I have a mim jackson and that thing is great. Esp kills it for me every time i buy in their 1000 dollar range (have only bought 2). The 7 string Ibanez i purchased in the 400 dollar range was decent.
For $1200 or less, Schecter. For $1500 or more, Kiesel. Ibanez normally would have taken both slots a few years back, but after grabbing an $1800 Ibanez Prestige in Guitar Center and having my hand get cut up due to sharp frets, I can't recommend them at all in good conscience.
This is one of the more knowledgeable comments iv seen on here. Iv bought/sold/traded tons of guitars over the past 2 years. My carvin dc400 is miles ahead of anything else iv played accept my bc rich mockingbird.
Get the most for your money with ESP/LTD Love my high end Solar. Love my high end charvel. Love my Arrow. Really want a high end legator but I'm scared about qc... Really would like an ormsby too.
