Trying to find a guitar to go with my Bogner amps!

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TheMagicEight

TheMagicEight

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Right now I've got a Les Paul which is amazing; no complaints there. I've also got a Strat, which is great with the Ecstasy but - as you'd expect - doesn't take to high gain very well, and a Jackson DK2T:
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I don't really care for the Jackson. It seems like it's pretty bright and overall, unable to give me the smooth lead I'd like out of it. In addition to that, it seems to not "fit" me; I have to reach for the lower frets and it's just not very comfortable. Bottom line is it's probably going.

My point in posting here is I'm really wanting something in the same vein of the Jackson - a superstrat geared slightly toward metal - but would like something thick and full, preferably with a mahogany body and maple top, passive pickups, a hardtail and a neck thru joint. I've seen two guitars that are in my price range with a max of around $1500 - new or used - and they are the ESP Horizon NT-II and the LTD MH-1000NT.

If anyone knows something about these guitars that's maybe not obvious, or can offer a suggestion of what kind of superstrat sounds great with a Bogner, I'd be indebted!
 
The ESP NT-II is an amazing outstanding tremendously awesome guitar - HANDS DOWN!!! I have an NT-II and an FR-II, and bar-none, the NT-II is my fave to play... It is an incredible guitar from a playability and quality point of view. I am actually thinking about buying another NT-II and make it into a project guitar with some hot rodded pups and so forth. But as it comes, with the tap coil switch, excellent quality SD pups, and the Darkbrown Sunburst (my personal favourite in the colors available), it's 100% choice.

As it sounds with both my Uberschall and my VH4S, it R I P S ! ! ! ! ! Quiet, potent, wicked. I have a heavier set of strings on mine and de-tuned to Drop C...but I've had regular gauge strings in normal tuning, and both ways is super good. I typically play LP's and LPC's, but the NT-II is a brilliant ax in the area of all amps thus far (had it through a Peavey, Hi-Watt, Soldano, etc...always awesome).

Hope this helps. ESP make f*ckin' incredible guitars...

V. :rawk:

PS - go for the real deal, ESP, not LTD.... Trust me on this.
 
Caparison Angelous, BKP Painkillers, total destruction
 
Jay Strange":3a64l238 said:
Caparison Angelous, BKP Painkillers, total destruction
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I second that :thumbsup:

Also, check out the Caparison Dellinger (super strat body, similar to Jackson Dinky).
 
Warmoth, spec it, order it, build it, load it, rock it. :thumbsup:
 
I have owned an ESP Horizon NT2 for about 6 months now and it is by far my favorite guitar. The entire build quality of the guitar is phenomenal...great fret work, clean lines on all of the bindings, very nice piece of quilted maple for the top, and the fretboard is as smooth as glass and very fast. I played a ton of different guitars (Jackson USA's , Les Pauls, BC-Rich, Ibanez, Deans, several ESP's/Ltd's etc...) before deciding to finally go with the Horizon because I really wanted to get a higher end guitar that I would be really happy with (great playability, great tone, etc...) and that would last me for quite a while. At first I was really leaning toward buying a Les Paul but at the end of the day the Esp felt WAY better in my hands and I prefer several aspects of the Esp over the Les Paul: the 25.5" scale over 24.75", Neck thru over set neck, double cut over single cut etc... I own a brand new Twin Jet and the Horizon is an excellent combo with this amp, the JB in the bridge may be a cliche pick-up for some, but for my taste it's sound is real well balanced and very versatile, and sounds great with any high gain amp especially the Uberschall. I highly recommend both pieces of gear, theyre built to very high standards and provide a great tone together and with other guitars/amps as well...cant go wrong with either!! My own advice is if you have the extra cash stay away from the Ltd version of the horizon and get the actual ESP Horizon. I have a couple of Ltd guitars and they are good but there really is no comparison, the "real" ESP's blow the Ltd's out of the water in every way shape and form, you will be much happier with the Horizon NT2.
 
I'm happy with my NT-II, I'm sure there is other fish in the sea, but NT-II makes me happy enough not to even look for anything else. I've played the LTD versions of H & M and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who's serious about his guitar. A used NTII and a great set of pickups should run you just under the $1500. You most likely won't be satisfied with the JB.
 
Awesome!!! Seems like the Horizon NT-II is the best way to go!

@ nbarts -
You're probably right; I haven't really liked the JB in any guitar I've had as much as some other pickups. I've got a few pickups around: a Duncan Full Shred and Alternative 8 as well as a Dimarzio X2N; what would you recommend putting in it though? I know a some people don't like the Duncans too much compared to other brands.

Thanks for the replies!
 
If your used to LP necks, you might wanna check out a MusicMan, their bridges are somewhat more into the body which makes the overall length of the guitar a bit less. Axis (FR or vintage or no trem) should run in your pricing used.
 
Ask hunter, he plays XTC way more often than I.

My take on pickups is that you can listen to 10000 clips & read another 10000 opinions & until you try it yourself you won't know what to expect. I have no clue what frequencies people mean when they say hi end, hi mids, mids or lows, after owning the same exact pickups they write their opinion about all I can say is that my experience is close to a total mismatch to their descriptions. Even if we both used the same amp dialed with the exact same settings, with the same cabinet & the same guitar too, our results would be so different that you'd be surprised. If I had to recommend a pickup for the NTII, especially something that can rip metal & do everything else just as well, I'd say a set of Bare Knuckle Nailbombs with ceramic bridge.
 
hunter":3fkmp30e said:
If your used to LP necks, you might wanna check out a MusicMan, their bridges are somewhat more into the body which makes the overall length of the guitar a bit less. Axis (FR or vintage or no trem) should run in your pricing used.
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Thanks; I'll definitely keep the Axis in mind, though I think this time I'm looking for something pretty drastically different from the LP. I really like the way the NT-II is shaped, but I definitely need to play one first.
nbarts":3fkmp30e said:
Ask hunter, he plays XTC way more often than I.

My take on pickups is that you can listen to 10000 clips & read another 10000 opinions & until you try it yourself you won't know what to expect. I have no clue what frequencies people mean when they say hi end, hi mids, mids or lows, after owning the same exact pickups they write their opinion about all I can say is that my experience is close to a total mismatch to their descriptions. Even if we both used the same amp dialed with the exact same settings, with the same cabinet & the same guitar too, our results would be so different that you'd be surprised. If I had to recommend a pickup for the NTII, especially something that can rip metal & do everything else just as well, I'd say a set of Bare Knuckle Nailbombs with ceramic bridge.
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I hear you on that! I do tend to listen to people on this forum quite a bit more than, say, the Harmony Central gear reviews though. I've heard so much about these BKPs that I think it's time to try out a pair. Haha, we'll see what happens though. I'm flat broke if I don't unload some gear quickly!
 
And second to this, back to the original premise of the thread - the NT-II comes stock with some decent pups regardless... So all in all, that's the ax of choice IMHO. Good luck in your journey.

V.
 
Another thing to consider if you go with the ESP Horizon NT2 is getting a tone pros locking bridge. Im a big fan of these and wish that they would put these on the ESP standard series guitars from the shop (not sure why they dont since many of the LTD guitars come stock with these bridges). I actually took one of my tone pros graph tech bridges from another guitar and put it on the NT2 for the simple fact that if I do happen to take all of the strings off to do clean the guitar or lemon oil the fret board I dont have to worry about losing my string height settings. I think you can get these for around 80 or 100 bucks. Good luck with whatever guitar you decide to go with.
 
Just sell me your 101b. Im sure I have several guitars that would sound great through it. :D
 
jlbaxe":1mzvpbp3 said:
Just sell me your 101b. Im sure I have several guitars that would sound great through it. :D
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Haha, not a chance! I'll take that amp with me to the grave!
 
I really can't think of a guitar that wouldn't work well with a Bogner amp if the amp is set correctly for it. :confused:
 
Death by Uberschall":2vmdgcpd said:
I really can't think of a guitar that wouldn't work well with a Bogner amp if the amp is set correctly for it. :confused:
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One that doesn't sound good won't work well! I think one of the few things the Bogner can't do - unlike a Mesa Rectifier which does it inherently - is to take away the unique tone each guitar has. I just don't like the way my Jackson DK2T sounds, and I can definitely get it closer with different pickups, but even still, I feel like it will never satisfy me. That's why I was asking the question.
 
Guess I was being too general in my post. I meant that basically any style of guitar should work well. People play strats, Les Pauls, tele, humbucker, p90, single coils, etc through them. So it really just depends on what you want to use. I wouldn't expect a poorly built, poorly executed, poorly set up guitar to sound good through anything.
 
Well, here's something for you... Out of the Top 4 Guitars I play on my Uberschall, here's their pecking order:
1. ESP NT-II Seymour pups, heavier gauge strings, Drop C (but it's NOT the Drop C that makes this). This guitar shines due to the bright maple and tap-up position of the coil-tap turning it into a strat like chimer... And this is on a raunchy tex style mode on Channel 1. Sure, it fires like a missle on hi-gain Channel 2, but it's the single coil pop that works all the time...

2. Les Paul '57 Black Beauty triple pup, mahogany top (as opposed to maple typical of most LP's) warms the tone, takes away the hot bite from the humbuckers - and that middle pup position is my defacto place to be.

3. ESP FR-II, the active EMG's slay in the hi-gain territory.

4. Les Paul '68 Firemist, the maple and 2 humbuckers tend it to be too bright, but sounds good once the guitar controls are worked with...

And I have a lot more guitars, but these are the 4 that I play on the Uber most often, and they're in the order they get played on the Uber for reasons mentioned above. I find it interesting that the Uber is 'the' gain-monster, but my choice is to play a de-monsterized ESP (going to single coil) on the tamer channel of the Uber than to go balls-to-the-wall hi-gain with everything dimed. However, when I DO go there, the NT-II blows the snot outta the others for power and smoothness and low noise. DONE.

Peace,
V.
 
More on this, just currently in the process of loading an NT-II with some BKP Painkillers bridge and neck... Will report back once it's been dimed :rock:

V.
 
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