Good guitar practice setup for hardcore?

Question

Recently I've been getting interesting in hardcore music. I've been playing guitar for about a year, around 6 months of guitar lessons and now teaching myself new things. I mainly play distorted music and popular songs. I have Zoom effects pedal and a crate 15 watt amp that is starting to sound a little fuzzy and now think its time for an upgrade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9tdJ5T0Tpc
This is the type of sound i want to play. Since this is a local band I was able to talk with them online and ask what the guitarists setups were for when they practiced. One guitars used a Line 6 Spider III with random effects, and the other used a VoxValvetronix VT50 with a Boss ME 70 effects pedal. I've researched these a little bit and i'm always get mixed reviews. Some people say they're good, others say they are terrible and have terrible sound, even to a beginner!
Anyway, i don't have a high budget =P I honestly have no clue what to look for. I live on a Japanese island and i don't speak good Japanese. I don't know if i could just to into the store and try out they're gear because they're all so small. I don't even know if you can do that in the states to be honest, haha i just think you can. So anybody have any tips on whats good to buy? Just for practicing? guitar playing for me is just a hobby really. Although i do have hopes for starting a band in the future =)
Thanks!

Answer 1

First thing to look at is your guitar pickups. I mean, this is the beginning of your signal, correct? You hit a string, it goes directly into the pickup. For what you're describing, I think you would love Seymour Duncan Blackouts. They're active pickups, similar to EMG, but they're not muddy, or dull sounding. They have a very thick, heavy tone, but it retains all it's clarity like a passive pickup, unlike EMG. If your guitar has active pickups right now, installing these will be super easy. If not, then it will take a little bit of no how to get everything installed, or about $70 to have a guitar tech do it, which you can have him setup your guitar and have it intonated at the same time. The pickups will run you about $150 to $180 for 2 of them. Next will be your amp. If you play in a band, I recommend getting a Peavey 5150. It's very heavy and is the cheapest of the metal amps that you're going to find that is still considered a good metal amp. It holds its own to boutique metal amps that cost $5K.. I mean, it's not better, but for around $600 used, you can't beat it. The newer 6505 might cost a bit more, but it's basically the same amp. After that, work on getting 1 really good overdrive pedal... like an OD808 by maxxon or Ibanez... or have a moddified DS-1 or moddified TS-9 by Robert Keeley. These aren't cheap, but if you're gonna get nice pickups and a good amp, why would you want to ruin your tone with inferior pedals? From here, you'll probably want to get a noise suppressor. If you're running too much gain, you'll get feedback or unwanted noise. To combat this, you'll need to get an ISP Decimator. Used, it's maybe $70. Anyway, it's not 1 simple fix for you, it's probably a combination of things that need to be replaced, and I would start with the pickups and then see what you need after that.

Answer 2

If you merely begin to perform the guitar then you need the most effective courses in the marketplace to learn how to play this difficult tool and the best is Jamorama website, here https://tr.im/blgM6

In the event that you will learn the guitar for the first time (Or perhaps you attempted before and just could not have the "hang" of it), then Jamorama is the proper class for you since every training has a video to accompany the principles, and once you have removed through a week of lessons, you can download and printing an exercise sheet connected with those lessons.

The video classes demonstrate how to perform chords – the fundamentals of enjoying guitar. You'll learn to enjoy major, slight, 7th, and simple chords. If you do not know what any of that means, do not allow it discourage you. It's all discussed at length in the videos.

A good thing about that is when you get these fundamentals down, the titles and the technicality only move to the background and that you do not obviously have to consider it much more – you can just perform!

Answer 3

If you can, you should get a Marshall cabinet, as this is what most metal bands use. Put the gain on your amp up just a little, then get a distortion pedal from your guitar to your amp. Put your treble up to 100% and your bass to 50%. Your mid should be at 25%. if the back of your amp has an 8Ω symbol on it, then run your amp out to your cabinet. Usually, the amp sounds better at louder volumes.

Answer 4

If you play hardcore, then you MUST buy Randall amps (Metallica,Children of Bodom...). It has few additional knobs for a heavier distortion. I played live with the 70 watt Randall and was thrilled, but you can easily find one for a home use :). Don't use distortion from the effect pedals, it's too ''digital'' buy normal distortion pedal like Boss MD-2 or Metal Zone.