Personally, for shredder type guitars, if the overall built is decent (and most of guitars today fit the bill, even the GIO and parallels of other brands) it was never about the wood/pickups, but all about the trem, being the crucial part of the equation.! So, since there is so much potential...

Let's throw this months acquisitions up here... Got these a couple weeks ago: Yamaha Pacifica 921 Yamaha Pacifica 1221M (this will be getting stripped and refin'd) Yamaha 1230S The 1200 series have necks so thin, they'd make an Ibanez RG550 cry cuz it feels fat. Just a tad wider though. I...