I have been thinking about getting my first ever electric guitar (played a lot in school though, so I'm pretty good). I will probably use this guitar for heavy/black metal (Eb-tuning), and I'm looking to spend below $400 (amp not included). Any recommendations or something? Or answers to the following Qs?

1. What are EMGs? (A type of pickups, yeah, but what effects do they have on the sound?)
2. What are the dif. types of pickups and how do they affect the sound?
3. Does the type of wood in body and neck matter?
4. What type of tremolo stuff should I get? (I've heard Floyd Rose stuff is a pain in the ass...)

Thanks

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emg's are typically used for metal style of playing they will give you more of a heavlily distorted sound pretty much all ESP guitars come with these
other pickup wil efeect the sound by how or what they are maid for (look at the companies websites for specifics on certain models)
the type of wood matters on the sound also im not sure what wood gives you what kind of sound but i believe it matters more in aucostics then in electrics as for as the bridge if you change tunnings alot i would not suggets a floyed rose liek you said pain in the ass if you change a lot my advice would be to get like a tunomatic bride woth stop bar tail piece or string through body and then get a guitar with a floyed rose as far as recomendations for guitars i would day some of the more cheepr jacksons or ESP are good (heres the same shit you always hear) go the store and pickj them up see whta you like and go from there

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Floyd rose tremolo are locking tremolos, which mean that they stay in tune when you do dips and dives. floyd rose is just a brand. you can also get kramer or normal tremolos. locking tremolos are a pain in the ass to tune and if one string breaks, the entire thing goes haywire and you're completley fucked. all your strign would be out of tune and if you're playing black metal then theres really no point in getting a locking tremolo anyways, maybe a normal one for the occasional solo or effect.

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The Jackson JS30 has a rosewood neck and Floyd Rose,
And 24 frets...Even though the guitar doesn't look like a death Metal
guitar, just add Skull knobs, LOL.
The Jackson DXMG is 399 dollars....
and it has:
-EMG HZ's
-Floyd Rose JT500 lockin trem.
-Rosewood Neck
-Sharkfin inlays
If I were you, I would get the DXMG.....

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if ur looking for heavy or black metal guitars, one of my school friends
just bought a b.c.rich warlock for 275 quid its got two humbuckers and is
really light and looks cool on stage so it might be worth you looking in to it
by the way it has a stunning sound to it

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why is everybody so negative about floyd rose tremolo's?

okay, they are difficult when you need to replace a single string, but fuck, if you've ever played with one you know that they are really good.. It's worth the effort to fuck around when you break a string.
our guitarist hasn't broken a single string since last year... I broke two on my bass, hehe pretty weird.

Yeah, floyd rose is nice.

to replace a string, I haven't broke one for half a year now. But you get experience to replace string, when it happens oftens *lol*

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yeah you are right i used to not want one cause everyone said they were juat a big pain but after i used one and relised what you could do with them i want one the next guitar i get is going to have one on it

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yeah, that's right, the trouble of having a floyd is well worth it, you do have a killer tremolo...

well, exchanging strings with a floyd is more difficult but if you've done it a few times you can do it pretty fast.

Wow, a whole bunch of answers, thanks!
I've got two more questions now though:
1. Can EMG give clean sounds, or will I have to get passive pickups for that?
2. Would non-locking tremolos get detuned after use, whilst a locking tremolo will stay in tune?
3. Why aren't there any prices shown on the Jackson page (www.jacksonguitars.com)? Or is it just me being stupid?
4. WTF??? In a .pdf I just downloaded from the homepage of my closest guitar shop, it says a Jackson DXMG is 9750 SEK, which is approximately $1000. The only difference between the description given on the jackson page and in the pdf is that the pdf says it's a JT500 bridge and the jackson page says JT580, but that shouldn't make that much dfference right?

Thanks alot guys

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-the DXMG is 400 bucks.....

-As for non-locking trems, yes, they do get out of tune, but like every
7 days it would get out of tune....depending if you have one of the best
non-locking tremolos....

-EMG's may be passive, but the clean tones are very good,
and very good for that metal crunch......EMG Hz's is very popular with
Metal guitarists Like
~Kerry King
~Kirk Hammet
~James Hetfield
~Jeff Hanneman
~Silenoz
~and many more!
I used to have EMG's HZ's and they were awesome, but I switched em for
George Lynch Screamin Demons cuz they sound better for those little Moody
Solo's.....But I rather have my EMG's cuz they're better no doubt bout it!

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i agree. i would definately choose a floating bridge over a normal bridge. there just soooo much better.