I have been unable to get a good metal sound out of my equipment thus far. I am looking for a nice daeth metal or dark metal sound. My current list of equipment so far is: ESP/LTD M-255 (with duncan designed pickups), Washburn dimebag darrel 333 w/ locking floyd rose, Crate MX 120R combo, dunlop original crybaby, ibanez sm-7 smash box, dod fx-55c supra distortion.

Any advice towards a heavy,but still crisp & tight tone will be greatly appreciated. My reasons are because I have noticed that my clean sounds are alright, but when I switch to distortion, my sound doesn't cut through as well and it loses some of the tonal definition.

Try putting some active EMGs in your ESP and maybe using a Boss Metal Zone or DOD Death metal pedal.

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yeah, sounds like you need better pickups, real seymour duncans would be a big improvement, or even EMG's. duncan designed pickups are shit.

Thanks a lot guys. The info is helpful.

But I have a question about the pickups. I'm not much of an active pickup person because I like the tonal qualities of the wood to shine through. So, with that in mind, which Seymore Duncans should I invest in, and where is a good place to obtain them for a decent price?

I dunno about the USA, but maybe you can try ebay or random guitar shops.

for passive's, seymour duncan SH-1's have great clear tone, for the bridge position you could try something like an SD-SH-8 Invader, SH-6 distortion humbucker

or maybe the SH-13 Dimebucker (typical pantera distortion in that one though)

the SH-4 model is not really great, lacks distortion a bit, but if you want light distortion, its ok.
the SH-12 george lynch model blows, its called screaming demon but it sounds like a sreetching cat. lol.

heres the SD page, http://www.megaguitars.com/pickups/...can_pickups.htm

thanks dudes!!! Youve been a big help.
Ill probably get the distortion HB in the bridge and a Jazz HB for some of my clean solos.

Don't know about that, I tried a really cool Schecter guitar with Duncan Designed HB's and it sounded pretty sweet.

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compare it to a guitar with real seymour duncans

Yeah i have real duncans in my Jackson and its rapes thoes shit ones.

One thing about Duncans is you will have to add some extra volume/gain to you amp if you are switching from a more high output pick-up, i.e. and invader or EMG. not much of a ig deal but I've noticed that pinch harmonics are not as easy either, it migt be a good idea to get a compressor.