Ever heard of Gibson ,LOL . Got a standard Les-paul that I lowered the action on ,it rules above ALL!

ESP/Jackson are the best, I`d say...a Strat like Malmsteen plays works good too (if you can play as fast as he can)...Ibanez can be good too, but I`d get an ESP if I were you...many brilliant guitarists use them but it`s all up to how the guitar feels in YOUR hands.

wow yea, except u have no idea what ur talking about.^

i dont know how long uve been playing but there are fast knecks. how about u compare fat necked epiphone to a jem and tell me if one of them is faster then the other.

oh and squires are fine, if u know what ur doing, and pick it out urself.

the arrow up was for markos post last page. didnt see urs.

ibanez and jackson are the best which is why almost all shredders use either of the two. It was always either Jackson, Ibanez or some custom shop guitar and in some rare cases they use Fender, to my knowledge only yngwie and chris impelitteri use fenders i know jason becker used to use one but then he got his custom carvin.

I have been playing for quite some time and have come to realize that the best guitar for shred is what feels best in your hands. I have an Ibanez js1000 series guitar and I can play like a speed demon on that one. I also have a PRS Mcarty with a basebal bat neck and can play very fast that one as well. It doesn`t really matter if the neck is thin or fat just whether you comfrotable with your axe. Would your fingers be close to the fretboard on a thick neck guitar or a thin neck guitar? thick neck. Also, you might look at scale length PRS and some Carvin`s have a 25" scale length. Your Ibanez, jackson, ESP have 25.5" Gibson 24.7" Some people think that the are able to go faster on shorter scale length guitars and I`m one of those. Less distance between notes. Fat neck =`s fingers closer to fretboard =`s faster playing(for me). Mark Tremonti uses A PRS Singlecut, he`s good. Steve Vai, Joe Satriani use Ibanez. Eric Johnson and Malmsteen uses Fender. John Petrucci uses Musicman all different guitars and all great guitar players. Choose what works best for you

i know its not just me thinking this but .. you can pretty much shred on any guitar if know what ur doing.. just set the tension low and get to work

While Ibanez necks are usually particularly thin, and great for shredding; I have been playing an ESP F-100, which looks sweet, and shreds great. The back if the neck is very flat, which I like, and lets your hand move freely up and down the neck. The frets, "jumbo frets," are very tall, so your fingers really don`t come in to contact with the fret board much; so your fingers need to be good and callused, because you`re pressing on the strings w/ nothing to press against. Now, with the thin neck, you`ll notice that you have to be careful while finger tapping because the thin neck will set off the other strings if you`re not dampening them... and you lose a little bit of "warmth" with that thin neck... but who cares. Especially if you`re a rock/alt/punk/metal player who uses a lot of distortion anyways. I love all of my Les Pauls, especially for throwing out some palm muting and chords w/ distortion, BUT, when I`m going to "shred," I`ll usually go with my ESP or one of my Ibanez guitars. As someone said before, though, its all preferance. The all time greatest guitar player, Zakk Wylde, shreds, and I mean SHREDS, on a Les Paul. If you haven`t listened to Zakk, check him out. He`s played w/ Ozzy, and now has a band called "Black Label Society." That man is a God. I hope I helped a little bit. Check out the ESP F-100 for good looks, low price, and a total shred machine. Musicians friend has it for under three hundred bucks. Anyone, feel free to email if you want to B.S. guitars. -Dice

I currently own 6 guitars. An epiphone Les Paul and the neck is good for shredding but its not a fast neck. A Telecaster and 80`s Charvel Avanger and for me these necks are no good for shredding. Gordin Smith GS2 the action on this neck is brilliant very fast. A jackson Dinky and a Jackson Kelly KE3 these are far the best necks I have played my Shredding has improved 100% since playing these.

Ok. This thread is old, but I thought someone might benefit from this.

I love shredding. Be it fast runs up the neck, sweep picking, screaming harmonics, whatever. I also have an Ibanez RG550, an Ibanez RG740, an ESP MIII, an ESP Lynch Kamikaze, a `73 Fender Strat, a Fender HM Strat, and a Gibson Les Paul Studio. Here`s my analysis:

All you Gibson LP and Zakk Fans: Yes you can "shred" on a LP, but it`s more of a pentatonic/blues-based shred. Check Zakk out. That`s what he`s doing. Sure, you can do a nice harmonic minor run up the neck, but it becomes difficult to really shred on the upper frets. The challenge of upper neck fret access also really comes into play when sweeping arpeggios up there. It can be done, but it is much more difficult on a Les Paul.

The Stratocaster is better, a la Yngwie. More of a curved fretboard, but I find it easy to play fast on the neck. Possibly because it isn`t as wide. I don`t know if this holds true for all Stratocasters.

The ESP`s are really good. Wider, flatter, and thinner necks, meaning the distance from the high e to the low E is farther (wide), but the neck is not as thick (it is thin). I especially love the Kamikaze, but it`s expensive.

Now comes the Ibanez. Yes, these make shredding EASY (at least compared to other guitars like the Les Paul). Nice flat fretboards. I thought the Wizard II on the RG550 was the best until I tried the RG740, which is more like the Jem neck. My goodness! If I`m not shredding well on my other guitars, I always pick up the 740. It has the easiest and fastest neck for shredding of all the guitars I own.

Finally, the HM Strat is EXTREMELY wide and extremely flat and also very thin. The closest to a classical guitar I own. It takes the wide, thin, and flat neck to the extreme. It`s a good change of pace, but sometimes I think it may be too wide for me.

If you want to look at what a lot of shredders are playing, check out:
www.chopsfromhell.com
It will really inspire you to shred (and will show you how to do so).

well personally the best neck ive ever found is the one that came on my Samick Avion...u may have never heard of samick but their truely great and relatively inexpensive. Samick makes les paul copies, stratocaster copies, telecaster copies, and several original designs. Its a slick fast neck, which is perfect for shredding. Thats only my opinion though.

Nick

Ibanez prestige rg`s are known for being great shred guitars as well as the vai. I dont like the feel of esp`s. I would much more prefer a jackson over esp`s. Ibanez still remains the king of shred guitars.

stay away from gibson`s necks if your a shredder! It`s like trying to shred on a big fat chunk of wood.
gibson`s were not made for shred metal. I don`t like zakk wylde either, way way overrated!! There are actually some really nice dean guitars out there. In fact Michael Angelo Batio(voted world fastest shredder of all time!) uses dean guitars quite often.