I concur, if you have the cash Ibanez Jem's are execellent and perfect for fast fretwork. I also have an Ernie Ball Music Man Petrucci signature 7 string, amazing tone and the smoothest, fastest neck I've ever played. The only negativ for the EBMM is the lack of a top lock - it has a floating trem so it goes out of tune easily (serious design flaw in my book). Both the Jem and EBMM are amazing and rank as the top guitars I have owned and/or played. Also worth checking are Ibanez Prestige models (I switched the stock pups for EMG actives in mine). The Jackson Soloist is also a nice model. As another Jem fetishist :D , I have to say Jem's are the best shred machine out there, they also have great bluesy tones and lovely clean sounds so you won't be restricted to metal if you get one. I got BIG hands and I've never played a guitar that I considered too small (I'm 6ft 6 and lift weights like crazy).

Originally Posted by: zreynoldspAnd I have an Ibanez fetish....

JEMs are great, I have a few and cannot fault them. I also have RGs, and disagree that they are only for shred - I use mine for all sorts of styles. It's very much a personal thing and if you have enough cash for a JEM it might even be worth having something built custom just for you. You might find the string spacing on a wizard neck a little odd - they're wider than standard.

I would also recommend you check out the Musicman Petrucci model - it's beautiful and the neck is a work of art on it's own....

A friend of mine shreds on a fender tele with a neck the size of a baseball bat - a proper full handful (as does John 5). You don't need a shred guitar to shred.

If you'd be interested in a compromise, I play my Ibanez JS more than anything else and the only slight disadvantage to it is it's 22 fret rather than 24.... it's compund radius makes chords and lead easy...