I appreciate the opinions and suggestions..good stuff. i've been listening to the sound that shadows fall lead guitarist has and i like that nice tone to pull an awesome metal shred but then a nice transfer to a nice hard riff. In the mix i know it would probably be tough and all but pickups that would also sound nice in clean. Any other ideas? Dunno if that cleared anything up really. I'm kinda in the mix really cause i like hard metal but then again i like guitarist sounds like slash, zakk wylde, randy rhoads and such.