Looking for a new sound and can’t quite land anywhere
I am looking to upgrade my guitar but I can’t come to a concrete decision. I currently play an Epiphone Wildkat Studio which I have enjoyed thoroughly, but I feel as though a different instrument would allow me to broaden my range further. It’s a very bluesy guitar with a beautiful fat and clean sound, so I’m looking for something that will contrast greatly with it. I think I’m looking for something that can really whine and scream, but chug hard as well. A Strat seems like a good idea, but I haven’t found one that really felt right in my hands. And I’ve tried some Teles, but they don’t chug as much as I am looking for. If anyone has any suggestions, my ears are open.
Have a look at PRS. There are a lot of different models from their SE range and up: Custom 24, Mira, Starla, hollow bodies, etc. The SE range is faultless for the money imho. Most are double humbucker, with many being fairly high output for chugging, and a volume control to roll it back!
And the 24-08 models can independently coil split either pickup. So in the middle position you can have either dual humbuckers, dual single coil, bridge single coil and neck humbucker, out bridge humbucker and neck single coil.
Whine, scream and chug makes me think you want something a bit more on the hard rock and metal side? Have you checked out anything in the Epiphone Prophecy series? Or even any of their solid bodies?
If your playing heavier music styles you'd benefit from using something with humbucker pickups. I'd recommend something like PRS SE, Ibanez, Charvel, Les Paul. All very different guitars but they are very capable of heavey tones.