This one is a Jackson Strat-style body with a Floyd Rose bridge and whammy bar. I will do another scan and get the top of the guitar into the shot later on. Jackson, Charvel, and Kramer all had their day during this period. I never played this style of music particularly well, so I mainly stayed away from these axes.

I don't remember having this one around long; I may even have borrowed it just to make this shot. I do remember owning a cherry red Fender Strat with black hardware for a short time. These guitars were an entirely different animal than the Gibson-style guitar below, actually about as different as they could be, body styling aside. They were intended for playing metal and loud rock and roll, usually through a Marshall stack. This one is new and certainly has a nice finish. It has no pickguard which looks sexy when the axe is new but will not look too great if the guitar is used every night.

There was nothing mellow about the sound this guitar made, and it really didn't kick in till you overloaded it. As you will note there only only a volume control and in this instance only one humbucker. The volume control is situated a little closer to the strings. This would allow the player to utilise the volume control quite effectively as a playing tool by resting the baby finger on the control while picking the strings.

Tone was controlled through the myriad pedals and effects boards used by people who played this style of music; a tone pot on the guitar was often considered redundant. Most metal guitars had at least one humbucker, usually in combination with single coil pickups.

I really loved guitars with the Floyd Rose bridge and whammy bar, though. It was a treat to bend those string and not have to retune the guitar, at least not right away.

This guitar was actually a personal foreshadowing in one sense, though. I really likied the finish. I stopped buying a lot of coloured guitars soon after and stuck with the standard black finish, usually with a white pickguard.

Start-style body
Rosewood fretboard
Wider frets than the guitar below
One humbucker pickup
Floyd Rose bride and whammy bar
No pickguard
Carve front and back for comfort and ease of playing