Death metal is one of the heaviest, most aggressive sub-genres of metal. It is all about heavy, chugging riffs, angry sounding distortion, and the Devil’s interval: the tritone.
Death metal tones are unyielding and brutal. The genre demands extreme technical precision and uncompromising technique.
Top 3 - Guitars for Death Metal
To play death metal, you’ll need a guitar that can unleash machine-gun palm muted chugs and searing lead tones.
You’ll need your power chords to sound thick and powerful.
You’ll also need the guitar to accommodate the serious musical demands of the music. A simple set of high-powered humbuckers isn’t enough: the guitar has to play well to enable the very techniques that define the genre.
With that in mind, here are my top picks for some of the best guitars for death metal (based on my personal experience).
6 Guitars for Death Metal - My Personal Picks!
1. ESP LTD EC-Black Metal
Despite what the name might suggest, the EC-Black Metal isn’t a guitar just for playing your favorite Gorgoroth riffs. This thing can rip Cannibal Corpse just as hard.
This is a guitar that lets you know exactly what you are getting. The all black look tells you that it means business.
It looks like a Les Paul Junior’s goth cousin, with a single cutaway and sole bridge humbucker. The humbucker is a Seymour Duncan Black Winter, a pickup designed specifically for the rigors of extreme music.
ESP LTD EC-Black Metal
The tone is all about being heavy, chunky, and aggressive.
Plugged into my Hughes & Kettner, power chords and rapidfire tremolo simply crackle to life with this guitar. The Black Winter offers serious high-gain tone, and sounds best with the amp’s gain cranked way up.
That is also pretty much where its tone starts and ends. This is a very straightforward guitar. You are only getting a bridge pickup and a volume control. In a way, it’s almost a punk-rock approach. Truly, you don’t need much to sound good, and this guitar is testament to that.
Versatility isn’t in this guitar’s vocabulary.
I think that lack of versatility also counts in this guitar’s favor. It is meant to just be plugged into an amp, with the gain turned all the way up.
The lack of a tone control and neck pickup isn’t a bad thing, either. For the kind of highly saturated sounds I prefer when playing heavy music, you want a good amount of treble and midrange.
Death metal riffage can sound muddy when played on the neck pickup.
When I felt absolutely desperate to sweeten up my lead tone, I was able to do so by adjusting my technique and playing closer to the fretboard. This compromised my muting ability somewhat, but it’s a viable approach for legato playing.
You don’t really need anything else, really. This guitar just sounds great from the get go.
Although the Black Metal, as the name implies, was designed for the chilly tremolo picking and corpsepaint of Norwegian black metal, it sounds great for pretty much all heavy music.
If you want a guitar that is going to sound great in a death metal setting, or any metal really, I think you will be very happy with the EC-Black Metal.
2. Jackson Monarkh SC JS22
The Jackson Monarkh isn’t your ordinary guitar from Jackson.
The first thing you will notice is the body. This guitar has a Les Paul style, single cutaway body. If you’re like me, you associate Jackson guitars with hot-rodded Superstrats, not curved Les Paul silhouettes. Regardless, the black-on-black finish feels good under your arm, and it looks very cool.
Jackson Monarkh SC JS22
Once you plug it in, you will notice the second special thing about this guitar: the sound. This guitar sounds great.
I know that might sound strange, Jacksons are known for sounding great, after all. But the reason the sound is special is due to the guitar’s price.
This is a super affordable guitar. Yet, it sounds like a guitar twice its price. This guitar has some serious distorted tone. Riffs are chunky and aggressive, while solos are crisp and clear.
At higher gain levels, as for death metal, the stock pickup becomes a little muddy. It also thins out quite a bit compared to, for example, Seymour Duncan pickups.
Despite this, it’s a very usable high-gain tone. It reminds me more of Death than Arch Enemy, but that’s a cool thing.
The tone does have quite a bit of dirt to it, though. If you are looking for a guitar with a modern death metal tone, I think you might not like this guitar. But if you are going for a more classic '90s or '80s death metal tone, this guitar is right up your alley.
While this is more of a beginner guitar, I think that even experienced players will have a blast playing with it.
3. Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder
You’ve heard of superstrats. How about a super-tele?
Schecter is known for making some serious metal guitars. They might not be as well-known as Jackson or Ibanez, but they can absolutely compete with them.
The Sun Valley Super Shredder is one of Schecter’s best midrange guitars. It is not only a cool looking guitar, but a cool sounding one as well. With its high-powered pickups and white finish, it looks a lot like John 5’s signature Telecasters.
Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder PT FR
Of course, this heavy metal machine is built for much more than chicken picking and Motley Crue riffs.
The Super Shredder looks like someone put a Floyd Rose in a Tele to make some strange Frankenstein’s guitar. It does look a bit odd at first, but it is a look that I think adds to the guitar’s cool factor.
This guitar isn’t as heavy as some of the others on this list.
The EMG active pickups do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to this guitar’s tone. The particular sound of EMGs is thick, powerful, and aggressive. I’ve always found them to risk harshness at lower gain levels, but if you’re playing death metal that won’t be an issue.
The comfortable Fender-style neck is a nice inclusion here, too. My fingers absolutely flew across the fretboard as I played through Obituary riffs. Its light weight and very accessible playability make this an awesome guitar.
I will concede that the EMGs do give this guitar a character closer to ‘80s thrash than modern death metal. I was able to get in the ballpark of modern death metal tone with my Hughes & Kettner amp. You will probably be able to get a modern death metal tone with the right amp. It will take some dialing in, however. That said, in my opinion, time spent chasing tone is never wasted!
With its light weight and powerful tone, I had a great time running through my favorite riffs on this excellent guitar.
4. Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2
Charvel guitars are best known for high-powered takes on classic Fender shapes. The Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2 is a heavy-duty guitar with excellent playability and killer tone.
This is a guitar that oozes style. With its Tele style body and reverse headstock, few guitars look as cool in my opinion.
Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2
It was also made for fast playing. The neck shape is literally called Speed Neck. That says all you need to know.
Although I’m not normally one for supermodel-slim high-speed necks, I found it very comfortable. It fit neatly into my hand and I endured no fatigue in trying out the riff from “Raining Blood.”
This guitar lives up to the Pro-Mod in its name. This is one of the most versatile guitars I have played in quite some time. The clean sound on offer here is as useful as its high-powered distorted tone.
Besides the coil tap for switching between humbucker and single coil sounds, the Pro-Mod also has a second switch. This switch is to change the voicing of the guitar.
You can switch between a modern PAF and a vintage PAF voicing. In other words, you can choose between a modern or a vintage tone.
There’s a solid snap and twang to this guitar’s clean sound, as one might expect from a hot-rodded Telecaster. The tone I found most useful for death metal was the high-output bridge humbucker, which had enough heft and push to access those classic high-gain tones.
I wouldn’t recommend using the lower-output humbucker or tapped tones for death metal, particularly on the neck pickup. However, I could see myself using this guitar at a wide range of gigs, and most musicians with a taste for the heavy stuff often find themselves playing other types of music for money. I’m one of them!
While the odds of a cover show including music from Kreator as well as Luke Combs are pretty slim, you could feasibly take this guitar to a Kreator covers gig as well as a Luke Combs gig. Not a bad result for a simple Tele-style guitar.
5. Fender Jim Root Signature Telecaster
While the mask-wearing stalwarts of Slipknot aren’t exactly a death metal band, this signature axe from Jim Root is an excellent instrument for any metal subgenre.
The name “Slipknot” doesn’t exactly conjure images of minimalism, but the stark black-and-white aesthetic of this guitar absolutely screams heavy-metal brutality. The sharp white finish contrasts nicely against the ebony of the fretboard and the matte black of the EMG pickups: it looks awesome, and wouldn’t be out of place in a basement DIY metal show.
Fender Jim Root Signature Telecaster
The single master volume control is a cool inclusion. I like the bare-bones simplicity of playing this guitar: it simply sounds awesome as soon as you plug it in. No tweaking necessary.
The EMG humbuckers, as expected, sound brutally heavy. I played a few palm muted chugs and pinch harmonics, and they roared out of the speakers. It’s hard to resist locking in to a machine-gun groove with this guitar.
The mahogany body makes this Telecaster a little heavier than the lightweight country guitars Tele players will be familiar with, but it’s still much lighter than my Les Paul. I comfortably stood playing this guitar for hours on end.
The neck is comfortably fast, not too slender, and I felt no fatigue.
Although I’m here to talk about death metal tones, I could see myself playing this ultra-cool Tele for just about any heavy metal subgenre. It’s just that good.
6. Jackson Dinky Arch Top JS32-7
Jackson’s Dinky series is already one of the best affordable metal guitars money can buy. It seemed like every other teenaged guitar player in the 2000s was wielding a Dinky or Dinky-like metal guitar.
The Dinky JS32-7 brings that affordability to the realm of the 7-string guitar.
Yes, the JS32-7 is an affordable 7-string guitar. Best of all, it’s an affordable 7-string that still plays and sounds fantastic.
Jackson Dinky Arch Top JS32-7 DKA HT
This guitar is pretty much your average Dinky Arch Top, just with an extra string. It plays and sounds about the same as a 6-string Dinky. That is to say, the sound is classic superstrat: it’s mid-forward, and sounds best at higher gain levels.
The clean tone is pretty lifeless and dull, but we’re here for the heavy stuff.
Speaking of heavy stuff: that extra string gives it a lot more weight. This guitar has a seriously fat, beefy tone. If you play in drop B or even drop A tunings, you are going to have a lot of fun with this guitar. It is perfect for 7-string death metal.
The Dinky’s slim, comfortable neck profile makes stretching to the extra string much easier than I anticipated. I found accessing the low B string very easy, and the menacing, low-pitched tones on offer were very satisfying to play.
It is also quite easy and comfortable to play. The neck is, as typical for a Jackson shred guitar, comfortably thin, and I enjoyed playing rapidfire licks up and down the neck. Best of all, I didn’t feel like it weighs much more than a standard Dinky.
While I do like the sleek white finish, I wish there were at least one more finish option. I know this is going to turn a few people off since not everyone likes white guitars.
I wouldn’t let the lack of finish options put you off. If you are looking for an affordable, great sounding 7-string, I would definitely recommend considering the JS32-7.
What Makes a Good Death Metal Guitar?
While you can technically play death metal on any guitar, certain guitars are better suited and will sound better. If you are looking at a guitar specifically for playing death metal, there are a few things to take into consideration.
I’d make the case that, most of the time, how you play is more important than what you’re playing. I’d argue that, particularly for heavy music, it’s important to have a powerful amplifier capable of delivering the crushing, high-gain tones necessary for extreme metal.
However, there are key considerations when it comes to your choice of guitar.
Tonewoods
At the higher gain levels necessary for death metal, your guitar needs a little more brightness. The tones are relatively dark and saturated, and at higher levels of saturation, you lose the articulation.
Mahogany is generally considered the best tonewood for metal. It produces a warm and punchy tone. It’s nicely mid-forward to give you chunkiness and articulation in equal measure. It’s my favorite tonewood.
I prefer the full range of tonal options in a wood. This is important to get chunky and beefy sounding riffs. This allows you to get that sweet chug sound that death metal is known for.
Alder is also a good option. It has a more midrange tone. This can give your riffs a nice snap to make them stand out a bit more.
Another alternative is basswood. Basswood is more balanced, with a nice blend of both lows and highs. It is also fairly light, making basswood guitars ideal for any on stage antics you might be inclined to perform.
Neck
Necks come in three flavors: bolt on, glued-in, and neck through.
A bolt on neck is typically the cheaper option. They are also usually made from a different tonewood than the body.
This is the typical construction of a Fender-style guitar, so Superstrat-style metal axes tend to feature bolt-on necks.
This means you can have a basswood body, with a mahogany neck. The two tonewoods will balance each other out, giving you a darker or brighter tone, depending on which tonewoods the guitar is made of.
Glued-in necks, also known as set necks, offer more sustain and resonance than bolt-on necks do. This is the classic construction of Gibson-style guitars like the Les Paul and SG.
Neck through guitars are often where the neck and body are made from one piece of wood.
Neck through guitars are typically more expensive than bolt-ons. The main advantage is that neck through guitars have a much greater sustain, which is important in death metal. It’s mostly useful for soloing and riffs.
You should also consider the wood that the fretboard is made of. Ebony and rosewood are the two most common for metal guitars. Ebony has a nice, hard, slightly “slick” feel perfect for the demanding technical precision of the genre.
Rosewood is fairly balanced and is a good choice if your neck and body is made from darker sounding woods. Ebony is darker, but also more durable than rosewood.
Locking Tuners and Nuts
Since death metal is a genre that requires a lot of aggressive playing, you don’t want your strings going out of tune constantly.
For this reason, metal guitars often use either locking nuts or locking tuners. These help to keep the strings locked in place, making them stay in tune for longer.
These are usually standard features on metal guitars, but the guitar you pick might have neither. If your guitar has neither, you can simply replace the tuners with a set of locking ones, like the D’Addario Auto-Trims.
Pickups
For any metal style, you’ll need humbuckers. Single-coil pickups just aren’t powerful enough for metal. This is especially true of death metal, which demands extremely high output from your pickups.
Single coils are also prone to feedback and 60-cycle hum. In fact, humbuckers were invented specifically to address this unwanted noise, hence the name.
While you can access metal tones with vintage-voiced humbuckers, my recommendation would be to go for a hotter magnet. Alnico V magnets sound great. Seymour Duncan has a range of awesome high-gain pickups perfect for death metal, including the excellent Black Winter set.
You could also try active humbuckers, such as those made by EMG. Active humbuckers have even more power on tap thanks to the use of an additional battery for extra juice. They run hotter than passive pickups (like the Black Winter set) and have a distinctive bite and snarl to their tone.
Which Brands are the Best for Death Metal?
As I mentioned above, you can play death metal on pretty much any guitar. But some brands are going to be better, and other brands aren’t going to be as good or good at all.
All of the brands talked about in this article are going to be perfect. But you can also consider guitars from Ibanez and Strandberg, like the Axion Label or Boden Metal NX6.
While, historically, Fender and Squier guitars weren’t made for metal players, certain modern Fenders are more than capable of delivering the punishing tones necessary for death metal. Take the Jim Root signature Telecaster, for example.
Gibson can go either way. Plenty of metal bands play Gibson guitars, even a few death metal bands.
If you want a Gibson for death metal, the Explorer and Flying V are going to be your best bets.
Regardless, brand is less important than the specs of the guitar question. It’s more important that your instrument be comfortable to play and have high-powered pickups than anything else.
Final Word
There are many more guitars out there that are perfect for playing death metal. These are just some of the best guitars for death metal to get you chugging in no time.
I hope this article has given you a good idea of what to look for. Whether you are an old school Deicide death metaller or a new school Suicide Silence fan, there is sure to be a guitar on this list that fits your tastes.