Ok.

Bands like Godsmack and Manson use mesa boogie or marshall amps with 4 x 12 speaker cabs, usually several at a time. Metallica use like eight for each guitarist. Metal bands invariably use humbucking pickups, the hotter the better. Bear in mind that the hotter the pickups you use (meaning more gain) the crappier they will sound on clean sounds.

If you'd rather not go all out straight away, I'd suggest you get something along the lines of an Epiphone Les Paul for your guitar. These are not strictly metal guitars, like those Ibanez ones with the pointy headstocks, but are far more versatile and have a lot more tone. Get one off trademe - you should only spend about $700 - $800 on it, while a brand new one might cost you $1200 or more, I don't know the exact prices. If you're happy to spend more, a real Les Paul will set you back about $2500 second hand on trademe. I have one of these and will never sell it willingly, it's just fantastic for any musical style, definitely including metal. Try some guitars out, even those way above your price brakcet, to get a feel for what you are looking for - some will have better necks, some will be really physically heavy, some bodies will feel more comfortable, some have more pickup options and will be more versatile for other styles. There is no right and wrong with guitars.

One you have the guitar, if you really want metal gain above all else, I'd change the pickups over to EMGs, which is what all the metal bands have in their guitars. Again, these sound like utter shit on clean sounds, so the guitars stock pickups might be better if you do any clean playing, or think you might want to along the road. If you do get EMGs, at least keep the original pickups - when you go to sell the guitar, it will be a lot easier to flick if you still have the original pickups with it. Many a young man has gone down the road of metal only to musically evolve to something else later on down the track (this was the case for me).

Rather than getting a huge, very expensive amp for distortion, I would recommend the G2D Morpheus pedal - it has an absolutely devastating metal crunch. These are around $450 new, but again they pop up on trademe regularly. If that's too expensive, the Boss MT-2 (metalzone) has been the pedal of choice for millions of aspiring metalheads around the world. you can plug one of these bad boys into almost any amp and get a killer crunch. The G2D would be a far better sound, however....
Crate are doing some very nice little tube amps at the moment, probably best value for money as they are new on the market and are susequently cheaper than the big players. A little Fender amp will give you a glorious clean sound, which you can then dirty up with your pedal of choice. As is always the rule, go to a music shop and try before you buy, to get a feel for what you like, and ask lots of questions. then you can choose to browse trademe or buy new from a shop, with a bit more of an idea of what you're after.

Thanx for your replies ! its a big help, i was also wondering if maybe i could go for something like a fender strat but i have heard that its more of a blues classic rock type sound. do most amps have effects or is it better to get effects from pedals as you say. also would a fender valve amp sound good with a gibson or epiphone and maybe i should look at the ibanez gats would you recomend that i heard they have the floyde rose trem wich is difficult to set up any way thanx for the help

Josh

Also, may I suggest that as an alternative to US or Australian made guitars ( The Maton range from OZ is quite acceptable - Shihad's fromtman Jon uses one) you consider a New Zealand made guitar?

Link: http://www.ashcustomworks.com/

Link: http://www.langcaster.com/

And what about a New Zealand made valve amp?

Here's a topic from this forum's very own Best of the Boards section:

http://www.nzmusic.com/topic.cfm?show=all&i=12544#post209840

There are also New Zealand effects pedals such as the G2D range, which includes the Morpheus pedal mentioned above.

Link: http://www.g2d.co.nz/

Of course, as I mentioned above, the guitarists that post on the NZGuitars forum can let you know their experiences with buying guitars from here in New Zealand as well as buying guitars from overseas directly and by-passing the Rockshop markup - thus saving quite abit of money.

Also, Ash himself from AshCustomWorks posts there so you can ask him directly what you need to know.

That NZGuitars url again:

[ http://www.nzguitars.com ]