My Axe(that means guitar, posers)

[gcobb]

I guess it just depends on what sort of tone you're craziest about within 'rock and metal.' For instance, both Dimebag Darrell and Derek Trucks could, at times, be classified as rock guitarists. In my own experience/opinion, nothing out there beats a straight-up pedal-free unmediated instrument-to-amp combination of Gibson's 57 humbuckers and a quality Fender tube amp (be it Blues Junior, Blues Deluxe, Deluxe/Super Reverb) when it comes to clean tone.

That said, my own taste and style and ambitions tend to be way on out to the Derek Trucks end of the tonal spectrum. I'd like to be able to characterize my tone as warm and obese, hence my near-fanatical love for the Gibson guitar/Fender amp combo and comparative loathing for the pseudo-soulful thinness of your average Strat player's sound (Stevie Ray being a crucial exception, but only b/c he played with such monstrously thick strings that he ended up with a Gibsonian tone).

I know next to nothing about what sort of hardware would be good for a metal player (and your options would probably depend a lot on how much you play rhythm v. lead (if you're in a band or something)), but my gut tells me one would always be better off going with quality over gimmicky hardware (i.e. get the best tone possible first, then figure out how/whether to add certain effects). Though, as always, the one absolutely most inflexible and foolproof way to improve your sound is to improve your fingers. To practice.