Video: Here’s What Modern Metal Sounds Like On a $200 Beginners’ Guitar

Something I’m incredibly vocal about as a metalhead and a metal journalist is that I don’t understand gear. I don’t care about how studios were set up for famous albums, I don’t know one pedal from the other, and I think “making-of” webisodes are pointless filler used to round out the promotion side of an album cycle. While I’ve been in a band, I was a vocalist, the ultimate no-gear job (at least for our grody asses). That said, I do know that gear is important to metal’s sound, and I’m told that you get what you pay for when it comes to guitars, which is why I find this video of a dude playing modern metal on a $200 beginners’ guitar even remotely interesting.

The guitar in question is a Donner DST-400D, which is available for under $200 USD. As you’ll hear in the video below, YouTuber Sebastiside uses it to play his take on “modern metal,” which to his credit lies somewhere between Lamb of God and Polyphia. The result is, as expected, incredibly light, and shows fans how these guitars, while obviously really helpful for young fans trying to learn the basic ins and outs of the instrument, are not really built for the kind of music that we love.

Since listening to an instrument description is like trying to eat Greek salad for me, here’s what Ultimate Guitar says about the specs of this particular Donner:

The instrument features an alder body with high gross finish, a rosewood fretboard, a 2-point tremolo, as well as two single-coil, and a humbucker set of pickups.

I’m trying really hard to think of a ‘Donner party’ joke, because while I don’t know gear, I know historical horror. But it escapes me.

Anyway, check out this dude wailing on a cheap-o axe below: