ESP Electric solidbody baritone or 7/8 string guitars

As a seven string player, I've been waiting quite awhile for ESP to finally release a seven string version of their Horizon guitars with a floyd rose. They've made hard tails before, but the floyded one was what I truly wanted. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck-thru design with an ebony fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, offset block inlays with binding, an original floyd rose, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The guitar had some amazing fretwork. You normally don't see this kind of fretwork unless you're working on higher quality guitars. The ends were perfectly beveled, and the frets were absolutely straight, so you could get some real nice action on this. The binding was also done super clean. The inlays work was top notch with very little filler, too. I can't say enough about this guitar. The bridge on this is probably the best non-Ibanez floyd out there, so no issues there. The access to the higher frets was nice, the back of the neck was painted (a bit of a minus), but it wasn't a super thick neck (a plus). SOUNDS The guitar had EMG 707s installed in it. These can get some very polarizing opinions. Some say that they have a single coil like quality to them, and they kinda do. They have this interesting grind to them that places them, tonally, between the 81 and the 85. There is an EMG 81-7 that you can try, but I don't really recommend it unless you're going for a bright tone. The 707s do a decent job. The cleans are kinda bland, but the rest of the stuff is cool. I recommend trying out the 18v mod if you're looking for some more dynamics. If you're a metal player, you might like the standard 9v that they do. OVERALL OPINION The guitar is one of my favorite seven string guitars, and I can't say enough about it. I much prefer it to some of my other seven string guitars I own, and I'd put it up against anything, as long as I don't have to play too much lower gain stuff. The pickups in this kinda force it into the whole metal genre, which might not be a good thing for those jazz players out there.

This model has actually been available over in Europe for a bit now, but it's finally arrived on US shores. The guitar is like a standard Horizon, but you have a few extra frets. If you've ever seen the Kiko sig, or a Caparison Horus, you'll know exactly what this guitar is like. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck-thru design with an ebony fretboard, dot inlays with an ESP logo at the 12th fret, scalloped frets from 12 to 27, binding, an original floyd rose bridge, jumbo fretwire, HS configuration with one volume, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The craftsmanship on these ESP Standard series is pretty awesome for what you're getting. The frets were perfectly level. I was able to get some super sick action, even on the 12'' radius that this thing has. The ends were also beveled nicely so they don't slice your hand every time you play it. Access to the higher frets is a breeze thanks to the neck-thru design. You might have to think a little bit when trying to get to the higher frets as the extra ones might throw you off for a second, but with practice, it should become natural when it comes to reaching that 24th fret. SOUNDS The guitar has a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in the neck. The Custom 5 is a great pickup. It has a nice bottom end, which is needed for this guitar, but it also has some aggression. However, don't think this is just a metal pickup. It can do cleans and midgain tones with ease. That's one of the benefits of the Alnico V magnet that they installed in this. The Duncan Hotrails is a pretty thick and powerful sounding pickup, but since it's moved back slightly, it's a bit cleaner sounding than what people are used to. That's something to keep in mind. The volume difference is also greater, so that's something else to keep in mind. Great pickups, overall. OVERALL OPINION I've been waiting for a guitar like this to hit the production market for quite awhile. While there are other brands out there that offer 27 frets, they're not exactly what I'm looking for. This has everything I'm looking for and without the crazy expensive price tag that some of the other 27 fret guitars have. If you happen to want to expand your range, take a look at this.

Neck-Thru-Body Construction 27" Baritone Scale Alder Body Maple Neck Ebony Fingerboard 47mm Graphite Nut Thin U Neck Contour 24 XJ Frets Chrome Hardware Sperzel Locking Tuners Tonepros Locking TOM Bridge EMG 81-7 (B & N) Active p.u. Finish: BLK UTILIZATION As with most ESP products, this guitar is very well made. It has a bit larger neck carve than I'm used to - not terribly great for shred, at least not to my hands. I like to be able to get around the guitar with absolute precision and ease, and this guitar feels a touch too chunky to do that. But the extra scale length and the neck through body helps the sound definition - the strings sound more piano-like in general. This guitar sounds better than my RG7621 that I raved about, but only unplugged. SOUNDS The definition is great on this unplugged, but the pickups are a bit too sterile for me. I know, that's a common theme among EMGs, but I feel like some nice passives, or even the new 707X pickups would help this guitar's tone out. The problem with most EMGs is that the guitar sounds like every single other guitar out there that has the same pickups - it's like you hear the tone of the pickup far more than the tone of the wood or the guitar as a whole. That annoys me - I think one should be able to hear the guitar's character inherent, but still have the pickup color the output in its own way, but not dominate the sound. I will say that I'm impressed with the middle pickup tone - it sounds like a neck pickup in depth. It is definitely a unique feature to have no neck pickup and have a middle pickup instead. OVERALL OPINION This is a great guitar in the right hands. Steph makes it sound otherworldly huge and agressive. I just play with too delicate a touch to really appreciate it fully. Bottom line - great guitar, just not for me. I'd probably get one if they had a thinner neck profile and different pickups.

This is a Japan made custom shop neck through 6 string model. It has an alder body with maple wings, maple neck, ebony fret board, and string through tune-o-matic bridge.I have the black one with the older pearl binding. I hate cheap looking binding like on the LTDec100 line but ESP got this one right. The carved top also adds a touch of class. Stock it came with a seymour duncan jb bridge, ESP middle humbucker, ESP neck single coil, 1 volume, 1 tone, and a five way pick up switch. UTILIZATION This guitar is an absolute dream to play. The 25 1/2" scale gives your fingers just a bit more room which really helps on the upper register of the neck. I normally do not like painted necks but this one feels great, not sticky. The cut away is also a bit deeper than other guitars so getting to the 24th fret is no problem. The weight distribution is so nice and it just sits perfectly in your hands. I think this is something that gets taken for granted but with how I play it is extremely important for performance and health in the back. When I bought this guitar I could tell it had been put through hell but still there were no problems with the frets or neck and a quick set up with new strings was all it took to get it playing great again. This thing was literally trashed, the pickups did not work, the binding was chipped off the headstock, the bridge was jacked up to allow a bass string to be used for the low E..it was just a mess. SOUNDS I play a mixture of metal, rock, prog, clean chords and I get so many sounds out of this guitar. As I mentioned this guitar was trashed so once I got it playing I quickly swapped out the JB. I did plug it in briefly with the stock set-up but I was never a fan of that pickup so I won't comment on that. I went through many pickups searching for a perfect bridge pickup and settled on an Anderson h3. With this pickup it has everything I want in a guitar. The low end is tight, the highs are just enough to cut through a dense mix, and the mid range is never honky. I will say I do not use the middle pickup very often but I think that's because the other positions sound so good that it's not really necessary. Right now I have a dimarzio air zone single in the neck and have the 4th position on the selector set up to coil tap it. It's really amazing how this guitar can go from modern metal to sweet sounding blues in the flick of a switch. OVERALL OPINION I really cannot think of anything I don't like about this guitar. I think ESP cheaped out a bit on the middle and neck pickups but most people change those out anyway. Still for the money they could have at least loaded it with all Duncan. If you can find one of these guitars and you play any kind of rock or metal it would be tough to beat it. They have since discontinued the 6 string model but you can get a pretty similar guitar in the Horizon line.