LTD Electric solidbody baritone or 7/8 string guitars

This is a baritone version of the Viper 400. With this guitar you can get the deep tones of a 7 string with the familiar feel of a 6 string. Also being a 6 string it gives you more pickup and hardware options. This guitar is an LTD which is the budget line of ESP guitars. They are made outside of Japan so they are a lot cheaper than the MIJ ESP guitars even though they have much of the same specs. This guitar has the cool ESP Viper shape which is like an offset SG. The guitar has a mahogany body with a 3 pieces set neck. The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. The neck has a 27 inch scale as well. The rosewood fretboard has 24 jumbo frets with standard dot inlays. The pickups are a standard set of EMG's with an 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck. The controls are a normal set with a tone knob and a volume knob with a 3 way toggle switch. UTILIZATION The easy playing nature of this guitar means you will forget its neck is 2 inches longer than normal. If you want to get into super low tunings but dont like the feel of 7 strings this guitar is for you. The thin flat neck means you can really play efforlessly on this guitar. The super smooth, bound, thin U-shaped, 3 Piece maple set neck with rosewood fingerboard on a mahogany sculpted body, provides good resonance and incredible sustain which is what you want on a guitar like this. This guitar has an Earvana compensated nut as well which helps improve intonation all the way up the neck which is even more important on a long scale guitar like this where any misses in intonation will be amplified. The Grover tuners and simple tune-o-matic bridge provide rock solid tuning stability as well. SOUNDS This guitar is a great alternative to a 7 string for many reasons. You get a lot of the tone of a 7 string with a guitar that does not feel much different. Since it is a 6 string you can use normal 6 string pickups which give you a ton more options. If this guitar was a 7 string it would have a set of EMG 7 string pickups which come in a unique size. This unique size means you cannot swap them out which any other pickups if you do not like them. With this guitar if you do not like the pickups you can swap them out with any other 6 string pickups, but there is no reason you would want to since these pickups are great. The EMG's on this guitar suit the tone and use of this guitar perfectly. With an extended scale guitar like this you need active pickups to keep the clarity with the low tunings. The 81 has a great high end crunchy tone which works well with low tunings. its natural brightness keeps the tone from becoming muddy with the low tunings. The 85 in the neck is slightly smoother than the 81 so it has great lead tones with nice high end but it is not harsh in hits high end sound. For an even better tone you can do the 18v mod which means you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one. This provides you with a more organic tone that still retains the clarity the active preamp provides. OVERALL OPINION If you are not sure you can like the feel of a 7 string but still want to rock the low requencies a guitar like this is a great choice. Baritones are becoming more and more popular for metal and amongst people who are stuck in their 6 string habits. With a baritone you get all the low end tone of a 7 string but you can still use all your 6 string hardware and electronics on it which is a huge plus. If you are looking for a nice metal baritone guitar that comes with great pickups right out of the box ESP has good options for you.

(Originally written by belzeb/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Good quality guitar made in Korea. Mahogany body with maple top 27" baritone neck, two active EMG81 pickups for 7-string guitars, one in the bridge and one in the center position (no neck pickup). 3-way toggle switch, volume and tone controls. Auto-locking EMG machine heads Body-through tailpiece. Quite surprising body-through neck. It strongly reminds me of a Schecter 007 neck. This baritone neck is not convenient for small hands. Compared with an Ibanez, the neck is wider, thicker and not so flat (but flatter than a Fender). UTILIZATION Neck I personally love Ibanez RG necks and this one is quite different but incredibly comfortable. The 27" scale can be impressive but I didn't have a problem when I tried it out. It won't be a problem for people used to a 25.5" scale. But people used to playing short scale necks will have lots of difficulties. The neck is not totally flat. I usually play with the thumb behind the neck and I was surprised to see that I sometimes place my thumb on the top edge of the neck. I guess shredders will feel pretty comfortable with this neck. The space between strings is larger than on Ibanez guitars so it's very playable. The neck/body junction is good and you won't have any problem reaching the last fret. Playability The instrument is not that heavy considering it is a mahogany 7-string guitar. Standard weight. It's as heavy as a RG7, but lighter than a Xyphos. It's pretty comfortable to play it standing or sitting thanks to the Strat shape. But I noticed some small disadvantages. First of all, the center pickup is a bit uncomfortable when playing with a pick. If you place your hand very close to the bridge the pick hits the pickup and it's unpleasant. Another problem is that the headstock isn't angled enough so the strings generate vibrations beyond the nut when you play palm mutes. If you like a very accurate sound you'll have to mute them with adhesive tape or a scrunchie... Last drawback: in the beginning, the inverted head is a bit confusing when you tune the guitar... But in spite of all this I loved this guitar! SOUNDS I tested it with a Peavey Bandit 112, which is a very average amp. However, I liked both clean and distortion sounds which shows that this instrument is good! The unplugged sound already lets you hear the mahogany body, the set neck and the body-through tailpiece. It sounds great and the sustain is incredible! Clean sound Everybody will say this guitar was not conceived for clean sounds but I love to disagree with everyone! The EMG pickups sound good, clear and accurate. The sounds provided by the pickups are not that different from one another, and I believe a neck pickup would really broaden the sound range. However, the overall sound is crystal-clear and straightforward. Personally, I find the clean sound is really nice for a guitar conceived for heavy metal. Distortion sound Awesome... The EMG pickups are the perfect match for this guitar. The response is dynamic and clear! Stunning... This guitar has an incredible punch and a very large dynamic range. You can hear that it's a massive mahogany guitar. The sound is stunning (although I usually play a lime tree guitar which has more aggressive highs and more accurate lows). The bridge pickup produces a more precise response while the center pickup sounds like rock. The combination of both pickups is also very good for rock. All three pickup combinations sound quite similar... Perhaps it was the solid-state amp I used when I tested the guitar... OVERALL OPINION I tested this guitar at a music store and it belongs to the best 7-string axes I've ever played! The neck feels very unusual but it's incredibly comfortable. The finish is beautiful and it seems to be sturdy. The guitar has a strong personality. I really liked this guitar and I think it will be my next purchase... especially because you can tune it to F sharp thanks to the baritone neck. This guitar is perfect considering its price. I will buy it as soon as I have enough money!!!

I always thought the F shape was cool, and I always wanted to own a 7-string so I could pull off alot of the music I like (some of Morbid Angel's songs in particular). Other than the styling - nothing. Other than the styling - everything. The guitar sounds loud and fat unplugged, but the stock pickups are junk, pure and simple. I was under the impression that EMG made great pickups, but the HZ's should have never been released. They sound like mud, the neck pickup has almost no output at all. Good luck getting any harmonics out of this guitar, either. Appartently the pickups aren't the only thing that are sonically dead about this guitar. I swapped out the bridge pickup with a DiMarzio Evolution - which had to be modified to fit the deep, rectangular cavity left by the HZ. This didn't even help as much as it should have. It still sounds like mud, all mids, no highs. This guitar is the reason why I'll never buy anything music related on blind faith ever again.This guitar is a novelty, and should be considered as such, nothing more. Save your money and buy an Ibanez or a Carvin. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was on the hunt for a new 7 string guitar, but I never want the "everyone else has" Ibanez. So I set my sights on anything else. After trying numerous others, I finally went with the ESP H-307. Trying it at the store, but buying on line from musicians friend for $550, made it a real easy transaction The body tone,and the neck through sustain, were what attracted me the most, although the trans. green, and contoured body didn't hurt. The overall playability and string spacing were perfect for my short fingers. The only downfall is the pickups (EMG HZ- 707). I found these to be slightly less than par for me. Though they sound OK for rythems, I thought they were not as good for soloing. I had trouble keeping sustain on artificial harmonics. Extremely well built, and designed. Flawless in most respects Fantastic looking and sounding guitar for the price, but if you change the pickups, you are getting the steal of the century. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

There are not many 7 string V's on the market but this guitar really gets the job done. It reminds me of the Negral signature guitar but without all the signature stuff on it making it a bit cheaper. This is the ESP V307. The 7 standing for 7 string. This guitar comes with all you need to get a ripping 7 string tone. It is super stable and has great pickups. This guitar comes with a mahogany body all around. The maple neck is set into the body and has a rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets. Up top you get a 4x3 headstock with Grover tuners. I prefer these types of headstocks to 6 or 7 inline headstocks because you not hit your fingers on tuners when you are tuning. The best feature about this guitar is the electronics. This guitar comes with 7 string EMG's from the factory. If you are playing with 7 or more strings you need active pickups. In the bridge you get an 81-7 and in the neck you get a 707. This is pretty much the 81/85 set but in 7 string form. The controls are simple with two volumes and a master tone with a 3 way toggle. UTILIZATION This is a big solid 7 string. The neck is wide but not too wide. It is nice and thin as well so it is easy to adjust to. The V shape body gives you good balance but some people may not like how you have to sit with it to play it. If you play it sitting down you might have to use the classical position which some people do not like. This is the same on most every V shaped guitar. ESP is nice and they throw in a battery compartment for the EMG's which you need because they are active and powered by batteries. With the tune-o-matic bridge you get rock solid stability and you can tune it to whatever you want whenever you want. SOUNDS The tones from this guitar are brutal. A 7 string with EMG's can make even the weakest player sound super heavy. The 81-7 in the bridge is just like an 81 but for 7 strings. On a 7 string the pickup is even better with its crunchy high end sound. This lets the pickup retain all its clarity even with the super low 7 string tunings. The sound is still super heavy but with great clarity because of the high end grind the 81-7 has. The 707 in the neck is just like an 85 in a 6 string so you get the classic combo. The 707 is a bit smoother than the 81-7. The 7 string version has a bit more high end to keep it clear since the 7 string is going to be handling lower frequencies. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is a good 7 string if you are looking for a 7 string V. Like I said there arent many 7 string V's on the market and this comes with the pickups you want. Getting a 7 string with active pickups like these stock is something to look for since they are not the same size as passive 7 string pickups. If you got a 7 string that came with passives originally fitting a set of these in it would require modification to the body. If you get one with active pickups from the factory you can swap in other active pickups easily without any body modification. This guitar is reasonably priced as well. Coming with 200 dollars worth of pickups stock this is a good value in the guitar world.

Nergal is the frontman for the popular blackened death metal band Behemoth. He has a signature ESP 7 string guitar and this is the LTD version of that guitar. LTD is ESP's budget line. The guitars offer much of the same specs but are built outside of Japan so usually cost about half the price of the Japanese ones. The guitar has a mahogany body with a neck through construction. The neck is maple with an ebony fretboard. The fretboard has no inlays apart from a gothic eagle inlay on the 12th fret. There are 24 jumbo frets on the fretboard. The neck is nice and thin and up top there are locking tuners. There is a locking bridge down at the bottom. The pickups are a set of 7 string EMG pickups. There is an EMG 81-7 in the bridge and a 707 in the neck. The guitar is black with a subtle eagle graphic on it. The controls are basic with a master volume and a 3 way. UTILIZATION This guitar does not feel like it is a 7 string. It has a nice feel to it. The neck through construction means that there is no heel to get in the way and you have easy access all the way up the fretboard. The ebony freboard is super smooth and feels good under your fingers. The jumbo frets mean you can really bend as much as you want without fretting out. The locking tuners and locking bridge are something every guitar should have. The locking tuners keep you in tune no matter what and the locking bridge keeps your bridge from falling out when you are changing strings. This guitar has EMG pickups that require a battery so ESP provides a battery compartment so you can easily change out the battery without having to take the guitar apart. SOUNDS This guitar has a nice sharp tone. Because it is neck through with a maple neck you get more of a maple tone than a mahogany tone. With the shape of this guitar being a V there is almost as much maple on the guitar as there is mahogany and being neck through everything is mounted on the maple. This sharp bright maple tone means you have great clarity in the lower registers which is what you want. This is helped out with the active EMG pickups. The 81-7 in the bridge is just like what its name implies. It is a 7 string version of the classic 81 pickup. It has a razor sharp tone with a good high end grind that keeps your riffs super sharp and clear. The 707 is not as obvious with its name but it is pretty much an 85 in the form of a 7 string. It has a smoother sound than the 81-7 but it is still super clear. Its smoother sounds are great for high gain leads in the neck position and it is also pretty decent for clean tones. If you want even more clean tones you can do the 18v mod and run the pickups on two batteries instead of one. This gives you more headroom and makes the tone more organic overall. OVERALL OPINION This is a good signature model. The signature aspects of the guitar are no so obvious that everyone knows you are playing someone elses guitar. The guitar is also a solid guitar on its own. It doesnt take a genius to make a guitar like this. If you are looking for a radical V shaped 7 string here it is. It has someone elses name on it but it is not super blatant and gaudy. This is a good solid guitar that can be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good 7 string.

The ESP LTD SC-207 is a signature model made by LTD to appease those who are Stephen Carpenter fans but don't have the cash to shell out for the more expensive models out there. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple bolt-on neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, a TOM bridge, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The guitar isn't put together that well. While I didn't experience the issues of the neck joints like I did with other LTD models out there, the fretwork was still bad. The edges were sharp and unfinished. The frets weren't properly crowned, and there were issues with the frets being uneven in certain areas which can hinder how low you can set the action before you fret out. I also can't stand the position of the switch and volume knobs, but since it's a Stephen Carpenter signature model, it's kinda hard to fault that. SOUNDS The stock pickups in this thing suck. They sound very dull, and the middle pickup is completely useless. I never understood why Stephen likes the middle humbucker pickup. I could never get a good lead tone out of it, and the clean tones were always average at best. It also gets in the way of my picking, and I'm always finding myself hitting it whenever I'm strumming. I usually just slam the thing so I can get some room to strum without hitting it all the time. OVERALL OPINION If you're a fan of Stephen Carpenter, you'll probably be checking this model out. Given that I'm not a huge fan of his music, my opinion might be a bit biased, but I just didn't enjoy the guitar at all. The electronics positioning was all wrong, the middle humbucker was useless, the low B and muddy as hell with the stock pickups, the fretwork was iffy at best, and it didn't even contain the tone woods the guy normally uses. I recommend checking out something else.