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mooseherman « Disappointing, generic, lifeless-sounding guitar »
Published on 10/20/10 at 14:11This is a guitar made by ESP, a Japanese company. However, it is an LTD guitar, which is manufactured by their subsidiaries who operate in Korea and Indonesia. This has a Les Paul style shape, so it has the two volume and one tone knob under the strings, as well as the pickup selector (three-way) in the upper left hand corner (from a right-handed guitar players perspective). There are 24 frets, two EMG active humbucking pickups, as well as a Mahogany Body and Neck. The guitar aslo features a rosewood fingerboard.
UTILIZATION
This guitar certainly has easy access to the top frets, as it has 24 of them total and a massive LP style cutaway. The frets are also HUGE, so that makes them easier to access at the top. I don't really like how big they are in general, that makes the guitar require a heavier approach that I find tasteless. It's a bit heavier than some of the guitars that I've played but It's certainly not the heaviest. The guitar that I played did not get nice sounds easily, and it didn't have a great setup so it loses points for that.
SOUNDS
I really don't like the kinds of sounds that this guitar makes. I've played the made-in-Japan counterpart, and while that guitar isn't my cup of tea either, it definitely plays and sounds better than this. This guitar sounds good for metal, but I honestly wouldn't even recommend it that highly to metalheads. This is mainly because it has almost no dynamic response, and no tone that I would even remotely call tolerable. Sure, the active pickups will help eliminate noise from the most intense, gut-punching distortions you can find, but that is a small advantage when compared to how awful the clean tones are. For a guitar that is shaped like the Les Paul, it sure sounds nothing like it. You can get a guitar that gets super-heavy without sacrificing clean tones, just look at the nicer ESP models for that.
OVERALL OPINION
I would say that unless you are a beginner metalhead avoid this guitar. The price is good but this guitar doesn't even justify that cost. Not many guitars do these days, but there are at least some benefits to other guitars. I have tried a few ESP guitars and none of them were great but this was particularly uninspiring.
UTILIZATION
This guitar certainly has easy access to the top frets, as it has 24 of them total and a massive LP style cutaway. The frets are also HUGE, so that makes them easier to access at the top. I don't really like how big they are in general, that makes the guitar require a heavier approach that I find tasteless. It's a bit heavier than some of the guitars that I've played but It's certainly not the heaviest. The guitar that I played did not get nice sounds easily, and it didn't have a great setup so it loses points for that.
SOUNDS
I really don't like the kinds of sounds that this guitar makes. I've played the made-in-Japan counterpart, and while that guitar isn't my cup of tea either, it definitely plays and sounds better than this. This guitar sounds good for metal, but I honestly wouldn't even recommend it that highly to metalheads. This is mainly because it has almost no dynamic response, and no tone that I would even remotely call tolerable. Sure, the active pickups will help eliminate noise from the most intense, gut-punching distortions you can find, but that is a small advantage when compared to how awful the clean tones are. For a guitar that is shaped like the Les Paul, it sure sounds nothing like it. You can get a guitar that gets super-heavy without sacrificing clean tones, just look at the nicer ESP models for that.
OVERALL OPINION
I would say that unless you are a beginner metalhead avoid this guitar. The price is good but this guitar doesn't even justify that cost. Not many guitars do these days, but there are at least some benefits to other guitars. I have tried a few ESP guitars and none of them were great but this was particularly uninspiring.