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tjon901 « One of the best left handed guitars you can get for the price »
Published on 08/16/11 at 20:06Being left handed it is always tough to find a good deal on a guitar. Most guitars that come out you have no options on color and they carry the typical lefty mark up on them. This is one of the better lefty guitars you can get and the price is pretty good. This guitar is the lefty version of the LTD EC 1000. With this guitar you can get lefty versions in two different colors. You can get them in silverburst or you can get them in Vintage black like this model. They both have the same specs with those colors and the specs are better than some other EC 1000. These guitars have the thin single cut EC shape. The body is mahogany and so is the set neck. The fretboard is ebony which is something you do not get with all EC-1000s. Up top you get locking tuners with an Earvana compensated nut. The bridge is a locking tone pros unit. The pickups are a set of active EMG pickups. There is an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck. There is a volume knob for each pickup with a master tone control.
UTILIZATION
With ESP's EC guitars you get the playability of a super strat with the classic shape of a Les Paul. The guitar is light like a super strat as well due to its thinner body. The jumbo frets and flat radius fretboard let you get a nice easy action. The Earvana compensated nut helps correct intonation up and down the neck so your notes sound more in tune with each other. The locking tuners and locking bridge should be standard on every guitar. The locking bridge prevents the saddles from falling off when you are changing strings. This can mess up your intonation. Locking tuners prevent your guitar from going out of tune accidentally like if your headstock was to hit something. The active EMG pickups need a batty and ESP was nice enough to give you a separate easy to access compartment for them so you can change the battery out with out opening up the guitar. There are EMG equipped Gibsons that do not have this basic feature.
SOUNDS
The 81 and 60 set is a set that is used in many ESP guitars. This set gives you the best of high end crunch with the 81 and the 60 gives you great clean and bluesy tones. The 81 in the bridge is razor sharp. The pickup has a nice high end gain sound that really shreds. The high end gain sound keeps your riffs from getting muddy and it has a super thick and crunchy sound. The 60 in the neck has slightly less output but this gives it a more organic clean tone. The 60 puts out a great bluesy tone as well. The pickups are both active so you can easily mod them more even better tone. Doing the 18v mod means you run the pickups on 2 batteries instead of one. This gives you a tone with more headroom and this gives you a more organic tone overall.
OVERALL OPINION
It was nice of ESP to put out a lefty version with top level equipment without charging any extra for it. That is rare amongst guitar companies. With most guitars that come in lefty they are either bottom of the barrel beginner junk or super expensive to where you are getting ripped off for what you are getting. This guitar is sold as roughtly the same price as the right handed one and the righty version was a good deal already. This guitar comes with everything you need for a gig ready guitar. It has aftermarket pickups with locking tuners and a locking bridge. You do not need much more to have a great rocking guitar.
UTILIZATION
With ESP's EC guitars you get the playability of a super strat with the classic shape of a Les Paul. The guitar is light like a super strat as well due to its thinner body. The jumbo frets and flat radius fretboard let you get a nice easy action. The Earvana compensated nut helps correct intonation up and down the neck so your notes sound more in tune with each other. The locking tuners and locking bridge should be standard on every guitar. The locking bridge prevents the saddles from falling off when you are changing strings. This can mess up your intonation. Locking tuners prevent your guitar from going out of tune accidentally like if your headstock was to hit something. The active EMG pickups need a batty and ESP was nice enough to give you a separate easy to access compartment for them so you can change the battery out with out opening up the guitar. There are EMG equipped Gibsons that do not have this basic feature.
SOUNDS
The 81 and 60 set is a set that is used in many ESP guitars. This set gives you the best of high end crunch with the 81 and the 60 gives you great clean and bluesy tones. The 81 in the bridge is razor sharp. The pickup has a nice high end gain sound that really shreds. The high end gain sound keeps your riffs from getting muddy and it has a super thick and crunchy sound. The 60 in the neck has slightly less output but this gives it a more organic clean tone. The 60 puts out a great bluesy tone as well. The pickups are both active so you can easily mod them more even better tone. Doing the 18v mod means you run the pickups on 2 batteries instead of one. This gives you a tone with more headroom and this gives you a more organic tone overall.
OVERALL OPINION
It was nice of ESP to put out a lefty version with top level equipment without charging any extra for it. That is rare amongst guitar companies. With most guitars that come in lefty they are either bottom of the barrel beginner junk or super expensive to where you are getting ripped off for what you are getting. This guitar is sold as roughtly the same price as the right handed one and the righty version was a good deal already. This guitar comes with everything you need for a gig ready guitar. It has aftermarket pickups with locking tuners and a locking bridge. You do not need much more to have a great rocking guitar.