SeriesLTD Signature

This is the newer version of the Jeff Hanneman signature. This is the LTD version. LTD is ESP's budget line of guitars which are made outside of Japan. Since these guitars are made outside of Japan they are much cheaper than ESP's Japan models even though they usually have the same exact specs. This guitar is a pretty normal ESP MII. This guitar is a textbook super shredder and even has some vintage touches. The guitar has an alder body with a neck through maple neck. The neck has a super thin u shape. The neck has an ebony fretboard with 24 jumbo frets. The fretboard has H and Dagger inlays. Up top there are Grover tuners and down at the bottom is an old school Kahler floating tremolo with a locking nut. The pickups are active EMG with an 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck. The controls are simple with a volume and tone with a 3 way toggl.e UTILIZATION The most unusual part of this guitar is the Khaler tremolo. You do not see these much anymore. They were popular in the 80s along with the Floyd Rose but the Floyd eventually won out as the preferred tremolo system. With the Kahler you get basically the same thing but it has different feel to it and it is a bit more robust which is why Slayer uses them. If you are really into working your trem hard a Khaler is the way to go. The guitar plays great like you would expect an ESP shredder to. The neck is thin and the fretboard is flat and the frets are big. This lets you get a super low action on the strings. The ebony fretboard feels great under your fingers. The binding on the neck makes the edge of the neck nice and comfortable and helps prevent sharp fret ends. The locking nut keeps everything in tune. ESP includes a battery compartment so you can quickly change out the battery for the EMG pickups without having to open the whole guitar up. SOUNDS This guitar has a classic shred guitar sound. The alder body with maple neck is pure 80s. The EMG pickups complement this well. This guitar cuts like crazy. It has a bright and clear tone. When you are playing a million notes a minute like Slayer does you need this to keep the sound crisp. The 81 is a super sharp bridge pickup. It has a lot of high end with a good bottom end so it doesnt sound thin. It has a grinding high end kind of gain that makes it great for the bridge position on guitars. The 85 is like the 81 but it is a bit smoother. This makes it better for lead playing in the neck where the 81 would sound too harsh. The 85 sound perfect there so your leads are nice and smooth. OVERALL OPINION This really is an old school shred guitar. With the alder body and Khaler trem you get an 80s sound and feel from the guitar. This is great if you are into old school thrash and speed metal where you need a guitar just as fast as you. The bright tone from the guitar will cut through the most devestating double bass you will ever experiance. If you are looking for a shred guitar with a cutting old school tone ESP has got you covered. If you are looking for a more modern sounding shred guitar this guitar may be too bright for you. ESP has other models similar to this that come with mahogany bodies that will have a more subtle sound.

Another year another Metallica signature guitar from ESP. I guess it was Hetfields turn this year and it seems like he decided to go back to the Explorer. Since he is with ESP he cant have an exact Explorer so it looks like they took an Explorer and gave it a more metal shape. This in the white finish is almost like going back in time to the 80s but not quite. This is the LTD version which most people will get since it is 1000 dollars compared to the 3500 dollar ESP version which has exactly the same specs. With this guitar you get the typical setup. It has a mahogany body and neck with set neck construction. The fretboard is ebony with 22 jumbo frets. It has a pretty thin neck. It has EMG pickups in Hetfields now old setup with the 81 in the bridge and the 60 in the neck. It will be interesting if ESP decided to start putting in Hetfields more expensive signature EMG set in their guitars soon. Up top it has Sperzel locking tuners and down at the bottom it has a locking tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece. UTILIZATION This guitar play just like any other ESP. The frets are big and the fretboard is flat and the action is low. You can really shred on this guitar. It is very easy to play. The locking tuners and bridge are something every guitar maker should do. The locking tuners up top keep you in tune no matter what and you can pickup your guitar after months and it will still be in tune. The locking bridge on a tune-o-matic doesnt do anything to the tuning but it makes it so your bridge does not fall off the guitar when you are changing strings since a normal tune-o-matic is held down by string pressure. If tune-o-matic falls off your guitar and you put it back on the wrong way it will completely destroy the intonation of your guitar. SOUNDS The EMG 81 and 60 set is what Hetfield used up until recently. Now he has a Signature EMG set which is based off of the 81 and 60. They have pole pieces to make them look more like traditional pickups and have a cool nickle finish. According to Hetfield they have more bite than the normal 81 and 60 but I have yet to try them myself. I cant wait till my store gets some in stock so I can give them a test drive. Metallica has been using EMG pickups for decades and it is a key part of getting a tone like theirs. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup for metal. The 81 gives you great high end crunch and clarity even in the lowest of tunings. With the 81 harmonics pop right out and you get a nice searing high end tone. This high end is what keeps the sound nice and clear. The 60 in the neck is a pretty much neck only pickup. It is not super high output and is best used for clean tones. With the 60 in the neck you can get the famous Hetfield clean sound that you hear on just about every album. It is a unique clean sound because it is cleaner than most clean sounds. He takes the slightly sterile active pickup clean sound and uses it to get his own unique take on a clean tone. In the neck position I personally prefer an 85. The 85 has about the same output as the 81 and I think it is better for dirty solos in the neck position than the 60 is. But of course this would be useless for Hetfield since it does not have a very good clean tone and he does not play many high gain leads in the neck position. OVERALL OPINION You do not have to be a Metallica fan to like this guitar. It is a throwback to the old 84 Gibson Explorer which you could get in this color without a pickguard and with EMG pickups. This is the guitar Hetfield is most known for. Now with ESP you get the modern take on that same instrument. It is a great guitar overall for any type of Metal music. You can shred on it or you can play pounding riffs. You can get it in black or white which is all you need for a metal guitar. EMG pickups mean you can rip right out of the box. The LTD version of this guitar is pretty much all you need. The differences between this and the ESP version are not worth 2500 dollars. People are people just because some different people made this guitar does not mean that it is so much worse. The quality control and fretwork on the ESP guitar might be spot on perfect right out of the factory but it is nothing a 50 dollar setup cant fix on the LTD version. If you are looking for an Explorer shaped metal guitar ESP is currently making some of the hottest.

(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 have seen some places reviewing this product and calling it a "Start Pack" and I am a little confused by this. I am by far not a newbie but I am not a professional either. I play in my spare time and its a hobby for me. The more I play, the more I learn but I kind of consider this an in between type. It is one of those "badass" guitars that you see but its not overly done. The skull & bones are a good mix on the inlays and give it that feel of the "real deal". The body is bassword and feels a little light to me compared to some others I have played on but overall its got a good mix to it. I like the 3-way slotted toggle and the overall size to this, just the same it plays rather nice when you compare "budget guitars" to the really expensive ones not all of us can afford. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Made in Korea Contruction/Scale: Neck-thru-body / 25.5 in. Body: Mahogany Neck/Fretboard: Mahogany/Rosewood Dave Mustaine custom fretboard profile Inlays: 8-ball on first fret + dots Pickups: Seymour Duncan JB (bridge) + Jazz (neck) Electronics: 2 Volume, tone, 3-way toggle Hardware: Black with Sperzel locking tuners Bridge: TonePros tune-o-matic with string-thru Binding: White (neck, headstock) Frets: 24 Jumbo UTILIZATION This guitar screams! The neck is fantastic - playing action can be set extremely close to the frets for maximum comfort. The balance of the guitar is a bit body heavy, which is ok on a V, but it still feels odd to me. Sitting down, the guitar is a bit of a chore to play, as one must rest the points of the guitar between one leg in order to have it rest on the lap. This results in a more upward-pointing neck than most are accustomed to, but it is actually comfortable on the fretting hand. Build quality is great at this price point - it could have used a touch more fretwork, but overall everything was good. SOUNDS This is a fantastic set of pickups. Once again, the Duncan JB and Jazz saves the day! This combo is one of the most popular pickup combinations in the guitar manufacturing world for a reason - they sound incredible, are very tonally versatile, and they balance well with each other. The bridge pickup cuts nicely yet isn't oppressive, and the neck gets a nice, soothing vocal tone to it. OVERALL OPINION Overall, this is a nice instrument for metalheads. This guitar is not going to cut it for most gigs in the looks department, but it would certainly suffice in the tone department - it can play anything! The ergonomics might be weird for many, but for anyone looking to riff away, this is a nice axe to check out.

LTD is ESP's budget line of guitars. These guitars are made outside of Japan and come with much lower costs than their fully ESP branded brothers. That does not mean these guitars are bad though. They pretty much come with all the same specs that the ESP models have at slightly lower fit and finish. Many ESP artists play LTD guitars because they find them perfectly acceptable and easier to replace if damaged. This is the LTD version of the KH-2 Kirk Hammett signature. This guitar pretty much has the same specs as that fully ESP version at like half the price. With this guitar you get an alder body with a neck through maple neck. The neck is 24 frets with a rosewood fretboard with pirate skull and crossbone inlays. You have a reverse headstock up top with the LTD logo and a locking nut for the Floyd Rose bridge. The pickups are a set of active EMG's. The pickups in this guitar are an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck. This is pretty cool because Hammett uses an 81 in the neck on his personal guitars but the 60 in the neck is much more versatile. The controls are two volume knobs and a master tone knob with a 3 way blade switch. UTILIZATION This guitar plays great because it is based off of ESP's classic M-II model. The neck though construction means you get no neck joint heel to get in the way. The neck is nice and thin and the fretboard has a pretty flat profile. The frets are huge so you can get a low action and play pretty fast. The Floyd Rose is of a decent quality. once it is setup it stays in tune pretty well. If you do not know how to set one up I would recommend having a pro set it up because you can really mess up your guitar if you start messing with random things on the bridge. ESP is nice and gives you a seperate battery compartment for the active EMG pickups. Some guitars make you have to open up the entire control cavity to get to the battery. On this guitar you can change batteries on the fly. SOUNDS The 81 60 set is a classic EMG set along with the Zakk Wylde set. It has a more versatile sound than the Zakk Wylde set. This guitar has the active EMG 81 in the bridge and the 60 in the neck. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup. It has a nice high gain crucnh to it and with a razor sharp top end. It has a bit of a scooped sound. The 60 in the neck compliments the 81 well. The 81 is kind of limited because it does not clean up well. It has so much output and top end even rolling off the volume it does not get a good clean tone. The 60 is all clean tone pretty much. It has a smoother tone and a lot less output than the 81 in the bridge. So with the 81 and the 60 you get the best of both high gain crunch and cool clean tones. If you are looking for even more versatility you can do the 18v mod. This is when you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one and in turn you get a much more organic sound and more headroom overall. OVERALL OPINION This is a great alternative to the KH-2. You get all the same hardware and the same specs for less than a thousand USD. I just done like the inlays. They stand out and pretty much make this guitar for Metallica fans only. I hate when guitar companies make signature models with silly logos on them that pretty much make them for fans of the artist only. This guitar is a good guitar overall but most people would rather just have plain inlays. If you are a Kirk fan and want a great guitar with Kirks Inlays this is a good option.

Since George Lynch is a pretty big figure in the ESP world, it's only natural he'd have his own LTD version of his guitar. This one is a bit different from the actual sig one, so keep that in mind if you want to get his exact tone. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 extra jumbo frets, dot inlays with a special inlay at the 12th fret, a licensed Floyd Rose, one humbucker, one single coil, a volume knob that doubles as a pickup selector via push/pull function. UTILIZATION The fretwork on this model is what stood out the most. While the edges weren't finished quite as nicely as the normal ESP series, the rest of it was pretty good. The frets were nicely crowned, and I was able to get some good action without much of an issue. The guitar has a licensed floyd rose, and I'm not a huge fan of that. Considering the cost, I can see why they used this, but it's still not something I'm totally happy with. The finish on the guitar was pretty good, and there were no major flaws or anything that I found. SOUNDS The guitar has Duncan Designed humbuckers in it, and they were meant to model the Duncans that were in the original. However, I really don't like the original pickups, so keep that in mind. The pickups in this were kind of bland. They seemed to be a bit underpowered, and they lacked the 3d-ness that normal Duncans tend to have. The neck sounded like your average single coil, and nothing about the pickups really blew me away. It's a shame because the guitar itself sounded pretty good when played acoustically, and I bet it would scream with some good pickups in it. OVERALL OPINION The first thing I'd do would be swap the pickups in this model. Once you do that, you should have one great playing guitar at an even better price. The floyd on this isn't the best, but that aside, it's a very top notch guitar, especially considering how cheap these can go for on the used market. If you're a Lynch fan but dislike how bright his normal sig is, check this out.

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.

This was Mike Amotts signature ESP for the short time he played for them. He is one of the guitar players for the popular band Arch Enemy. For a long time he played an ESP custom flying V which looked a lot like a Gibson. Then he decided to switch to a real ESP and this is what we got. He was part of the large wave of players that switched to ESP just to switch to something else a short time later. Krank amps also had a large influx of players for a short time also around the same time. This guitar has a pretty basic construction. It has a modified Flying V shape with a mahogany body. The guitar has set neck construction with a mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard. The fretboard has 22 jumbo frets. The pickups in this guitar is a classic set of Seymour Duncans. It has a JB in the bridge and a 59 in the neck. The controls are slightly unusual as it has two volume knobs and no tone knob with its 3 way selector. It has a reflective chrome pickguard which gets covered in fingerprints instantly. It has locking tuners up top and a locking bridge at the bottom. UTILIZATION The neck on this guitar is pretty fat. It feels like a real Gibson when it comes to the neck. The body has some hard edges on it. They wont cut you or anything but they can be pretty uncomfortable. The mirror pickguard gets dirty in like 5 secconds. It gets covered in fingerrprints so fast it is annoying. The dual volumes and no tone is unusual. I thought it was a master volume and master tone at first. Locking tuners and locking bridge are great. Every guitar should have locking tuners even if it doesnt have a tremolo. Locking tuners lock everything down so you can pickup the guitar after weeks and it will still be in tune. The locking bridge is great if you change strings a lot. The tune-o-matic is normally held on with string tension. Without this it can fall off. These locking bridges are locked on and dont fall off. SOUNDS Although being in a death metal band. Mike has a pretty old school tone and feel to his playing. You can really hear this in his other band Spritual Beggars. The pickup set in this guitar gives an old school tone and feel as well. The JB in the bridge is what you find in a ton of Gibsons. The JB is the benchmark hot rodded PAF. It gives you classic tone but with modern output and old school feel with modern tightness. It is a classic design from Seymour Duncan and is one of their most popular models. The 59 in the neck is another classic pickup. The 59 Jazz combination is a classic combination and Seymour Duncan sell them as a set. The 59 is closer to the original PAF sound than the JB. I guess it would be a cool rod instead of a hot rod. It gives you super smooth lead tones. The blues just pours out of the neck pickup on this guitar. Throw in some wah and you are in blues heaven. You can be like mike and call this metal heaven too because that is exactly what he does. OVERALL OPINION I really dug Amotts old ESP Flying V copies so I was a bit disappointed when these first came out. There were a few in between models That I remember seeing. Traditional shaped Flying V's but with chrome pickguards and what not. This was a pretty radical depature from what he had been playing for nearly a decade But once I played one I realized it had all the sound and feel that Amotts old V's had but now they could make a signature model of it and get it out to the fans and kids. If you are like me and like his old Flying V setup you can get an Edwards Flying V just like his old one with the rounded headstock and block inlays and everything. If you are a newer fan you probably know him better for this guitar and the Deans. I prefer this over the Deans also. On the base level you get a Flying V with a slightly more metal shape and excellent pickups. What more could you want.

The EC is one of ESP guitars most popular designs. A lot of artists have based their signature guitars off of the EC design. One of the newer James Hetfield signature guitars was like this. The Truckster is what they call it. It is bascially an EC with swapped out pickups and a crazy paint job. The paint job is like they painted multiple layers of paint and then sanded them down. You can feel the different layers in the paint job. It is pretty cool but it is not much of a relic finish because it is so contrived looking. The guitar has a mahogany body and neck with a rosewood fretboard. The frets are 22 xtra jumbo ESP frets. It has dual EMG pickups with an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck Hetfields traditional setup. It has tone pros locking bridge system also. The pickup selector is down by the rest of the controls and takes the place of one of the tone controls. It still has a useless pickup selector up top. I also wonder why this guitar does not have an Earvana compensated nut. James must not like playing in tune or something. UTILIZATION The playability is alright with this guitar. It has more of a Gibson feel than a normal EC does. There is slightly more radius on the fretboard but not too much. It has really big frets so you can really dig in. You can also get a super low action on the guitar. The useless switch up top is annoying if you are use to Les Pauls or some other EC models. Locking tuners and bridge are great. Every company should be putting these on their guitars. The locking tuners keep you in tune and the locking bridge prevents the bridge from falling off when you change strings. Simple stuff that the big companies refuse to use. SOUNDS This guitar has the typical Hetfield sound. Hetfield has been using the same pickups since the early 90s and so his tone is pretty well known. The 81 and 60 set is well known. Whatever guitar you put them in they will pretty much give you the same tone. EMG pickups are an important part of the Metallica sound. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup for metal. The 81 gives you great high end crunch and clarity even in the lowest of tunings. With the 81 harmonics pop right out and you get a nice searing high end tone. This high end is what keeps the sound nice and clear. The 60 in the neck is a pretty much neck only pickup. It is not super high output and is best used for clean tones. In the neck position I personally prefer an 85. The 85 has about the same output as the 81 and I think it is better for dirty solos in the neck position than the 60 is. Recently EMG came out with a Hetfield signature set so it will be interesting to see if ESP starts using that in the Hetfield signature guitars. The set is bassically an 81 and a 60 but hot rodded for even more attack. I wouldnt be surprised if ESP just keeps on putting the normal set in his guitars. The difference is not that much but the price difference is pretty big. Plus with the normal set you dont have to use them in just Hetfield signature guitars like you would with the Het Set EMG kit. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is 1800 dollars cheaper than the full ESP version and you get the same exact features. Same pickups same wood same everything. Just because it is built in a different factory means you can save almost 2000 dollars. Any differences you might notice that effect playability are easily fixed in a basic guitar setup. If you are looking for the black finish Truckster this is a way to get it without paying 2500 dollars. You get pretty much the same thing at a much lower price. ESP does this for a lot of their guitars. I have played both ESP and LTD versions and the difference is not worth as much as they charge. Like I said with a good setup both guitars are pretty much equal.

The K-500 is a model that LTD released for fans of Kelly Hayes of Cold. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple set neck and an ebony fretboard, unique spider inlays with the name at the 12th fret, 24 extra jumbo frets, a TOM hardtail bridge, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The guitar's most unique feature is that it has a 25.5'' scale. This adds some bite and tension to it that most normal ECs don't have. The guitar itself is pretty decent in that the finish wasn't too bad, but it was very thick. The fret ends weren't perfectly rounded, but they didn't cut my hand when I played it, so no real biggie there. The frets were mostly level, but it could have used more attention. The inlay work was surprisingly good, and I was pleased to see that. SOUNDS I am really not a fan of the EMG HZ series, so keep that in mind. The guitar resonated nicely, but thanks to the HZ pickups, the bridge sounded a bit thin and not nearly as "direct" as a normal EMG 81 would sound. The neck sounded very bright. I'm a big fan of using fatter sounding humbuckers in the neck to get a huge, powerful sound and make it easy for fast legato runs, so something brighter like the HZ-4 kinda threw me off my game when I played it. If you like brighter neck pickups, this could work for you, however. OVERALL OPINION If you're a fan of Cold and Kelly Hayes, you might want to check out this guitar. In the end, I thought the guitar was dead average. The 25.5'' scale was unique, but I much prefer 24.75'' for these kinds of guitars. The guitar was fairly resonant for an LTD, and that was a nice addition, but the fretwork still had some issues in certain places.

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.