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Hatsubai « Top notch standard series »
Published on 08/15/11 at 18:29The ESP Horizon series usually comes with alder wings. However, for the USA guitars, they released a Horizon with mahogany wings, and I really think it improves the overall tone of the guitar. The guitar features mahogany wings with a figured maple top, maple neck-thru construction with an ebony fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, side square inlays with a 12th fret name inlay, an original floyd rose, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is pretty much flawless in its construction. The frets themselves are perfectly level, and I was able to get some scary low action with this thing without it fretting out, even with big bends. The fret ends were nice and round, so they don't cut your hand while moving up and down the neck. The binding was top notch, and you can't even really see where it starts and stops. The guitar has an original floyd rose, so you have one of the best floyds out there on the market. About the only thing I could complain about is that it has a battery box, which means they carved out some of the wood for ease of battery changing.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds absolutely huge. The EMG 81 in the bridge is perfect for this guitar. While neck-thru guitars can be really bright, the mahogany wings help mellow everything out and add some fatness to this. The EMG 81 in the bridge allows the guitar to cut, and the mahogany is there to keep everything from going haywire in the treble. The EMG 85 in the neck is super fat, and you can get some sick legato going on with this thing. The guitar isn't that great for classic rock or anything with low gain, but for high gain, this thing absolutely rips.
OVERALL OPINION
If you can find one of these at a good price, jump on it. It's one of my favorite guitars. It sounds great, feels awesome and has a perfect weight to it overall. The fretwork on the standard series is ridiculous enough to where the custom shop models almost don't even feel worth the coin...almost.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is pretty much flawless in its construction. The frets themselves are perfectly level, and I was able to get some scary low action with this thing without it fretting out, even with big bends. The fret ends were nice and round, so they don't cut your hand while moving up and down the neck. The binding was top notch, and you can't even really see where it starts and stops. The guitar has an original floyd rose, so you have one of the best floyds out there on the market. About the only thing I could complain about is that it has a battery box, which means they carved out some of the wood for ease of battery changing.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds absolutely huge. The EMG 81 in the bridge is perfect for this guitar. While neck-thru guitars can be really bright, the mahogany wings help mellow everything out and add some fatness to this. The EMG 81 in the bridge allows the guitar to cut, and the mahogany is there to keep everything from going haywire in the treble. The EMG 85 in the neck is super fat, and you can get some sick legato going on with this thing. The guitar isn't that great for classic rock or anything with low gain, but for high gain, this thing absolutely rips.
OVERALL OPINION
If you can find one of these at a good price, jump on it. It's one of my favorite guitars. It sounds great, feels awesome and has a perfect weight to it overall. The fretwork on the standard series is ridiculous enough to where the custom shop models almost don't even feel worth the coin...almost.