« Metal metal metal! »

Set-thru neck
25.5" scale
Mahogany body
Quilted maple top
(See-Thru Blue and See-Thru Black)
Maple neck
Rosewood fingerboard
Locking nut for tremolo system
42mm neck width
Thin U neck contour
24 Extra Jumbo frets
Powdercoated black nickel hardware
Grover high-quality tuners
Floyd Rose 1000 Series bridge
EMG-81(bridge)/EMG-85 (neck) Active humbucker pickups
1 volume, 1 tone, 3-way switch

UTILIZATION

The MH series is a decent shred/metal axe. It looks fantastic, has good pickups for the genre, and has a locking tremolo system. However, the neck is reeealllly chunky depthwise, but the string spacing is small and cramped. The neck isn't really comfortable for me to play, to be honest. The tremolo also seems a bit on the stiff side, as far as how easily it operates in dives and pulls. It's not an expensive guitar, but I have seen better quality hardware on guitars in this price range.

SOUNDS

The guitar does sound good, especially for the target demographic. Most people buying this guitar will be using it to play a lot of metal, shred, maybe some fusion, and that's probably about it. The EMG pickups will do very well for this type of thing, so that's a plus. The 81 is bright, bold, cutting, and aggressive, but with a ton of clarity, and the 85 is warm, solid, and buttery smooth. The set-thru construction increases the sustain of the notes, and that helps give the tone a nice bloom.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all, this is a good guitar. It's just not for me - that's purely for the reasons of hand comfort. Also, I tend to like more versatile instruments, and this guitar was built basically just for heavy metal. If the styling is right for you, and the neck is comfortable, then this is probably a guitar you should check out at some point. ESP's LTD line is pretty good quality for the price range. I don't like the tremolo's feel, but maybe you will.