LTD MH-400NT [2006-2008]

I trust this guitar so much that I've owned three of them. Toured with a pair for some time and bought another one after selling both off. Two were made in Korea (one in 06, one in 08) and one (MH401QMNT) in Indonesia (09). All had 24 fret, set through maple necks with ESP's thin neck contour, mahogany bodies and active EMG 81 (bridge)/85 (neck) pickups with a master volume, master tone and three way selector switch. All had a tune-o-matic bridge and were string through body.
The 06 had natural binding and I think it looked a lot better than the white binding on the later models, but the quality between the 06 and 08 was really close. The Indonesian model suffered from some minor finish flaws, but sonically didn't stray very far.

UTILIZATION

The set through neck gives way to the contoured heel that ESP and LTD have made their reputation with. The reason is simple, excellent access down to the 24th fret without feeling awkward or bulky.
I'm a big fan of flat thin necks, but the thin U neck contour is comfortable and really easy to get around. This guitar has enough heft to it and a mahogany body to add depth to your tone without losing the shred lineage that ESP built it's foundation upon. You can shred and riff easily and you won't compromise on either end of the spectrum.
The tuners on the three models that I had were all Grovers. Starting in 2010, they started using ESP branded tuners on the 400 series LTDs and those are unquestionably lesser quality. The Grovers get the job done, but I opted for Sperzel locking tuners on all three.
Earavana nut on all three of these, no problems there. I had to switch one to graphite years later and that was a definite improvement. Also combined with Graphtech string saddles, gave my strings considerably more life.
The tune-o-matic bridge was good, but definitely one area that I wasn't too excited about. The cosmo black is prone to oxidization very quickly and it begins to look old beyond it's year/s very quickly. I went for the Tonepros locking bridge instead and it adds a touch of sustain, but the real bonus comes in quicker and easier string changing and polishing. The high gloss finish will show every fingerprint or sweat streak, so I would start wiping after every show and end up polishing between every string change, but that's OCD talking, it's not necessary.
My one real qualm with the design has more to do with the archtop, the volume and tone knobs dropped into the top a bit and there's a dip surrounding them. It looks fine, but if you're getting sweaty while playing and killing the volume between songs, it's really easy to get the area under the knob sweaty enough to corrode those pots far quicker than you would want to imagine. I thought about swapping the volume pot with a killswitch, but never got around to it. Seems a tad unnecessary.

SOUNDS

The standard EMG 81/85 set sounds excellent in this guitar. Great resonance from the mahogany body and the maple top gives it some added punch.
I play death metal, and any kind of metal or core is going to sound really great from this guitar, but it doesn't lose out on the clean side of things. The active pickups are definitely geared towards heavier music, but if you wanted to have a bit more versatility and less heaviness, you could easily swap out for passives and get a bit more range.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, this is a great guitar. If I had to start over, I would stick with one of these. The later models don't have the same features, so I would stick with a used one. I have played newer models off the shelf and they sound good, but it seems like there was a mid-00's peak in the production that's hard to surpass. Just to add to that value, they're fairly easy to find with a hardshell case between $400-500.
If you get this as a first or early guitar, you'll have a really hard time parting ways with it.
For me, these were solid workhorse guitars that played and sounded great. They made a perfect place holder until I got enough money up to upgrade to the ESP Horizon NT II which these were largely modeled after.

I dont care what alphabet soup ESP calls this guitar this guitar is the LTD version of the Horizon with active pickups. The Horizon is the arch top version of ESP's classic shredder the M-II. And this is the LTD version so it is not made in Japan but the quality is very nice. This guitar is about 1000 dollars less than the ESP version would be and the only real difference is the fretboard. This guitar has a set neck construction instead of neck through but the heel is so nice you would think it was neck through. It has a maple neck set neck with a rosewood fretboard. The fretboard has 24 jumbo frets on it with offset inlays. It has the Earvana compensated nut to help with the intonation across the whole neck. The body is mahogany with a quilted maple top. The body has really cool natural binding. The binding itself is just the natural wood from the maple top. It has standard Grover tuners and a tune-o-matic string through bridge. The pickups in this guitar are a set up active EMG's. It has EMG 81s front and back like an M-II would have. The controls are your standard master tone and master volume with a 3 way blade switch.

UTILIZATION

The playability on this guitar is great and exactly what you would expect from this type of ESP guitar. The neck is nice and thin and the fretboard is nice and flat. The flat fretboard and the jumbo frets let you get a super low action on the guitar. The hardtail setup means it is super easy to tune the guitar or change strings. You wont have to break out your toolbox to do a string change on this guitar. The active pickups means that you will have to put in a 9v battery in the guitar if you want it to work. ESP has built in a battery compartment for that so you dont have to take off the whole control cavity plate to replace the battery.

SOUNDS

This guitar might sound better than the ESP version. With the set neck construction you get a different tone from the guitar. Neck through guitars have a slightly brighter tone since everything is on the same piece of wood. With a set neck guitar the connection of the neck and the body with the glue kind of softens the tone. With EMG pickups this is important because these pickups are naturally bright. EMG pickups on some neck through guitars sound too bright. The EMG pickups in this guitar work well for pretty much any kind of music. The bridge tones on this guitar are super clear. The 81 is a pretty bright pickup from stock so in a neck through guitar with an alder body this guitar is cutting through anything. The 81 in the neck is not a good choice in my opinion. With a guitar this bright you would want to darken up the neck position tones. I would have preferred an 85 in the neck. The 85 would have been good in the bridge also to thicken up the naturally bright tones of the guitar. With the EMG quick connect system this makes it easy for you to swap pickups so you can try other EMG models and see what you like best. And if you dont like EMG's you can always get the version with Seymour Duncans. ESP is good like that.

OVERALL OPINION

This guitar is great if you want a good solid metal guitar with EMG pickups. No tremolo means the upkeep is super easy and you can tune it to whatever you want without having to adjust springs and whatever. The EMG pickups mean the guitar is dead quiet even with rediculous rigs and studio equipment. If you want a good solid shred guitar check this out.

(Originally written by EoH/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
Everything has been said already...

UTILIZATION

- Perfect neck for smooth sliding

- Incredible access to the upper frets!! The shape of the neck heel is great! Special note for shredders: you can play a B major scale in the upper octave!! I swear!!

- The guitar is light... light... LIGHT!!! It's so pleasant!! Very reliable machine heads: the guitar stays in tune! I've been playing in a melodic death metal band for over one year and I've had my MH400 six months. It made a huge difference! I previously owned a Washburn Xseries with active EMG 81 and 85 pickups and this high-quality guitar is a serious improvement!

- It's easy to get a good sound (see below)

SOUNDS

- It's perfect for my playing style... Just take it, plug it, set the maximum distortion, turn the knobs fully up and you're in paradise!

- My current setup: Boss NS-2 and ML-2 and it's amazing, except for a small feedback problem!! I set all controls of my ML-2 at 12 o'clock with a slight high boost and I get the Children of Bodom sound =P, then I set all NS-2 controls to max and it's just perfect! I'm waiting for the RH50T head and Harley Benton G412V speaker cabinet (which I've heard has a killer sound after some modifications) I ordered...

So, yes you'll easily get a very good sound!!

An accurate, warm and powerful sound with a powerful attack! A very compact and articulated sound for solos with the neck pickup!

www.myspace.com/eyesofharmony91 ( http://www.myspace.com/eyesofharmony91 ): all recordings were made with this MH400NT via a Tone Port UX-1 and a basic distortion!

OVERALL OPINION

I've been using it for six months. A store lent me this guitar for a live gig and it immediately blew me away. I felt at home with it!

I like most of all the neck, which is perfectly flat and very comfortable...

I tried out several guitars (Gibson and other LTD models) but they were more expensive and not so good...

Excellent value for money!!! This guitar comes very close to an ESP!

I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.