Thinking about buying a ESP LTD 1000?

[Black Lodge Bob]

Ive got an opportunity to buy an ESP LTD 1000 and was wondering what people thought of them? The 24 fret scale, solid wood, LP shape, and locking tuners have got me pretty interested. This will serve as a backup guitar. Thanks. I would be popping out the active pups, as Iam more into the vintage tube amp sound.

 

[Pushead]

The higher level LTD guitars are really nice. It's thinner than a Les Paul, and has a belly cut, so they're usually lighter than an average LP. I have a few ESP Eclipses, and have had passive pickups in them. They retain LP tonal characteristics, and have served me well over the years.

One thing to be aware of, I believe the LTD guitars only have a maple veneer and not a true maple cap. If you're choosing pickups, you might want to keep that in mind.

 

[Silenmtium]

I had that same guitar a few years ago. It was nice but it had really bad buzzing problems. It needed a fret leveling badly. Can you play the guitar before you buy it?

 

[formisano]

Ive got an opportunity to buy an ESP LTD 1000 and was wondering what people thought of them? The 24 fret scale, solid wood, LP shape, and locking tuners have got me pretty interested. This will serve as a backup guitar. Thanks. I would be popping out the active pups, as Iam more into the vintage tube amp sound.

The number of frets does not determine the scale.



ESP makes guitars with the following specs:

• 25.5" scale with 22 frets.
• 25.5" scale with 24 frets.
• 24.75" scale with 22 frets.
• 24.75" scale with 24 frets (the EC-1000 that you are describing is of this variety).

 

[humblepie]

I am a "vintage" instrument and a classic rock sort of guy. I walked by LTD EC-1000s and EC-401s for a couple of years, because of the 24 fret neck mainly, which also moves the neck pickup away from the 12th fret a bit. I finally acknowledged the existence of these guitar and I bought a goldtop LTD EC-1000, with Duncan Alnico IIs, TonePros bridge, locking tuners, and the Earvana nut!!

Wow, I am so in love with this guitar. It satisfies all my traditional instrument 'must have's' plus some modern options. I had to get use to the extra jumbo frets, hurt my fingerpads at first, but now I'm in the groove. These are excellent instruments and IMHO beats Epi LPs, PRS SEs, and import BC Richs (which are also nice guitars).

Ironically, the next best import traditional style guitars I played Samick Greg BennettAV6s and AV7s. Killer LP style guitars that function 100% as you desire, play great, sound great, house boutique pickups and electronics very well. You may want to check those out as well, if you can get over the name on the headstock.