ESP LTD EC-401FM Electric Guitar - See-Thru Black Sunburst

A mid priced powerhouse, the ESP LTD EC-401FM Electric Guitar is an ideal electric guitar for fans of heavy rhythm and fast lead playing, with EMG pickups and a flamed maple top backing up this feature even more so. Mahogany is used for both the neck and the body, a sound that has a lot of depth to it but still remains tight. The rosewood fingerboard looks great, plays well and the guitar is further improved by Grover hardware, making this a truly great guitar that's well worth the money!

Construction

This guitar is very much made to be a heavy sounding but easily playable instrument and every effort has certainly been made by ESP to make this happen. The ESP LTD EC401-FM uses mahogany extensively, for both the neck and body of this guitar. The sound this combination creates is superb, deep but defined, especially when laden with thick distortion. The flamed maple top is a premium feature that notably improves tone and obviously gives you that great wood grain on the guitars body. A rosewood fingerboard atop a thin U shaped set neck is an excellent choice, especially given the other materials used. The mahogany and rosewood pairing creates a well controlled mid range which is surrounded by dense lows and complex highs. This almost creates a tone with a naturally scooped mid, highly desired by many metal bands.

Grover provide the tuners for the ESP LTD EC-401 FM, a great upgrade feature for a mid priced guitar. The black nickel bridge and tailpiece are ESP standard meaning you can certainly trust the build quality and reliability. Tuning will be stable and should hold up well during live performance, especially with the premium Grover tuners on board.

Electronics

The pickups are most certainly a talking point on this electric guitar. Two EMG humbuckers, an 81 and a 60, are used to great effect and output huge tone while still giving you a lot of versatility. The EMG 81 humbucker is placed in the bridge position and is a great choice for lead tones that will cut through any mix with little effort. The powerful ceramic magnets create what can only be described as an intense tone and the sustain is smooth but retains all the distortion you throw at it. In the neck position ESP LTD have given you an EMG 60 humbucker. This is wonderfully thick sounding and can stretch from blues crunch to screaming solos with ease. The focus on the harmonic content in this pickup's output is especially great for lead playing but can handle a lot more than just that. Each pickup of the ESP LTD EC-401 FM has a seperate volume control and pickup choice is controlled by a simple 3 way toggle switch. A master tone control rounds this guitars wonderful feature list off perfectly, you can certainly appreicate the effort that has gone in to choosing the parts, materials and electrics to create a quality guitar with high end features at a mid range price.