Anybody familiar with the ESP EC series? *upd: bought one!*

[MF]

I've been saving my pennies hoping to pick up a used Gibson LP on the cheap, but lately i've also been considering the EC-500. The EC-1000 would be ideal, but brand new it's a little out of my price range at the moment and they don't pop up used very often locally.

Anyways, there is a guy selling an EC-400 locally for a decent price that i'm guessing is the same build as the 500 but with Seymour Duncans instead of EMG's...would that be a correct assumption? Also, how does the EC series compare to a Gibson LP in terms of quality? Most people claim that Gibsons are overpriced and that these are much better bang for your LP style buck.

Thoughts?

 

[MF]

I decided to pull the trigger and bought an EC-400AT. I hummed and hawed about the 500 or 1000 series, and ultimately decided that:

A) i don't really want another guitar with EMG's, i want something with a hot passive set like the Duncan JB/59 combo found in the 400 series, so in that respect the 500's were out
B) the 1000 series is basically the same construction as the lower models, but with more expensive cosmetic extras...

So it's new guitar day for me. I brought it home last night around 10 but couldn't plug in and crank it so i'll have to wait until tonight before i can really put it to the test.

 

[xedwinx206]

Sweet man I have one of the ESP LTD Deluxe EC-1000s. It's the Amber sunburst with all the abalone inlays and binding. Got it for $800 which was a steal. I'm sure you will enjoy your new axe!

 

[Old BF Shred]

A friend of mine has 2 LTD series guitars. I am not sure of the model numbers, but one is an SG type with EMG's and he just recently acquired a strat style with floyd rose that also has EMG's.

I, personally, don't care too much for the active p/u thing, but the construction and quality of these guitars is impressive.
They seem very solid and seem to "raise the bar" for imported guitar quality.

I hope you will like yours as well.

They are worth a look if you're in the market.

 

[MF]

Thanks. It was the high build quality and import price that initially drew me to these guitars - they weren't really even on my radar until recently. They seem to get rave reviews (though, pretty much EVERYTHING does on musiciansfriend.com). It feels really nice in my hands, and i like the way it hangs, it's balanced perfectly for my playing style. Not quite as heavy as an LP either which is nice.

I'm looking forward to plugging it into the Dual Rec tonight to see what it can really do :twisted:

Before i decided to go active and swapped the stock pups for EMG's in my SG, the JB/59 combo was my 1st choice for passives so i'm eagar to see what they actually sound like.

 

[MF]

fret job/leveling was poor. screwed up my lead runs left and right (or was it the natural ice!)

i've noticed that trait on mine as well. The frets are a bit higher than i'm used to. I haven't decided if it's a bad thing or not yet. I'm not a big lead player and if there is anything to be blamed for lousing up my leads, it's probably my sausage fingers and has very little to do with the high frets :lol: .

but overall i'm quite pleased with everything else on the guitar so i'd consider getting it refretted if i felt that it became an issue.

 

[kylek]

I just scored an ec-1000 for $350 (a steal on its own, but when I opened it to clean it up, the plastic thing on the back to guard the electronics is signed by both guys from queensryche)!!

The frets are Jumbo frets which are a little taller. The thing i dont like about it is the earvana nut... it sits so high that when you do barchords or anything more than powerchords the strings go sharp

 

[reilly]

I have 2 H-400 and I had 2 Ec-1000's. I never had any issues with the earvana nut on any of them and the build quality was very good, frets were leveled well. I miss my EC-1000's, I think the next ESP I get will be the Eclipse. I'm not a fan of active pickups either so that's the first thing to come out.

About 1 out of 10 NEW Gibson's seem to play nice and be a solid guitar, I like the 70's les pauls the best, I don't like most of the new ones. Plus Gibson has become ridiculously overpriced. For $1500 you can buy an ESP and it will be much nicer than anything Gibson makes in that price range.