ESP LTD EC-1000VB/Duncan

Worth every penny! I went with the version with Seymor Duncan mics as I prefer passive electronics. They are very clear sounding but powerful and the ability to split them essentially doubles your sonic palette. Mic splitting does result in small volume loss, so adding a compressor in your signal chain is a good idea. It's the same with pretty much all splittable mic systems, though. This is a very versatile guitar for any genre, although it is clearly marketed mostly for rock/metal crowd.

This is a dream to play. The neck is unsymmetric so it's a bit thinner on the treble side. Satin finish feels nice too. The only small gripe that I have is that the metal parts with golden finish lose their sheen pretty fast and start to look old way before any other part of the guitar.

Highly recommended.

Tykästyin aluksi ulkonäköön ja LTD sarjan kitaroista oli hyviä kokemuksia.
Kun sain kitaran käteen olin todella tyytyväinen sen tuntumaan. Kaula on todella liukas ja satiininen, eikä ole nihkeä hiukan hikisemmilläkään sormilla. Jumbonauhoja on kevyt soittaa. Aluksi tuli painettua vanhasta muistista hiukan liikaa jolloin sain aikaan epävireyttä mutta äkkiä totuin tuntumaan.
Lukkovirittimet toimivat hyvin ja volume + tone säädöt käyttäytyvät halutusti.

Suurin ongelmani oli EMG vai Duncan, joista Duncan vei voiton. Todella monipuoliset mikit aina bluesista mättömusaan.

Just great.

Looks amazing. The color scheme is just great and the golden pickups finish it nicely.

Very comfortable to play. Like the satin neck alot.

Sound is really good. I think I havent heard JB bridge pickup sound this good in any other guitar. And if you look for more extreme sounds you can find more golden pickups from Seymour Duncan line to replace the bridge. Like SH-5 or SH-6 for more distortion.

Bought this guitar to replace my 10+ year-old Ibanez S470 (the ZR Tremolo was giving me headache), and boy oh boy do I not regret it.

Always had an affinity towards Les Pauls so I gave it a go - I've wanted something that has the classic Les Paul "darker" sound but with playability of an Ibanez - that is exactly what this guitar is. The sustain this guitar gives beats both of the guitars I currently own.

Comparing it to Ibanez and my Epiphone Les Paul, ESP's neck is not a Wizard neck, however, it is not a "baseball bat" either (which my Epiphone surely feels like) - it is a perfect blend of grippiness.

The guitar arrived with small cosmetic damage (the finish was scrapped on the front (and is very visible), but I am betting that the gorillas at my country's customs are to blame for that. Even despite that eye-sear, it is simply a beautiful guitar. The guitar has PERFECT fretwork and the mahogany neck is a pure joy to play on. Its "matte" finish is simply the best for long sessions as the sweat will not cause your hand to slip all the time.

What surprised me was how well the guitar stays in tune, even after abusing the living hell out of the G string, it remained in tune (which cannot be said for most Les Paul-style guitars).

As a testament to how awesome this guitar is, the guitar was upheld by customs for 25 days (my country's customs and paperwork bureaucracy is stuck in the 80s) - even after spending more than a month on the road, the guitar arrived with almost perfect intonation, perfect action and very minimal and acceptable fret buzz (you cannot hear it through the amp, it's caused by the low action), there was no need to re-adjust the tross rod - I've even reserved a local guitar tech's time to set it up upon arrival - he was also genuinely surprised, nothing needed to be done and only thing left to do was to change the strings.

With the guitar having so many pros, it would be ridiculous to list them all, but to mention some cons:
- The "gold" line that follows the neck is a bit more "yellowish" than gold (this is not visible to the audience)
- The "tune knob" is rather finicky and not "as tight" as the Volume knobs
- If you've been playing a Floyd Rose guitar, you will need to re-adjust your hand positioning for palm muting

EDIT: Unfortunately, the damage was too great as the finish started coming off and I had to return the guitar. (ordered an EC-1000 with EMG's instead) - however, what must be commended was the way Thomann dealt with the entire situation as they were more than amazing throughout the whole ordeal.

After this, would I recommend this guitar? Hell yes - I assume I was severely unlucky with the mass produced product and it somehow slipped through Thomann's hands (ordering this during the height of the pandemic did not help).