ESP LTD EC-256 FM LD

I have bought other guitars in the past, but this one is first that I can call my own. I didn't want to spend too much, as I am a beginner, but I wanted to have Les Paul style guitar and in one review this one was ranked best, so I gave it a look. At first Lemon Drop finish struck me as odd, I didn't like it, but after listening very carefully all the samples on the Thomann website, and looking at the pictures, maybe hundreds of times, I gradually started to notice that I really like this Lemon Drop finish - and I thought I was the sun/cherry burst guy! And the product: Not a scratch on it. Very beautiful finish. It is a real beauty to look at. It seems to stay in tune quite well, much better than the stratocaster and classical guitars I have bought to my son. I don't really have anything bad to say, very happy with it. If I would have to say something negative, then maybe those knobs could feel a bit better to touch, but I think I'll get used to these quickly. If you are like me just get it already, you won't be disappointed.

Keveys ja "bellycut" on minusta hyvä! Vieläkin sais olla keveempi, ei ole mitään stratocaster vieläkään... mut ehkä LP ei saa nyt enää tämän keveempi olla...

Coil-splitistä en piittaa, mut se varmaan jollekin on etu sekin, haittaahan siitä nyt ei ole. Kaula on minusta hyvä ja nauhat hyvälaatuiset, actionin saa säädettyä tarpeeksi matalaksi. Kivan näköinen myös ja pysyy ihan ok vireessä.

Maksoin 350e, nyt on hinta noussut ja ehkä tulis päädyttyä johonkin toiseen siitä syystä. Muuten varmasti ostaisin uudestaankin. Pintakäsittely ei ole ihan täydellinen, mutta kylläkin lähes. Ja varsin kestävän oloinen.

Bought this 5 months ago to use next to my ESP FX Standard for daily practice.

It arrived playable, action was set fairly high but no problem to adjust to lower action. The finish was not prefect, there was some poly finish on the fretboard just passed the binding but this was easily fixed with some high grid sandpaper. Other than that the finish was fine.

Obviously it is not at the same level as my ESP FX Standard as it is less then a 4th of the price but so far i have almost only used the EC-256 in the past 5 months, which says alot. I love the feel of it, i like the sound of the pickups and it looks great. It has left me wanting another EC or Les Paul shaped guitar.

I would seriously recommend this as a first guitar.

It arrived in really sturdy double box and it was fast for free shipping. Guitar was little bit out of tune and it took 5 minutes to tune and setup. Neck pickup was really low in the body.

Guitar neck is really comfortable and I really like thin U shape and 24.75" scale with 22XJ frets from ESP. I really like stock pickups and they sound pretty good in high gain setting on my Peavey and guitar has really good sustain. Split function on tone knob works really well and I would dare to say that it works and sound better than on my Schecter hellraiser that has emg 89 and 81. Oh yeah and frets were really nicely done and smooth and I was surprised by that because I tried more expensive guitars in store that had really bad fret work and rough fret edges.

Guitar had some minor flaws in finish for example few brown dots under clear coat finish, neck binding seems scraped on few frets on botom side (I guess during fret end smoothening) and headstock side has tiny whiteish line under clear coat. Strings were really old and fingerboard was super dusty but that is an easy fix.

All in all it is really nice guitar for the money, minus cosmetic flaws. Full mahogony body has nice weight to it but it is not heavy, and guitar balance is superb because gitare doesn't have nose dive, it just stays in position I like. It is a good platform for future upgrades like locking tuners, better nut and maybe JB/59 combo.