Product: ESP EC-400
Price Paid: US $560
Submitted
02/26/2004
at
04:03pm
by
Swizzle
Email: AirmanSwi at Toast<dot>net
Features
:
10
Korean Made, 24 frets, 2 volume, 1 tone, three way selector, two EMG 81 pickups, Mahogany body, rosewood neck, black finish, Eclipse body (Les Paul), Tune-O-matic bridge, Earvana, Gotoh tuners, Medium thick neck (not as thin as Jackson or Ibanex but not thick either) and white flags for inlays. This guitar offers a lot of stuff. It's the same as the EC-400 except for the EMG 81s.
I give it a 10 for features because it has everything I need really. Others would probably prefer a five way blade selector for more tone options.
Sound
:
10
I play metal. Soilwork, Mushroomhead, Godsmack, Ozzy, Pantera (DamagePlan), Obliveon etc. . . you get the idea. I use it with a Tech 21 Trademark 10 and a few rack effects and a Dime Crybaby from Hell. This guitar is awesome for metal. My other guitar is a Kaman GTX33 with an EMG 81 and two SAs. The Kaman is extremely muddy compared to this ESP. Even tuned low the crunch is chunky and well defined. The set neck, Earvana nut and Tune-O-matic bridge give excellent sustain and keep the guitar in tune.
The guitar actually has decent variety for only having to 81s. The clean isn't Strat clean, but it's good. You can get good jazz or blues out of the neck pickup but the bridge is sterile.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
Guitar was setup great. Action is low with no buzzing. I haven't found a problem yet with the guitar. I guess it wasn't tuned right out of the box (bought it mail order). That's being rather picky though, damn. Tuned it in five minutes and I haven't tuned it since and I beat the hell out of the strings. I have no complaints. My next guitar will be an ESP as well.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This guitar is solid. Not much more to say really. I wouldn't gig without a backup, who would? Though, my backup would probably be another EC-400 or a custom ESP.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't dealt with them. I'd expect ESP to be pretty good. I'm deciding what I want on my custom job so I'll find out in a few months when I go back to ESP.
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been playing over a decade. I own a few guitars. Like I said the Kaman, a Epiphone Rich Bich copy, a Jackson offset V, an Abilene Acoustic, Odessa Acoustic and this ESP. If this guitar were stolen or lost I'd probably buy another one. I love everything about it. If I had to hate something it would be the white binding on the neck and headstock. I don't normally like binding, but honestly, the binding looks really good on this guitar. It looks pretty sleek against the gloss black. Usually binding looks cheap to me, but this is pretty sexy.
I compared this guitar to the ESP F400 (but eh, look at the thing. I could see myself every once and awhile looking at it thinking how cool it was). Also checked out Schecter 7 strings, B.C. Rich, Jackson, Ibanez. This guitar had what I wanted. A good mix of quality components at a decent price. Usually guitars at this price have "Duncan Designed" humbuckers or some cheap component. Usually it's just one piece that ruins the whole thing. This guitar is quality all the way through.
I can't think of anything I'd like more on the guitar. It's a no-nonsense high quality piece.
