ESP GL-600FB Flame Baritone

2008 LTD GL-600. George Lynch Signature Guitar. Strat Style Swamp Ash body, Floyd Rose Tremolo, (1) ESP Dual Rail pickup in neck, Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon Humbucker in bridge. (1) Push/pull volume pot. 500k, Maple neck with rosewood fretboard. 22 frets, abalone inlays, reverse headstock. Floyd Rose locking nut. Finished in a black/white celtic motif. Color is split in center of guitar and each side is mirror image w/colors reversed. Guitar was made in Korea

Unplugged, sound was crisp and clean with an even response. The swamp ash lends itself to a brighter sound, but this guitar is not overtly bright. Plugged in the guitar was full bodied, but thin in bridge position. I've always felt the George Lynch Duncan pickup was not the correct choice for a swamp ash bodied guitar. I removed and installed a Dimarzio tone zone and the guitar came to life. The neck pickup is full, but generic in it's color. I removed it and installed a Dimarzio Air Norton and was back in business. These are my personal feelings on the sound. I'm using a Dual Rectifier and a Peavey Windsor at the moment.

The guitar's action was setup perfectly from factory. The intonation was off slightly, but easily fixed. The frets are all consistent, level, and highly polished. No tarnish or sharp fret edges. All construction points were covered properly. No issues with construction of guitar. Finish had a few misses, mainly due to the application of paint around the binding. Does not effect playability, but is noticeable upon close inspection.

This is an ESP product. I've never had reliability issues with ESP's or LTD's. Any concerns I've ever had w/ESP's are personal sound issues or action issues, that I handle myself. I can always depend on my ESP's.

ESP has always been helpful if needed.

I've been playing for 29 years. As a repair shop owner, I can attest that personal taste aside, this is a quality guitar. My only quibbles are the pickups, which is a personal taste, and the slight finish imperfections around the binding. Compared to my other ESP's it's close to the top. My JH-3 is the best sounding guitar I own. This guitar definitely comes close.

Just a followup to the last review of mine: a few months later I replaced the JB in bridge with a Seymour Duncan Invader. This made this baritone HUGE, MASSIVE, CRUSHING...total metal destruction. If you're a metalhead, dropping an Invader into this axe should be your first step.

2004, Made in Korea, 22 frets.
Seymour Duncan JB in bridge, Duncan Designed mini-humbucker in the neck (copy of the SD HotRails, supposedly).
Mahogany body, maple set neck with rosewood fretboard.
Sperzel locking tuners.
TonePros bridge.
Tuned B-E-A-D-F#-B with a longer 27" baritone scale.

Extremely lightweight and well balanced...everyone I know that has picked it up was surprised as to how light it is.

I play mostly at home through a direct recording rig, using a combination of the Boss GT-6 (for effects and speaker simulation) and the SansAmp PSA-1 for all the tone and BBE 482i Sonic Maximizer for extra polishing fo the sound. Style: doom/death metal, metalcore, etc.

The bridge JB delivers an excellent crushing sound, full of life and tone, especially in combination with the PSA-1. Perfect for any form of down-tuned metal, it simply slays with its thick, yet clear tone (although of course post-EQ helps a lot...if you're not using a post-EQ on your setup you're probably only getting half of the tone that you could).

A lot of people seem to ignore the neck minihumbucker. BIG MISTAKE! It delivers a super sweet lead tone that truly sings, add some reverb and delay to it and you can do everything from Kirk Hammett solos to Pink Floyd progressive sounds. Run the neck pickup through a clean patch and you get an amazingly rich clean tone suitable for anything from jazz to alternative. The clean tones on this guitar have an amazingly deep resonance to them, the quality of the woods really shines.

This is one guitar that can do pretty much anything from the most brutal of metal to the most subtle progressive or alternative rock.

I only wish they made a 7-string version of it as well. Beautiful, both in terms of looks and in terms of sound.

I had my action done at DGCL when I bought it, but changed it within a week after I decided to switch to thicker strings (I'm using a custom GHS baritone set 0.014 - 0.070 and it sounds great).

The finish is NEARLY flawless. The only flaws I found are bits of glue visible at the side where the output jack is. Also, I saw 1 or 2 small drops of it in the cavity where the neck. Outside of that everything was perfect.

My guitar tech has been playing guitar for 35 years and he was impressed with the neck and how clean and even the fretwork was, he did not expect that level of quality on a $600 guitar.

Side note: I bought also an ESP hard shell case with it. It had problems already by the time I got it due to poor workmanship, pins holding the internal compartment coming out of the side. The guitar is great but ESP definitely needs to improve the quality of their hard shell cases, they come across as rather cheaply made.

I've had it for 3 months, no issues thus far. Seems to be very solid. Time will tell.

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing for a year and a half. This is my second guitar and my main axe. It has nearly cured all of my guitar-related G.A.S. I might get myself another with active pickups (maybe a 7-string) just to have more variety.

if it were stolen I'd buy a new one right away.
For $600 this is a killer axe!

This is the LTD version of the ESP George Lynch Flame Baritone, korean made. Comes with 22 Frets and long-scale 27" neck, mahogany body and maple neck with is a set-thru neck (ESP version of a set-neck. My guitar has a very dark rosewood fingerboard which almost looks like ebony with amazing inlays. The body is covered with flame graphics. ESP/LTD ships this baby with a Duncan JB (bridge) and ESP single-coil (neck). There's only one poti for volume (push-pull for pickup selection), no tone poti. Sperzel locking tuners (setup for a baritone and a locking Tonepro bridge.

The body is extremely lightweight, a sign that LTD used expensive mahagony on this guitar. Despite the long neck (with a rather pronounced 60s profile) the guitar is not neck heavy (unlike the Viper baritone)! Cheers!!!!

The sounds are great, full stop. Acoustically, the guitar is full-bodied and warm with a well defined bass and nice highs. Sounds come quick and bright (probably due to the Maple neck).

You can get very nice clean sounds out of this guitar, despite what some people might think of the typical baritone. With gain you can play hot rock'n'roll or brutal metal riffs, the guitar just sounds great whatever you play. However, for the most extreme death metal you might want to exchange the JB for something more brutal (I'd recommend the DiMarzio D-Sonic).
All in all most sounds are nice, full and warm. Solos and pinch harmonics sound great, the JB really brings out the top end and clears up the overdriven sound. Riffs sounds full and fat, even if you don't even use the low H-String. I guess this is due to the long scale and the great neck. Use a high-gain tube amp like a Marshall or Peavey and you'll be in heaven.

I play mostly classic metal, but I also play modern stuff, hard rock and actually a lot of clean stuff.

Great fret access, frets well set, action good.

Usually a baritone should be a bit harder and more difficult to play, due to the longer scale and the thick strings. It's unbelievable how great the playability on this guitar is. I have a Gibson SG and a Ibanez RG and the baritone beats the Ibanez by all means, the Gibson in most. There are very few instances were the longer scale comes into my way of playing and were the stretch is too much.
Strings rebound fast and you can almost play as fast as on a normal guitar (the H-String sometimes needs a bit longer to rebound; if you play less than sixteenths at 210 bpm you won't need to worry; thicker strings might counter this).

The thing is so lightweight I always think it's a toy but it isn't. I haven't had it long enough to say how it lasts but it seems ok.
The tuners are really good. I don't have a backup baritone and I'm not going to worry about it because string changing is really easy (and thick strings don't break easily anyway).

This guitar is well worth the money. It has great looks, sounds, playability and build quality. At the moment I'm considering selling some of my other guitars because I know they won't be played too much in the future anymore (I have several guitars and amps and I've been playing for 9 years).

Thanks ESP/LTD for making such a great and affordable guitar, even if it's somewhat a niche product and not for the mass market!

New 2004 ESP George Lynch Flame Baritone. Korean made. 22 Frets, long-scale 27". Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard. Pickups are Duncan JB (bridge) and ESP single-coil (neck). One control for volume and push-pull for pickup selection. Finish is black with custom Flame graphics, and extensive neck inlays over the entire neck. Deep cutaways allow for access to highest frets. Lightweight and well balanced. Locking Sperzel tuners and Tone Pros locking bridge for tuning stability. Guitar is tuned to B, with excellent action and surprisingly clear and snappy sound acoustically - a good sign for any electric. Volume control is perfectly positioned and easily used for volume swells - one of my favorite tricks, and this guitar excels for volume-knob swells.

For heavy rock riffs, power-chords, and downtuned crunch, this guitar is the new industry standard. Forget 7-strings, dropped-D tuning, etc. This is THE ONLY WAY TO GO for serious rock. Cool for other styles as well - I'm using it for some nasty downtuned blues.

I'm playing through an Engl Powerball with Carvin Legacy 2x12 (V-30s)
cabinet. This combination produces the deepest low-end crunch I've ever heard. Riffs are beyond belief, you can play the low B string alone and produce more thickness than standard tuned double-stops, etc. Some users suggest that the neck pickup is useless - NOT TRUE. The neck pickup can be used for woody blues, heavy tube riff action, clean chords, or tapping/hammer-ons, and sounds fantastic. Both pickups respond well to guitar volume knob changes, especially the neck single-coil. Overall, a great variety of tones in my opinion. The only improvement might be the addition of tone controls for the pickups.

Set-up is good - action is a little high due to heavier string gauges, but I can play single-note scales and arpeggios over the entire fretboard. Pickups are adjusted well, very little string buzz (nothing you can hear amplified). Workmanship is top-notch - looks and feels like a pro instrument from the moment you pick up the guitar. Guitar is very light- easy on the back for multi-set gigs. Locking tuners(Sperzels)are great - changing strings is easier than any guitar I've owned.

Obviously made for live performance pros - and it delivers. I would expect the guitar to fare very well over time - so far, not a hint of trouble after a few months of recording and live rehearsals. I will use the guitar as my #1 without backup - string changes are so easy and fast, broken strings are an afterthought. Strap buttons are solid, hardware is high-quality.

I haven't needed support yet - ESP has a good reputation - warranty is lifetime for parts and workmanship.

I've been playing for 20 years - working pro. I play heavy rock, jazz, blues, classical, pop, hip-hop, r&b. I own multiple guitars, amps, and effects. If it was stolen I would replace it immediately. I may buy a second one as a collector's item. This is THE MOST PLAYABLE Baritone - not just for power chords like some others.
So far, I love the instrument - makes you feel like you have AN ADVANTAGE over any competitor playing heavy rock.
My only negative on the guitar so far is the neck inlays, which for me are a bit much and are distracting at times when I look at the neck during performances - I've lost my place on the neck a few times due to the longer scale. But this issue is quickly disappearing as I play the guitar more - hardly something to cause any reluctance for potential buyers of this instrument - just personal taste. Compared to Ibanez, cheaper ESP, Schecter, and others, this one is A CUT ABOVE the Baritone competition. When combined with a quality tube amp, this guitar ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!