ESP LTD EC-50

its a cool lookin guitar but i m gonna replace a Dimarzio high power pickup... which i m gonna turn into like gibson quality :)

need to change a couple of things

sounds great for metal n punk etc,,,
but not my style thats why i m gonna replace a DiMarzio pickup

i got ESP EC-50(2 tone brust)
especially i love the back of the guitar it really gives me a classic feel :)

everything is great,,, for the price you are paying "u wont regret it"

yeah this will last long for a gig or any case,,,
but never been on a gig and always keep a backup...!!!

i play this guitar along with my Korg AX-3000 Multi Processor and Marshall MG 15DFX... which is really great

Never deal with them

Great guitar for the nice sound, look and value... and pretty much everything

Looks good. Sounds great. Great product line but the unit i got was extremely poor. Its not solid and the craftmanship is extremely bad. My guitar broke when my wife accidently dropped it from the sofa. When i opened it up the craftmanship within is shockingly bad. Its a good guitar.. just dont get an indonesian made one. I got it from Mid valley Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

misaligned bracing, finish flaws, poor quality wood.

It fell apart.

CBF'd as im all the way in new zealand.

Product: ESP EC-50
Price Paid: USD 198
Submitted 03/12/2008 at 01:49pm by Duffy Bolduc
Email: mbolduc<at>dejazzd dot com

Features : 10
Made in China in '07. Yes, China. Beautiful Tobacco sunburst. Agathis body. Stock ESP pickups are great sounding and won't be replaced, although a guy wrote he replaced his with SD JB and '59 and this sounds like a great combination as I have put these on an Epi LP std plus top nickel covered and on a Schecter C1 E/A that also has an acoustic piezo pup system in the bridge saddles. The stock pickups however sound really good to me and I will keep them in there for a long time. This is one of my favorite guitars and it cost only 198 US brand new. Nice LP style. Tuners stay in tune better than any of my other guitars, or at least as well as the best of them and this is very surprising. They are ESP tuners. Highly playable neck, not thin like my Fender strats but roundish and plays really well and I really like it a lot even though I prefer the thin necks as measured between the surface of the fretboard and the back of the neck where you place your thumb. This one is not thin but is easy to play and comfortable. A great set of features for a great guitar, just judging it against itself and not comparing it to an Epi top of the line LP.

Sound : 10
Superior sound for a variety of styles from easy, relaxing, rythym strumming; to blues biting; to rock whomping; including great chord note separation and super chording in general. It's hum bucking. Real full sound, highly able to apply my techniques to project my soul and heart thru this guitar into the world thru a variety of amps, currently mainly my Fender Super Champ XD. This guitar is very likeable and not dislikeable.

I don't play any metal other than Led Zep type things so as far as thrashing goes, I'm not into it and don't find much musicality in thrash, unless Neil Young is thrashing it.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
Set up perfect by the shop before I bought it. Extremely high quality guitar considering it is the bottom of the EC line. It sounded better than the EC 400 to my ear. It's a clean, simple, great sounding, super well built guitar, even though it is a bolt on neck it sustains forever. What a quality guitar for the price! More people should check it out. There are a lot of great guitars out there for not a lot of money.

Reliability/Durability : 10
Had it for about a year with no problem, playing it several times a week for one to three hours at a time.

Customer Support : 10
Great support every time I called ESP for info on their guitars. I even bought an ESP H-101FM because they were so helpful. Another great guitar. I put SD "hot rodded" humbuckers in it: JB bridge and Jazz neck.

Overall Rating : 10
Been playing a long, long time. I am mainly a drummer but always messed around with guitars. Five years ago I retired from a regular job and bought my first really good electric guitar and started taking lessons sometime later because that is how you get 1000 times better 1000 times faster. Since then I have been collecting amps and guitars, most of which I have kept because they are really nice. There are some really nice inexpensive amps available: like the Vox pathfinder 15R (u have to order it from MF or somewhere else) usually not found in stock at stores, the Crate Palamino V8 tube amp, the Fender SCXD, Epi VJr and cab (also have the Epi So. Cal. 4 by 12 cab that the five tube watt VJr pushes really well, super great sound, also super great sound with my new Blackheart Little Giant 5w head), Crate Flexwave 15R 100 dollars US with a 12 inch speaker, Behringer GM110 analog modeling amp 98 US at audioallies.com and hard to find otherwise - a great amp, really great. Expensive amps include a ltd ed Fender Hot Rod Deluxe tweed with Jensen P12n speaker, and a 279 Fender Super Champ XD tube amp.

I've played this guitar thru all of these amps and it sounds better through the better amps. That sh

I usually play a Fender Strat but was looking for a 'Metal'-guitar for som of the songs we play in our band. (Love the Fender but S-S-S comes a bit short on some of the heavier stuff we play)
So on a visit to NY i was looking for a PRS Tremonti SE or similar 'Gibson Style'-guitar in similar price range. I tried a couple of guitars in the shop and i instantly fell in love with the neck and the frets on this guitar. Considering the price tag I was a bit suspicious of the quality but the setup and hardware seemed ok. I figured that the pick-ups are probably the weakest link on a guitar in this price range but I have a EMG ZW-set at home that would fit into this guitar (the reason I was looking for H-H setup).

Well, the features is as mentioned in earlier reviews Gibson Style, Tune-O-Matic bridge, tuners...yes, thin neck with jumbo frets, 24 frets, 2xVol + 1xTone, 2xPassive Humbuckers...etc.

Mine was the one one from the rack som I didn't get any accessories, just a bit lower price.

This guitar has excactly the sound I was looking for (Metal). I play it through a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100W with a 4x12" cabinet.
I am actually surprised over the good sound in the stock pickups and for metal they do the job. On the other and that is probably what this guitar does best (and the resason I have a Fender as well)
The pick-ups are also very silent even at high gain compared to other passive pickups.
After using the guitar for a while I think the pickups are a bit "trebly" and lack some definition when you try to boost some bass on the neck pickup. At this point I'm in no hurry to switch to the EMG's but I'll probably will when I send it to a workshop for a tune-up.

But alltogether I'm impressed with the sound of this guitar considering the price tag.

The setup on my guitar ok. I love the neck, size of the frets and so on, but I think the intonation might need some adjustment. The body is nicely shaped and I haven't really offered the weight any attention so I guess that's ok. The frets are a little bit sharp on the egdes of the neck.

The setup is probably varying quite much since when I bought this the one guitar left in the store (besides the one on the rack) had a neck that was so badly adjusted it was impossible to play it. (bent backwards so the open strings touched the frets around the 12th fret). Seems a bit odd that this guitar har passed the 'quality-control' stamped on the back of the guitar. Not to impressed with the guy in the guitar shop either since I had to tell him that this guitar was broken at least three times before he agreed to sell me the one on the rack.

The guitar is solid with a nice finish (mine is black). The tune-o-matic is solid. The tuners seems a bit cheap, but they can be replaced. The jack-plug was a bit loose, but I tightened it som no it seems fine

Don't know

I've been playing on and of for 15 years, but it's just the last couple of years in a band setting. I'm very satisfied with this guitar considering the price.
I'd probably buy this guitar or some other LTD-guitar if it was stolen

solo at 02/27/2006 19:03 made a mistake.
it's actually 2 passive humbuckers not 4. 4 would be a lot.
hey, people make mistakes, it's okay

It's an entry level guitar, so it's okay.
The tone knob is not sensitive enough.

The fretboard is not done too well. After a few shreds, there are noticeable scratches.
The finish on the body is nice though.

Seems rock solid, I hit it against my chair or other wooden furniture a few times. Shouldn't be a problem.

Never dealt.

It's good.

Probably try it at church sometime. Nice guitar. Much better than other entry-levels I've looked at. Not a huge fan of Squier's, Peavey's and Yamahas. For this price, it doesn't look dorky like the Ibanez Iceman.

i've bought it last week..reallly nice guitars n made in indonesia...agathis body..2 humbucker pickups LH-100..bridge ia tune-o-matic with stop tailpiece and it suites my playing because i deal with a lot of tuning..the neck so niice and i feel really comfortable..the body just like les paul and at the back of body,there is a curve that really fits my stomach..really cool

i play most metals and some rock stuffs like trivium,metalllica,funeral for a friend and so on....straigt to the amp Marshall MG-10 and gives me a nice tones that siutes my musics..i have tried with 100W Hugh amp and sound really cool...sound is clean but still got the distortion of the metals sounds...

this thing is poorly finished at the fingerboard..lack of production produces a scratch at the edge of the fingerboard..the finishes of the fingerboard really spoils me..made in indonesia

it's a new guitar for me and i hope it will stands for a long time

it was made in indonesia, not china. it has 24 xj frets with 2 volume and 1 tone control. on top of that it has a 3-way toggle switch for you to switch from rhythm guitar to lead. there are 4 passive humbuckers where they are seperated in pairs. overall, the wood is agathis and for this price range, you'll find most guitars made out of this japanese wood. it has a tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tailpiece. the finish for this one is black. find out more specifications on the official website.

for the price, it's got tons of features.

most musicians buy esp guitars for heavy metal. i can tell you that, this guitar, like many other guitars, is capable of playing any style of music. whoever says 'esp can only play metal' probably never touched a guitar before. there are no 'one-trick pony' guitars, only 'one-trick pony' guitarists. a skilled musician can pick up an esp and play jazz/the blues or a fender and play heavy metal. don't worry so much about the style. you can play whatever you want with whatever guitar you have! besides, the type of sound also depends on what kind of amp and effects you are using it with, so everyone will have a different tone.

personally, i play everything and this guitar does the trick. it is not noisy, but i have to admit, the stock pick-ups aren't that great. i plan to upgrade to better pick-ups (maybe seymour duncan) sometime soon, but for the time being, this is good enough.

factory set-ups are not perfect and tweaking is necessary for almost every guitar you purchase-that is if you want the perfect set-up. i haven't had time to get mine modified yet, but when time is due. i think it's unfair to rate action, fit and finish together, so i will rate them seperately:

action - how low or high you guitar is from the fretboard.
this is probably the worse aspect out of everything. there is fret buzz only on the 17th fret of E-string, 18th or 19th fret on A-string, etc. most of the fret buzz only occurs at one fret of the E and A string. i forgot exactly which fret it was, but the highest e and b strings are fine. the D and G strings don't have a huge problem either. but yeah, you get the idea, the action was too low on my guitar, so it's tough to solo on those strings. regardless of this minor problem, once i get the action raised, it'll be great for gigs.
current action gets 7/10.

fit and finish
this is relatively straight forward. it has a nice feel to it and the finish looks really expensive for a $290 guitar. you look at squiers and it'd be much worse. the pick-ups aren't great sounding, but they fit perfectly and nothing lose is falling apart. in addition, there are no loose controls yet. i plan to decorate it later on for gigs, like some cool designs, but for now, i am pretty satisfied with an all black guitar.
current fit and finish gets 9.5/10.

now, the factory set-up varies from store to store, so you really have to try out everything and buy the model with the fewest problems. i bought it without checking out everything because it looked so very attractive and felt pretty normal on my hands. therefore when i got home, i found out the parts of the action weren't perfect. oh well, what do you expect from factory set up anyway? otherwise, everything else is in good condition.

this ax is built like a rock and since it does not run on active pick ups, i am sure it will withstand live playing. the finish seems thick and heavy as well. i like the strap buttons, because unlike the squier, the esp actually has tightly screwed on strap buttons. the squier strap buttons seems to fall apart.

gig without backup? i wouldn't hesitate to try.

never dealt with esp directly.

i used to have a squier '51 and to be honest, the squier is not a bad guitar. i didn't really like the high trebles, so i refunded it and bought something with more bass, the ec-50. i also play electric-bass and own a fender precision as well as a factory acoustic guitar. i play bass for my church and guitar for my own band. esp makes reliable guitars and it's affordable for any musician. before tax, $287.99 isn't a bad deal at all. you might be able to find it for cheaper on a website (if you trust them), but for the price, i don't think anything beats it. i've searched for many guitars before i purchase this, from jacksons to epiphones and esp should not be undermined by any of these brands. if you're on a tight budget, i would recommend a squier '51 which is selling for $199.99 and it's cheap for the price as well. if you can increase your budget, i'd recommend the esp ec-50, an entry level guitar for true rockers.

fantastic guitar, fantastic value.

Well it's a les paul style guitar made in Indonesia. Body is agathis, neck maple and finger board rosewood i think...
It has 24 extra jumbo frets. It has two ESP LH-100 humbuckers (kinda shitty if you ask me).
2 volume & 1 tone control with a 3 way switch. Color is titanium in this one. Bridge is tune-o-matic with a stop tail piece.
It came with a useless guitar line...

The original pickups were useless junk! so i got rid of them and installed some Seymour Duncan SSH-6B pickups. I use it in band trains with a crate gt65 and danelectro dj-22 distortion mainly.
With these settings it sounds like a much more valuable heavy guitar.

When i bought the guitar it was new and in pretty good set-up I only lowered the strings and installed the new pickups and that's about it.
I think the finish was close to a flawless and i originally bought this guitar cuz it's kickass looks so i rate this 7 but only for the shitty pickups

It feels like a damn solid peace of guitar and it can take some enormous punishment. The hardware feels too good to be true on a guitar that only costed 260 &#8364;. I have never gig with it cos i have the Les Paul studioplus for that purpose but i can't see why not take it for a spin some day.

never had to deal with them

I've been playing for about 11 years.
In this guitar i like it's harsh looks and a very fast neck. I can't think of anything i don't like about this guitar right now.
If it was stolen i would hunt the bastard down and slap him with the very same guitar in the head... and believe me the guitar would't feel a thing.

My gear: Favourite guitar: Gibson Les Paul studioplus. Favourite guitarbox: Engl E412SG Favourite head: CRATE GT 1200
I also have some random stratos that are build from various different guitars and this EC-50 and Crate gt65 combo + various pedals.

2005, mad in endonezia
bolt-on construction; 24.75? scale; agathis body; maple neck; rosewood fingerboard; dot inlays; ESP LH-100 pickups; 2 volume & 1 tone control w/3-way toggle; black hardware; tune-o-matic bridge w/stop tailpiece; 24 XJ

you know esp guitars are designed for metal music, and this guitar is not an exception
for the price paid, it is unbelievable...
wild at rythms, and sweet at solos
this one has a stronger tone than many with higher prices

the strings are a little bit high for solos... no other problem

i heard esp's are reliable. this was one of the reasons why i bought it. i hope it is true

for the price paid it has wild wild great tonee.
however, if you want solo, try another guitar since this has a thick neck and high strings (i didn't try lowering them, it may work)

24 frets, 2 hums. bolt on neck. i have the titanium(silver-ish finish).
basically, it's an lp copy with body contours. 3 way pickups switch. knobs are 2 volume, one tone.

i agree- sounds damn good for the price! works for rock, metal, blues, etc..
stock electronics are actually good!

setup was good. no problems with anything in regards to finish/ fit.

very durable. i've had it about 3 months and no signs of wear.

n/a.

overall, given the price( about 200- 210 new, i got mine slightly used ) it's a damn good guitar. on mine, the only problem is that the tuners are not that great. doesn't hold a tune very well. otherwise, this is a great bang-for-your buck guitar. i'm planning on upgrading the tuners, and perhaps the pickups. it's got a great, versitile sound. previously, i had thought that esp/ ltd stuff was only good for metal. i was wrong! i'm looking into getting a strat copy by ltd now!
i'd definately rec. this for either entry, mid level guitarist, or as a backup. works well- i wish they had something this good when i first started playing!
again, great guitar, especially given the price. the tuners leave a little to be desired, however.