ESP LTD EC-1000

Locking tuners, EMG Pups, mahogany body, les paul body shape, Jumbo frets, etc. This guitar seriously has some good features on it.

I tend to play metal/hardrock/blues. I was a little regretful on not getting the JB/59 pups...but to tell you the truth, the emg's suite my needs practically perfectly! I'm serious, the 60's give me a nice crisp clean tone and the 81 just drives the distortion on!

I'm using a roland cube 30 with the dime crybaby (a nice crybaby I must add!)

It's not noisy at all, no buzz, thank goodness for humbuckers!

I love this guitar very much, my first REAL guitar just to add. It has great features/plays so well, and it just sounds AWESOME!

It was set up pretty well, the only thing that was wrong was the action, some fret buzz here but it's all good.

Everything seems to last, I can depend on it and I don't think you will be needing a backup for this guitar. Seriously, it's actually really good! The body is going to take a beating (what guitar doesn't) But it's not something you should be worrying about too much.

I got a year warrenty with it and so far, the company that I have bought it from has been very kind and supportive.

I've been playing for about 2-3 years and this guitar is just awesome. It's fast slim neck totally makes playing much easier. I've played on a Gibson and I don't find it to be as comfortable (although, i love Gibson, don't get me wrong :D)

I basically love everything about this guitar, if you're into a beautiful looking guitar with a heavy distorted, yet clean sound. Then I suggest you atleast you look into this guitar...it's just awesome.

I got the Honeyburst with the JB/59 combo. 1 3-way toggle, 2 volume knobs and a shared tone knob. Giving it a 9 on features because of the shared tone knob.

My band plays punk verging on sounding metalish with classic rock leanings. This guitar suits the style perfectly. Also, in my basement, I mess around with blues, reggae and some other type of stuff. The guitar suits that type of music well also.

I love the JB in the bridge. Its pretty bright sounding. Typically, I don't like bright tones. But this thing is bright in a good way - and proud of it. Its not a grating type of sound, but more of a sweet type of sound. Sounds great for rhythm or leads. Turn the volume down a little and the tone will darken up quickly.

The 59 in the neck is very nice as well. Its got that smokey quality that I love in a neck pickup. At low gain settings, you'll sound like Jimmy Page playing Kashmiir. Turn up the gain and you have a great rhytme sound. Turn the tone knob down to zero and the tone will thicken up and project like that beam shooting out of the top of the Luxor hotel in Vegas. Very cool for playing leads and a great contrast to the bridge pickup.

I modified the tone knob to only affect the neck pickup. I hardly ever mess with the tone knob on the bridge anyway. I did this so you don't have to mess with the tone knob while switching pickups (which would be a pain in the rear). So for instance, while playing the intro to American Woman, I can play the chords on the bridge pickup, then flic over to the neck to play the thick single note line. If I want the tone of my bridge pickup to be less bright, I can put the toggle in the middle and use the neck pickups volume control to blend the 2. Works great!

All in all, this thing sounds amazing clean and with varying levels of gain.

Mine came setup exactly the way I would have it setup. No problems with the finish anywhere. I spent a lot of time with this in the store before I committed. I couldn't find any flaws in the finish.

This thing is SOLID! Its got a set neck, a locking bridge and locking tuners. The input jack and strap buttons feel like they've been set in cement. The knobs move freely, but aren't loose - same with the toggle. If you shake the guitar, nothing rattles. I love that!

I've strung it with .10's. My other guitars have .09's, but this guitar is such a tank that .10's felt right. After playing them for about an hour I was right at home on the .10's.

The neck is a joy to play - with a bit of a C shape. Very fun. I'm a fan of the modified Les Paul body and the headstock is cool. The maple cap is gorgeous to look at.

I have no complaints in this category, so I'll give it a 10.

I'm confident that this thing is durable. As I said its very solid and built like a tank! Nothing rattles. At this point, I have no reason to give anything but a 10 (I've had the guitar for almost a year).

I have no idea. If something were to go amiss, I'd have my local tech buddy fix it. Nothing against ESP / LTD, but it would just be easier.

For a > $1000 guitar, this thing is amazing! I own 7 other guitars, ranging from decent to very nice. But this guitar is the one I think of playing when I'm at work. I love the sound and how it plays.

I bought this guitar very recently, it has 24 XJ frets with the model name at the 12th, iy's a solid top with 2 volume and 1 tone control. It comes equipped with EMG's, a 60 and an 81. The ec 1000 has a mahogany body with a 3 piece mahogany neck and ebony fingerboard. Mine is in a intage black finish, the shape is kinda Les Paul ish but its a lot more comfortable. It comes with a tonepros locking bridge, Spersel locking tuners, Earvana compensated nut.

I play most styles of music from blues to metal. The EMG's have a beautiful range of tones good for anything. They are bright and rich yet can pump out really dark tones too. I use it through a Line 6 spider 2, and it sounds great for me. My guitar teacher did say it would sound good through a Messa Boogie.

I bought this guitar and it was brilliant i havnt had any problems and its action etc. were perfect.

I havnt used the guitar live as yet, but my mate used a ltd viper 1000 live and it withstanded his crazy playing.

i have never dealt with them.

10 out of 10!!! This is a great guitar all round. I would recomend it to anyone.

I had a hard time choosing between the new vintage black model with EMG 81/60 or the new vintage honey burst with Duncan JB/59 combo
So I bought them both .
First the features both are Les Paul shaped , The vintage Black sport EMG 81/60s .The Vintage Honey burst sport zebra Duncan JB/59 pups.Both Mahoghany bodies, sperzel tuners. Rosewood fingerboard 24 XJ frets.

Oh baby for guitars that are under a thousand dollars , The LTD 1000 series are incredible. I have a MH-1000 and a Hetfield Truckser LTD version and those like these two EC-1000s are incredible sounding guitars .The Vintage black with EMGs are heavy heavy,great for Metal and hard rock , the vintage honey burst with the duncans while definitely suitable for heavy music are also great for blues and old school rock.Both are great sounding .Im totally impressed.

Both guitars look great , Set up was great ,Both of these guitars the Vintage black and vintage honey burst do not have glossy finishes , the finishes are what they are supposed to be ,look like an aged guitar. I really like that look.You can beat the crap out of them ,which of course I dont do to my instruments and it will still hold up well.

I would play both of them out , Thats the beauty of these guitars , I have alot of expensive Gibson Les Pauls ,which I would be very hesitant to gig with ,for fear of it being damaged or stolen .But with these guitars and the other LTD 1000 series they are great playing and could withstand the rigors of playing out.

I also own numerous Gibsons , Les Pauls , Vs , Explorer , several ESPs JH-3 KH-2 Eclipse , Several Deans ,and several LTDs.
The LTD 1000 series are awsome very close to the much more expensive ESPs.Matter of fact I bought these two EC-1000s for what it would have cost me for 1 ESP eclipse .
I play through a Marshall DSL 100 with a TC electronics G major processor and numerous other efx.
I give the EC and the LTD 1000 series ,a seal of approval.Im picky as hell about my guitars and gear ,so you can bet on it if I give something a good mark.
I play mostly hard rock ,metal , heavy blues type .
I want the Wilton model too , that will be my next purchase .

Black Cherry model, you know all the specs from the reviews below.

This I can't complain about. The guitar sounds great. As with others, I agree that they should have used an EMG 85 in the neck, but oh well.

As with some of the other reviews, I have had some problem with the abalone on the neck flaking off. Very annoying as it only took a month or two to start. Yet, the guitar plays great and sits ever so nice on my body. All of the electronics work well and the action was fine when I bought it. The intonation screws are all rusted out though after a little less than a year...

This is where all the problems really start. The low e string will not stay in the saddle groove. It keeps slipping out, and there is now a second groove in the saddle from this. This guitar is nearly impossible to keep in tune. If you put it to a tuner and hit a note it stays at pitch for 2 seconds, drops a few cents then drops a few cents more. I use 10 gauge strings in standard tuning, and never had any problems with the same setup on a real Les Paul which has the same scale neck. One bend on the g string and it's right out of tune; dive-bombing my non-locked strat holds tune better. The intonation is sketchy at best. It goes out before i go through the rest of the strings, and the high e cannot be intonated. A friend bought the same guitar and his holds tune FAR worse than mine. This leads me to question the Earvana nut, and the Sperzel tuners... I've read rave reviews about the nut, but I think it's garbage because my other guitars give me no problems like this (just my opinion from my experience). The whole guitar has a nasty habit of going sharp after a song or two, maybe temperature related??

I've owned the guitar for about a year. It was great for the first month or two, but that's when it went downhill. I pretty much have been leaving it on the stand at shows. Such a pretty guitar that is just so frustrating to play. If you are interested in getting one, give it a thourough examination. Some people don't complain about it so maybe I got a bad one. (It happens) I don't think I would buy another though. It has it's good moments where it plays fine, nad then bam! no stability. If anyone has any solutions, I'm game...

2005 Korean Made guitar, 24 frets, 2 volume/1 tone, 3-way selector, 2 EMG active humbuckers (60 neck, 81 bridge), Earvana OEM nut, tune-o-matic TonePro bridge, Sperzel tuners, Black Cherry see through body with white/abablone binding, abalone inlays. More things I missed are on ESP's website

I play a variety of styles, so something versatile was needed. Despite most reviews indicating the EMG actives were for rock/metal only, I've been plesantly surprised. The pickups are dead quiet until a string is hit. The pickups are EXTREMELY bright though-lots of treble and high-mids that I wasn't used to. Anyone getting one of these should immediately change the 9-volt powering the pickups and be prepared to fiddle with their EQ settings. Distortion sings on either pickup-I only need a gain of 3 on the ESP to get what guitars driven by passive pickups (including a Gibson 500T ceramic) needed a 9, and each string can still be clearly heard. I can play six-string barre chords at Spinal Tap amp settings and still have distinguishable suspended or augmented chords ring true all over the neck. Pinch harmonics are ridiculously easy to get. Clean...well, if you're expecting vintage tone, you're not going to get it. The clean is very bright and pristine, but lacks warmth. Cleans do sound better on the EMG-60 neck pickup than the 81 in the bridge position. The tone knob only has an impact rolling down from 10 to 7-after that, there's not much difference in tone. The volume knobs on the guitar make a world of difference in the sound in either clean or distorted amp settings

The action on this was PERFECT straight out of the box. Flaw-wise, there is some slight overlap of the cherry finish over the neck bindig in the 17th-24th fret range, a 3/4" scratch on the low-E side of the neck along the white binding and the abalone dust for the neck binding drifts a little outside the black lines. Also, ESP's website indicated that they string with GHS strings (10-46), but mine had D'Addarios in the same gauges. I also had to replace the battery and wish ESP shipped the battery not installed (but included with the guitar). The frets were extremely tarnished, but nothing that 5 minutes with a rag and some jewelry polish didn't clean up.

This guitar seems like a tank. The strap buttons aren't going anywhere; in fact, I had to unscrew them just to mount a strap ON the guitar! It stays in tune extremely well, and with the Sperzels on it, I'd definitely risk this being the only guitar at a gig.

N/A-I've never dealt with ESP's support directly. The website seems helpful, but I'd like to see more about the instruments themselves rather than the recipients of all those endorsement deals...

I'm really happy with this guitar's overall sound. I'm still getting used to the Les Paul body shape. If stolen, I'd be torn between buying a new one and using the insurance money to track down the thief instead. This is the third ESP I've owned, and is easily my favorite. I sold a Gibson V and this was my replacement axe-what I lost in collectible value, I made up for in playability and satisfaction

2002 Made in Korea.
24 XJ frets.
Black Finish with Gold Hardware
2-volume, 1-tone, 3-way toggle switch.
Dual EMG 81's from factory but I changed neck to EMG 85.
Sperzel tuners. Tone Pros bridge and tailpiece.
Mahogany body.
3 pc. mahogany set neck, rosewood fretboard with abalone flag inlays
Les Paul Style bodystyle (thinner body, sharper cutaway,)
TonePros Bridge and Stoptail
Sperzel locking tuners
Thin neck, slight C-curve, 24.75" scale

This guitar is amazing with the EMG's in it. I changed out the neck pickup to an EMG 85 so I could have a cleaner / brighter distortion sound. Harmonics really come out on this guitar especially if oyu have a tube amp. I use a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier with a Mesa 4 x 12 ovrsized cab.
Overall the guitar is quiet ( no craking when you turn pots or anything like that). Definately a metal guitar. You can play blues, light rock, and jazz but if you play ultra clean styles the EMG's are not for you.

The factoryset up wasn't that great. But on't fret ( hahaha unintentional joke), You can have it beautifuly set up for less that 50 bucks. If you buy the guitar at a store they will prolly set it up for free. After it was set up it played perfect. The factory set up the strings were very high and the intonation was off, but the factory did get the pickup heights right. There is nothing special about the black finish. While it looks cool, all black finishes look cool, there is nothing special about it.

This guitar is a beast. It can take just about anything you do to it. Mine fell of a 5 foot tall stage and it only suffered a minor paint chip. They are also pretty light compared to the brick of a guitar known as a Gibson Les Paul.

Kinda retarded. they can't help you with serial numbers and factory specs ( things like pickup height, string height and other stupid things like that). but I've never really needed there help so its ok. But it kinda worries me cause if I ever need there help I don't think they will be very much use.

I've been playing 7 years. I own the black ec-1000, Fender American Strat, and an ltd DV-8. I wish the guitar would have come stock with an EMG 85 in the neck or even an 89, or 60. The 81's sound too much alike in the bridge and neck position. If it were stolen or lost I would definately buy it again.The best feature about it is the locking tuners. If a string breaks onstage you can change it and tune up in around one minute. I compared this guitar to my friends H-1000, they both were LTD and had EMG's so I compared the sound and feel to his, but I've always loved les paul body styles so I choose the ec-1000.

2004 Made in Korea.
24 XJ frets.
Flamed maple top--BEAUTIFUL amber sunburst finish.
2-volume, 1-tone, 3-way toggle switch.
Dual Seymour Duncan passive humbuckers (59 in neck, JB in bridge).
Sperzel tuners. Tone Pros bridge and tailpiece. Earvana nut.
Mahogany body, flamed maple top.
3 pc. mahogany set neck, rosewood fretboard with abalone flag inlays
Les Paul Style bodystyle (thinner body, sharper cutaway)
TonePros Bridge and Stoptail
Sperzel locking tuners
Earvana Nut
Thin neck, slight C-curve, 24.75" scale
Included hardcase, strap, and custom setup with purchase.

Gets a 10 in this category. Would've liked to have 2 volume and 2 tone controls, but I'd be REALLY nitpicking. For the money you are getting a TON of features.

This is the category that truly matters, so I'll make sure to elaborate here.

I play mostly classic rock, hard rock, and metal , blues, some surf rock (AC/DC, Metallica, Tool, Sabbath, Zep, Alice, Shadows Fall, COC, Monster Magnet you get the picture--basically any music with great riffs.)

I am using this with a Mesa RectoVerb Series 2 combo with two cabinets: Mesa 2x12 cab with Celestion vintage 30s for the hard rock/metal stuff, and Avatar open-back 2x12 with 1 Celestion vintage 30 and 1 G12H30 for the classic crunch and cleans. I use Monster Cable Jazz instrument cable and speaker cable, and occasionally a Crybaby Classic Wah.

This guitar suits my styles beautifully. In comparison to similarly shaped guitars, I've owned an Epiphone Les Paul Custom and a Gibson Les Paul Studio, and I truly prefer this ESP to both of them, mainly because the body shape is much more comfortable to play. The neck feels less sticky, and the back body cutaway places the guitar against your body for comfortable, fast picking techniques. The tone I'll describe in more detail below, but it is slightly less full than a real les paul, probably because of the lighter body. One thing that shouldn't neglect being mentioned is that this guitar has EXQUISITE balance with a strap. When you remove your hands from the guitar it STAYS PUT. This may seem trivial to some, but in a gigging situation this reduces back fatigue, playing hand fatigue, and just makes you play better period.

I actually purchased the Black Cherry model with the EMG's at the same time to compare the tone. I ended up returning that one because the tone sounded too close to my ESP custom explorer with the same pickups. Don't get me wrong, the Cherry model is a great guitar, just not as versatile as this one (and slightly more expensive too). I chose the Sunburst model because I wanted a tone that provided a distict contrast to my Explorer to use for studio work.

SOUND QUALITY: This is my first experience with the Earvana nut and it is truly a wonderful feature. I couldn't believe my ears when I first started playing high-volume clean leads up in the high frets. The intonation is so spot on, with none of the shrillness you sometimes get in the high positions. You may want to keep in mind that the Earvana system only works when the strings are in standard tuning relative to each other. Dropping the low E sting as many metal players do will counteract the benefits of the nut.

The JB/59 pickups are a great all around pickup combo for my styles of playing. While EMG's are the perfect pickup for hard rock and metal, they simply don't give you the warm overdrive tube crunch that passive humbuckers do for cleans and overdrive tube clipping. I can get a wide variety of sounds with this guitar from warm, round cleans from the neck to full shred hi gain with rich harmonic feedback. Thrown in some smothering reverb on the neck clean and back off the tone control, and all of a sudden I'm Dick friggin' Dale. Crank the gain on the clean bridge, boost the mids a tad and Angus Young's "wooden" crunch appears. Scoop the mids and switch over to modern hi-gain for any hard rock, thrash metal, nu metal tone you want. Its all in there, just waiting for you to experiment.
As far as dislikes, i think the neck pickup is slightly darker than I'd prefer, especially for cleans. I find myself constantly tinkering with the mids/presence amp controls to get the right amount of shimmer for the clean style I want when I switch from the bridge to the neck. So I may swap the 59 for a Jazz model, which is more my flavor. Again, this is being really nitpicky----this guitar will reward nearly all players with an impressive arsenal of tone.

The guys at the Guitar Garage set up the guitar to my liking with a full pro setup, so I didn't sample the out-of-the-box setup. However, this is my 5th ESP, and they have always been setup near perfect out of the box. The pickup height was perfect, and the quality of the finish is first rate. No flaws in the finish, and I inspect guitars really closely. The switches and pots seemed solid, no scratching. I have mine with all strings tuned down a half step, and the action begs you to get wild with your string bends, and dares you to find any sign of fret buzz. Awesome.

The build quality on this (and my other ESPs and LTDs) are top notch. Thick paint finishes, quality hardware and construction. Will withstand rigourous gigs. Strap buttons are solid, but I always use strap locks, but I suppose a little wood epoxy on the screws of the standard strap buttons would work too. Absolutely dependable, and unlikely to give you trouble, but for your audiences sake, please don't gig without a backup cause you just never know.

I've only ever contacted ESP thru email, and they are a little slow to respond. However, when they did respond, they were super helpful and thorough with my questions. I don't know how they handle warranty issues so I choose to not rate this category.

Been playing for 15 years and am still mystified by the possibilities that the guitar offers. Ive owned many guitars in my time, and currently have an ESP custom explorer, Gibson SG Standard with Bigsby Vibrato, Gibson Les Paul Studio, ESP LTD F-400fm, epiphone Alleykat, Fender Standard Telecaster with SD Quarter Pound neck/ Little '59 bridge, and a Washburn acoustic.
If this guitar were stolen or lost, I'd definitely get another, and maybe even sell my Les Paul Studio (sounds fantastic, but the tuners don't cut it, and less comfortable to play).
The best aspect of this guitar is its versatility. Its also damn good looking. No gripes, other than my preference for the neck pickup. I compared this guitar to the Black Cherry model with EMGs and the Fernades Raven Elite with Sustainer.

2004 model in Sunburst finish.
24 frets. Sperzel tuners. Tone Pros bridge and tailpiece. Earvana nut.
Seymour Duncan JB & 59' zebra pickup set.
2-volume, 1-tone, 3-way toggle switch.
3-piece mahogany set neck with rosewood fretboard.
Abalone flags for inlays, model name at 12th fret.
Mahogany body with flamed maple top.
Tummy cut and deeper lower cutaway for higher playing.

I have to come right out and say this is the best guitar deal I have ever had in my 16 years of playing. For $700, this can't be beat. This may be considered a poor man's Les Paul, but I would take this over many of the Gibson's I've owned in the past.

This is just one of those guitars that plays perfect. This one weighs 6.5 pounds! How can you beat that! The Duncan's prove themselves as great pickups. I can easily get a really nice rock sound or get into the metal territory (if I needed to). Granted, they are not as strong as EMG's, but they are still pretty hot. I currently play a Peavey JSX through a Genz Benz G-Flex cab.

I'm giving this category an 8 only because the guitar is a little bright. No doubt in part to the light wieght on this one. I can back down on the tone a bit and get all kinds of great sounds out it. It won't get that nice thick neck pickup sounds like Les Paul's do, but I'm thinking of trying the Rio Grande BBQ Bucker/Texas Humbucker set in this guitar to compensate for that.

Factory set-up was great for shipping to me (Illinois) from Nevada. I always have my guitars set-up at a local music store when I buy one anyway. Everything looked great out of the box, no problems.

I see this guitar lasting a long time. Great craftmanship and top quality parts on it. I've seen USA guitars that don't have this kind of quality and/or the components. If I had to, I would feel comfortable gigging with this and no backup.

Never had to deal with ESP.

As I metioned earlier, I have been playing 16 years and this is undoubtedly the beast deal on a guitar that I've ever had. If it were stolen or lost, I would buy another one ASAP, and hope that it only wieghed 6.5 pounds like this one! I had never played one of these before, but I have owned a couple of the LTD Viper models, so I knew what to expect in the craftmanship department. I chose this model after reading several reviews on it.

If you are looking for a great 2-humbucking blues/rock/metal guitar with tons of quality parts-----you need this guitar!

Finish : amber sunburst
Wood : mahogany (body/neck) rosewood (fingerboard)
hardware : tonepros II bridge, sperzel locking tuners, earvana nut
Pickups : seymour duncan - JB bridge - 59' neck
Neck : 24 XJ frets, 24.75" scale length, thin U shape
Controls : 3 way switch w/ 2 vol. and 1 tone knob

For what I play (hardcore/trash metal), it's got everything I need. The Best thing about this guitar is that you get so much stuff for your buck! You don't see guitars with tonepro/sperzel/earvana very often!

I play hardcore (note that I don't mean that gay shit music a la atreyu, stuff like Cro-mags, Warzone, Agnostic Front, Madball should come to mind!) and a little bit of trash metal (metallica, megadeth, anthrax...). First, I've been an EMG devotee for the last 3 years so playing with Duncan is way diferent! But I love them, the JB delivers some great balanced crunch and it really catches the real tone of the guitar, as EMG's aren't really affected by the wood of a guitar. For solo I love the middle position with the 59' volume halfway, it's great; not to fat, not to bright. I Play this guitar through a 5150/marshall 1960 stack whit no effect (BOSS TU-2 AND GE-7 are there), that's all I need!

The only thing turning me off is all that abalone, it would looks way better with standard white banding, but anyway, I can live with that. Great factory set-up, the action is a little high, but that fixable in a split second.

I don't have the guitar long enough to tell, but it looks solid. Strap locks are needed. One sure thing it that the hardware are built for war. I will defenitly gig with it!

Havent dealt with them yet.

I don't think you can get more bang for your bucks that the Deluxe LTD line! At first I was looking for a gibson les paul studio, but when I tried an EC-1000 I just said , fuck that overpriced Gibson! The EC-1000 sounds way better than the studio and it's got great hardware. I don't know any guitar with duncan pups./tonepro bridge/sperzel tuners/earvana nut that cost 700$!!! If your looking for a les paul shaped axe, you owe to yourself to try the the different eclipse from ESP/LTD, they got EC for every budget!