First I would just like to say how much I love the look and feel of this guitar. The vintage white with gold hardware looks slick as heck. The other notable thing you will notice right away is how resonant the guitar body is. Even unplugged it is acoustically "loud". My guitar tech even commented on how much the guitar resonates, its wonderfulThe electronics are perfectly matched and sound simply amazing. In the neck is the phat cat, which is a p-90. It's an excellent pickup for lead work or for whenever you need a strong single coil tone. The bridge is a ceramic humbucker that is voiced like a PAF, but being ceramic the output is a bit hotter than your dad's Gibson bucker. It's got the vibe you expect, just more. It sounds really really good, but if that were not enough, have a pull on the tone pot and it splits the humberbucker, turning into a more Fender-esq single coil. I am typically not a huge fan of the split coil sound, but whatever is going on in there, they got it so it still sounds powerful and articulate. It is in no way a "weak" or "underwhelming" setting for the pickups. The middle position is especially nice when you have the bridge coil split and you are using some modulation pedals.Besides the incredible sound, it's a really well made LTD. I have the Korean made one, but I have other LTDs from the Indonesian factory and they are superb as well. It's a hard tail with locking tuners so it stays in tune real well.If you seek a versatile guitar that looks rad, this… read more might be for you. Covers almost every genera I can imagine and excels especially at the different flavors of 80s heavy rock and metal with it taking honorable mention for classic rock. But as mentioned before depending on your amp you can get some ultra sparkly cleans with the single coil options. Absolutely one of my favorite guitars in my collection.

Sound
Tonally the foundation of this guitar has its roots in the different era's of Gibson Les Paul's. The neck is a p-90 style single coil that would have been on the earliest of the LP's, while the bridge pickup can best be described as a hot-rodded PAF humbucker. The ability to split the humbucker into a single coil greatly expands the tone capacity of this guitar. The pickups respond well to volume manipulation and a huge variety of classic and more modern rock/metal tones can be achieved. Some players of extremely heavy varieties of modern metal may find these pickups to be too harmonically rich for their taste. Its for sure got a vintage Gibson vibe, but it really is versatile.

Features
Everything on the guitars controls are simple are quite useful. The push/pull tone pot, which enables the splitting of the humbucker into a single coil is an especially useful control and allows for a large variety of classic tones at your fingertips.

Ease of Use
There literally is not a bad sound to be had out of this guitar. Depending on what you're playing I have easily found some combination of pickups that suit the vibe of what I'm playing. It's got a single volume and single push/pull tone pot and a single 3 way switch for pickup selection. Simple as can be really. Experimentation is rewarded and its a blast discovering all of the mojo contained in this guitar

Quality
The ESP LTD line is somewhat controversial and sometimes isn't well received by the internet on account of the fact that this line of guitars is made overseas in primarily Asian factories. Most of these naysayers have never played, let alone owned an LTD. I can tell you from first hand experience that the quality of these axes are top notch. This applies to both the Korean and Indonesian factories. I have owed/own multiple LTD guitars and there has never been any issues. The value is hard to beat too, plus if you listen to an LTD then the E-II or custom shop version of the same guitar you would need very very very good ears to see if there is any difference. If you are worried about quality on the LTD's just know that a lot of the flack they get is unjustified.

Value
The selling price is absolutely a good value. Traditionally in the guitar market, it's very hard to find something comparable to a particular LTD for the same price. More often than not, the LTD will have more premium features and be a "higher specced" guitar than the competition.

Manufacturer Support
I have delt with ESP multiple times. Never for any major issues, just small questions or recommendations. They are easy to reach and super nice. Great company that makes an awesome product.

The Wow Factor
Highly appealing guitar. For me personally its style is right up my alley. Color combo is totally rad, electronics are ideal for my playing style, the price is right, and its a brand that I am familiar with and really like!

Musical Background:
Weekend rockstar for 20+ yrs.

Musical Style:
Mostly 80s metal, but enjoy playing everything from jazzy licks to modern death metal read less