New Guitar Day! [NDC]

Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Posts: 345 Location: South-West Ohio

today I finally took possession of my ESP/LTD V, model 401FM.

Initial impressions
Out of the box the guitar arrived reasonably well set up, with a low to the fretboard action, the knobs all turned to "0" [first manufacturer I've ever seen take the time to do this!], protective covers on the pup selector, all panels, and covered in a soft foam bag. It was almost perfectly in tune for "d" standard - I assume it was set up for standard and then slaked back a bit because they didn't know how long it would sit in a warehouse. I couldn't find any scratches or marks in the finish, which is a beautiful see thru trans black with flamed maple top. The finish itself looked even and well done. The neck appeared straight. all knobs turned evenly with little resistance.

playing impressions
plugged into my am, the first thing I noted was that the pups were hot [EMG 81's] and were on par with my Duncan distortions. The EQ was slightly different, but not as much as I had expected, basically just a bit more highs, and slightly more aggressive in nature [not sure how to quantify that though - its not an EQ or output thing - perhaps more of the purr of the strings is ringing through?]. I turned the high EQ on my amp down slightly and basically left all my other knobs alone. cool! being a 25.5" scale, the tension was slightly higher, and the action lower, which meant that I pressed slightly harder, but not as "deep" to fret a note. I noted this resulted in me being able to play faster and string skipping exercises easier.

the pro's - a closer look
After I had I tuned up, I began bending notes, looking for a fret or a badly dressed fret that would rub and make gritty noises on the strings - I couldn't find one. This was a stunner for me - This is probably the first guitar I've ever had as an import that didn't need some sort of minor fret attention. Pickup height was also spectacular. The knobs all seemed to respond in a nice even manner. The guitar was very light, making it very easy to let it hang on the strap, and playing for an extended period of time should be no problem at all. Matching color/flamed headstock - very cool! Grover tuners - also nice. guitar came strung with "cleartone" brand strings. Nice that they used an excellent quality string, though I'm not sure they are my favorite. A nice touch either way. I LOVE the placement of the input jack. played surprisingly easy when sitting down too [I had anticipated this being difficult].

I was worried I would hate the EMG 81's that come stock on this guitar - I'm actually REALLY liking them. I'd hear d many people refer to them as "cold" and "lifeless". I find them to be hot, yet articulate and aggressive. I might find these to be a new love, and that's saying a lot as I've been a Duncan distortion user for nearly 8 years.

At the risk of sounding myopic or biased, this guitar was also made in Korea - in my experience this is a good thing, as I have always found the china and Indonesian made guitars to not be as well made as their Korean counterparts. Again, I may sound myopic but I think only Japanese and USA made guitars are better than what come out of Korea. With so many guitars coming out of china and Indonesia these days, it was nice to see someone spending the money on the labor to get it Korean made [that may sound funny but that is the exact reason many manufacturers have left Korea for Indonesia and china - cheaper labor... well, you seem to get what you pay for].

In General the action right out of the box is pretty damn good, and it plays and handles well. It easy to play, light in weight, and most of all and most importantly - FUN!

the con's - a closer look
my biggest beef is this; the nut was not cut properly - the "B" and especially the high "E" strings were cut too shallow. So shallow on the high "E" that it is falling out of the slot on the tuner side. That being said the intonation is surprisingly not really off much, and it actually doesn't fall out of its slot, no matter how hard I bend. This isn't a huge deal to me, as I had intended on replacing the nut before I even got it, but it is worth mentioning in case someone else were tog et one and didn’t plan on this expenditure. It is stable, as-is though. I guess it would be your call as to whether you felt you need to have this done or not. herein this pic you can see the "B" and "E" strings and how they sit in the nut.

The binding on the fretboard was cut either by hand or by a machine with a very dull blade - the edge that is level with the fretboard has a small amount of unevenness to it. is not so bad that you can feel it when playing the strings, but you can see it with your eye if you hold a light across it. this is admittedly pretty nit-picky as I find this on many guitars - even USA guitars.

The battery cover for the active pups is the type held in by a pair of screws - I would have preferred the kind that you can open up and change batteries by hand without a tool. Not a deal breaker, but it would have been nice.

Guitar does not ship with a hard case - a bummer, but most don't these days.

Otherwise, not much else I can complain about.

final thoughts
I know I'll be taking this to my luthier Doug Dmara [www.dmara.com/] for some work very soon - not because the guitar doesn’t play well, but because I want it set to my specs. I'll be changing the strings and intonation to reflect a light top/heavy bottom string gauge [10, 13,17,30,42,52, Ernie ball] in standard "E" tuning, and I will have a new nut cut for proper height, intonation and gauge to match, as well as my proffered action set up. The nut may or may not need to be replaced for the average user depending upon your view, and the rest is only my preference and not absolutely for everyone. I will also be buying the hard case as I can't stand having a guitar without a case. I will also have Schaller strap locks installed - again a personally preference. The total for ALL of this will probably be about $100, and another $100 on the case. so my total package set up perfectly FOR ME will be right at $900. A US Equivalent would have had me well over $2K.

Overall I'm very pleased with the guitar, both in sound and playability, and for a $700 street price it plays excellent out of the box and comes with a great name brand set of hot pups. It has been well noted by many that without looking at the headstock it can be tough to tell the difference between an LTD and an ESP. A lot of that has to do with how ESP/LTD USA inspects and sets up their guitars, as well as their stringent accept/reject policy. If someone couldn't afford a $2K+ ESP or similar, this guitar provides very near to tier one quality at half the price. Are there differences between this and a USA or Japanese made instrument? sure there are, but they are not as immediately and visibly apparent as the differences between, say, a squire strat and a USA strat.

Until you get your endorsement deal and get your USA guitars for free, or otherwise find yourself financially independent, this guitar is more than capable of playing anywhere from in your bedroom to large crowds with little to no modification. In Fact there are several bands with huge record sales that I can name playing large outdoor festivals to HUGE crowds [such as the Wacken open air in Germany] who play LTD guitars by choice!

Overall, very THUMBS UP!

Thanks for reading!

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 3:11 am

Awesome!! I really like that you go into detail about your experiences so far.
Happy NGD!