ESP LTD EC-1000VB/Duncan

Bought this guitar to replace my 10+ year-old Ibanez S470 (the ZR Tremolo was giving me headache), and boy oh boy do I not regret it.

Always had an affinity towards Les Pauls so I gave it a go - I've wanted something that has the classic Les Paul "darker" sound but with playability of an Ibanez - that is exactly what this guitar is. The sustain this guitar gives beats both of the guitars I currently own.

Comparing it to Ibanez and my Epiphone Les Paul, ESP's neck is not a Wizard neck, however, it is not a "baseball bat" either (which my Epiphone surely feels like) - it is a perfect blend of grippiness.

The guitar arrived with small cosmetic damage (the finish was scrapped on the front (and is very visible), but I am betting that the gorillas at my country's customs are to blame for that. Even despite that eye-sear, it is simply a beautiful guitar. The guitar has PERFECT fretwork and the mahogany neck is a pure joy to play on. Its "matte" finish is simply the best for long sessions as the sweat will not cause your hand to slip all the time.

What surprised me was how well the guitar stays in tune, even after abusing the living hell out of the G string, it remained in tune (which cannot be said for most Les Paul-style guitars).

As a testament to how awesome this guitar is, the guitar was upheld by customs for 25 days (my country's customs and paperwork bureaucracy is stuck in the 80s) - even after spending more than a month on the road, the guitar arrived with almost perfect intonation, perfect action and very minimal and acceptable fret buzz (you cannot hear it through the amp, it's caused by the low action), there was no need to re-adjust the tross rod - I've even reserved a local guitar tech's time to set it up upon arrival - he was also genuinely surprised, nothing needed to be done and only thing left to do was to change the strings.

With the guitar having so many pros, it would be ridiculous to list them all, but to mention some cons:
- The "gold" line that follows the neck is a bit more "yellowish" than gold (this is not visible to the audience)
- The "tune knob" is rather finicky and not "as tight" as the Volume knobs
- If you've been playing a Floyd Rose guitar, you will need to re-adjust your hand positioning for palm muting

EDIT: Unfortunately, the damage was too great as the finish started coming off and I had to return the guitar. (ordered an EC-1000 with EMG's instead) - however, what must be commended was the way Thomann dealt with the entire situation as they were more than amazing throughout the whole ordeal.

After this, would I recommend this guitar? Hell yes - I assume I was severely unlucky with the mass produced product and it somehow slipped through Thomann's hands (ordering this during the height of the pandemic did not help).

I bought an EC1000VB in 2006, and man, it was just superb. EMG pickups (that incidentally were the thing i liked the least about it, and i first swapped the 81 with an 85, then went passive with a set of Bareknuckles), Sperzel locking tuners, Earvana nut (not that it made any percievable difference, to be honest). Perfect finish. It just looked, sounded and felt like a guitar thrice its price.
Few years ago, for reasons that seemed good at the time, i sold it (along with an LTD MH417, but that’s another sad story). And regretted it ever since.

So at last i decided to buy it again, and thankfully LTD now is making an already passive version, loaded with Duncans (a pretty standard combination of a bridge JB and a neck 59).

Still made in Korea, despite the production has already partly shifted to Indonesia. Still looking as gorgeous as i remembered it, but with some difference (obviously apart from the pickups).
No more Sperzel hardware, the tuners are still locking but branded LTD. They work fine, anyway.
No more Earvana, just a generic nut (see above).
A push-pull tone know for coil splitting (and that’s a very welcome addiction)
A macassar ebony fretboard in place of the pitch black Madagascar ebony of the old model (and this is another change i’m really happy about, i never liked both the looks and feel of ebony, and macassar not only looks way more interesting, it could be me, but it’s apparently also less clangy and snappy on the strings)

I can’t be sure, but I suspect the body is no more made of a single piece of mahogany, because the acoustic tone has changed a bit.
It’s somewhat less resonant, less middy, brighter and more balanced – i was a bit perplexed about the choice of pickups on a guitar that i remembered being very warm sounding – but actually they complement very well the “new” acoustic properties.
The bridge JB is well balanced, not too aggressive but perfectly able to handle high gain in standard or drop tunings with ease, and its mid hump make it stand out of the mix in solos and melodic parts.
The neck 59 is not as muddy as i feared it to be, and they both sound very good when splitted.
I don't think they'll last long - but I'm a pickup nerd, there's nothing wrong with them.

This said, the LTD EC1000 is still one of the best guitars you can find for less than 1000 €, but the quality gap with the ESP eclipse is slightly more pronounced (less inapparent, to be fair) than it used to be. I gave it four stars in the “quality” department exclusively because of this very reason. But in absolute terms it’s a five star instrument in all aspects.

After some years of on and off playing the guitar (i had some cheap Acoustic that i was learning on), i decided to up my game and pick up an electric, since having something that can generate the kind of music i like (Basically Progressive Rock, Doom Rock and some heavy Metal) might help motivating me.
Hours of research later i have decided for this baby here and boy am i glad i did.
No need to review the Thomann Service here (which is pretty freaking awesome, Guitar was there one week after order with my special request of basic setup and functionality check ).
Package Opened and i was in Love. The build quality of this Guitar was very impressive.
Gold Hardware giving a very playful feel to a rather serious lookin Guitar. The Orange/Yellowish contour is something i don't really like, but it somehow fits the "playful" theme that this baby has going.

The Guitar was nicely set up out of the box but needed small adjustment and it was ready to go.

Plug it in, and played the obligatory E Chord and .. i can't seem to put it down man!!!
The Duncan Pickups are very "capable" whether your playing clean or with some high gain (might not be able to tell when using a practice amp, but on a good amp those baby shine!!!)

All in all, very glad i decided for this guitar over say an Epiphone .. the couple of Euros more are totally worth it... no wonder this is one of the Top-3 sold Guitars at Thomann!!!

First of all, this guitar is absolutely stunning to look at. For me personally, this is the most beautiful instrument ive ever laid my eyes on.

The neck is fast, the satin paint is really smooth under your frethand. Once i had lowered the strings and gotten it properly setup(It came poorly intonated and had a buzzing sound from the nut), it played like a dream.

The sound from the JB on the bridge is really crunchy, and works extremely well for fast thrashy rythm and leads alike.
Im not a fan of the 59 on the neck, it sounds abit muddy imo, but it does add versatility to the weapon and i find myself occasionally using it when toying around with clean tones.

The only downsides to the instrument is the somewhat poor quality on its finishes.
The goldplated hardware is already turning into silver on the spots where my hand touches the pickups and bridge.
The binding (looks yellow/gold on pictures) is more orange on my copy, which i have gotten used to- but it looks a little bit funky at first.
Also the paint on the binding over the neck is of exceptionally poor quality and is already coming off, leaving white marks beneath.

Overall it still looks amazing, but it certainly has some visual flaws(although some would argue guitars looks more beautiful when well-worn)

I had been wanting to get a Les Paul shaped guitar for some time until I found this badass beauty! Its sharper look captivated me.
I wanted a guitar which had passive pickups that sounded great for Blues and Metal. I was also looking for something that looked more modern than the classic Les Paul.
As my experience with ESP LTD guitars hasn't let me down, I had to go for it!

THE GOOD STUFF! :

The gold hardware and pickups and yellow contour around the guitar really stand out from the impeccable black sat background, creating a visually very pleasing guitar!

These Seymour Duncan pickups are amazing for not only Blues or Jazz but for Rock and Metal too! (I've even Djented on them ;D). The JB sounds great in gainy setups and personally, while soloing, I change between both as I find the '59 a darker sounding pickup especially for the lower notes. They both sound great and organic in clean setups.

The thin "U" profile of the neck makes it very comfortable to play and it?s very easy to move around the fretboard. It is also very easy to play the very high notes as the neck-body joint doesn't get in the way at all.

The locking machine heads are great and so are the Tone Pros Bridge and tailpiece and haven't given me any problems. Both quality components.

The volume and tone knobs are spot on; they have a perfect amount of resistance when turning them round as it can be unpleasant if they are too flimsy.

THINGS TO BE AWARE OF:

After playing for a long while it is recommended to keep stuff clean; it may come without saying, but the bridge and pickup covers can get mucky after long sessions of palm-muting wizardry and if not wiped regularly, the gold hardware may start to fade. In fact, it does wear a bit on the bridge but if kept in order it is hardly noticeable. You can always replace components.

This guitar has a wonderful sound. I love its Seymour Duncan pickups, they have a huge sound and if you play metal it's perfect. The mechanics are very nice and the guitar is very nice to play.
The look of the guitar is amazing when you're far from it 2-3 meters. However, when you're looking close to it, the finishing is not that great: the binding is not gold but a weird orange-yellow and it is very very fragile. When I was changing the strings I accidentally touched (very gently) the headstock's binding with my cutter and a piece of the binding came off. At the back of the neck I can see a crack on the satin layer, nothing to worry about (it is only superficial) but it is not nice to see for sure.
Anyway, it plays very well and this is the most important, however I would have preferred a better quality for a 1k€ guitar.

Looking at all the positive reviews for this guitar it looked like a sure bet, but unfortunately I have to give this guitar a low rating.

First I have to say the sound is really good. The pups are solid and will give you what you want for a guitar of this type.

Where I ran into problems was with the production quality. I have had more than one of these and none were acceptable to me. The first arrived with rusty strings and frets, another had orange binding instead of the gold/yellow which it should have had.

A new batch arrived at Thomann so I ordered again. When it arrived, orange binding again as well as some other small issues which I would have probably accepted if the colour was right. I was informed by a very helpful customer service assistant that they could change colours at any time and Thomann would have no idea. I can't see this as a good strategy for ESP, how much cheaper is orange paint than yellow?

I will give up with ESP, at least until they improve their QC.

Duncan v EMG: I have played both and they both sound great, just depends on what you're using it for. Personally I preferred the more open warm sound of the Duncans.