Not sure if anyone is even reading this, but I thought I would share my experience and thoughts on this guitar now that I have had it a few days and had some time with it.
A short snippet of background on my guitar choices up until now.
I am a Gibson guy. I own, and have owned, many Gibson Les Pauls starting back when i was about 19 through today and I am 45.
The Les Paul Standard was always my guitar of choice. I have owned Strats, even built 2 Warmoth super strats which i ended up selling because I never bonded with them, same with the 3 PRS guitars I have owned in the past.
That being said, Over the past 2 or so years, I got an itch to try something different, and break away a little from my Les Paul Standard routine.
It started with a Washburn Solar that was Evertune equipped. I fell in love with the guitar. it was one of the most comfortable guitars I have ever played and I really fell in love with the Evertune bridge. What a godsend for recording!
I ended up picking up a 2nd solar, actually Solar Brand, also equipped with Evertune.
Well I really wanted a LP style guitar with Evertune and could not bring myself to ever hack up one of my Les Pauls.
So fast forward to this guitar. I knew ESP made LP style guitars with Evertune, but quickly realized 99% of them were LTD models. This was where I realized that i may be more of a guitar snob then I thought I was, as I was sooooo apprehensive about buying an LTD because in my mind it was a cheapo POS low line ESP meant for beginners.
I have to say I am so pleasantly surprised by this guitar. The build quality is great! I haven't really been able to find anything wrong with it, and believe me I have tried. The fret work is excellent, the construction shows no flaws in fit and finish, and although it feels different than my Les Paul, it still has that familiar Les Paul feel to me minus a few pounds. I honestly went into this purchase with low expectations, thinking I was going to need to change out pots, switches, tuners, about the only thing I knew would be quality was the pickups, because they are Duncans, and the Evertune.
Truthfully the only thing I am swapping is the tuners, and not because the ones that came with it are bad, they are grovers after all, but because I want to upgrade them to grover locking tuners.
Just wanted to share my thoughts incase anyone here is like me, someone who doesn't realize they are a guitar snob, and has pre conceived notions about lower priced import guitar brands. You might be missing out on some fantastic guitars...
