ESP LTD EC-401 Black

Great guitar!
I play mostly metal, sometimes punk rock. This guitar handles the styles very well, active pickups provide high gain sounds with great fidelity. I owned several guitars with EMG pickups, I always used to replace EMG 81 in bridge position with EMG 85 due to EMG 81 sounding too harsh and brittle to me. With LTD EC-401 i did not do it for the first time, as EMG 81 sounds just great in bridge position, sound is full a and very harmonic, not harsh in any way. I think this is related to wood of the body (mahogany with no top). I always modify the pickups connection to work in 18 volt mode (two 9 V batteries), which makes the sound more natural and harmonic. This guitar has absolutely best sustain I have ever experienced with any guitar!
The only small complaint about this guitar is instability while playing sitting, guitar body is not very well balanced for that and tends to slip off to the right side, you definitelly need a strap to stabilize the instrument while sitting. However, this is really minor issue and playing while standing is absolutelly comfortable.

I bought this guitar as a step up from an old cheap jackson that I had learned to play on. I based my decision to buy partly on the Total Guitar review that is attached to the product page. It only came second out of four in the review but that was good enough for me as the product that came first, the Ibanez ARZ700, did not have fret markers / inlays. This wouldn't bother some but I do actually look at the inlays as I play.

This guitar screams quality and I tried this in a local shop alongside the LTD EC -1000 and I couldn't justify the price difference although I now also want to buy the EC- 1000 for the ebony fretboard. The build quality is the same I feel.

Playability, the neck is slim but not so slim it gives you cramp in your hands. It's just about perfect and the gloss neck doesn't get sticky at all when playing. Build quality, top quality fit and finish all around with only a bit of minor glue smear on the bottom neck join. The paint, fretboard, binding and hardware are all flawless quality. The EMG pickups... are exactly how you would expect, roaring with bite at the bridge and sounding like angels singings when playing lead.

9.9 / 10 for this guitar it is just like a les paul custom but lighter weight and with emg's. Plus I think LTD is cooler that other popular manufacturers.