EC-1000T (Traditional)

LTD Deluxe Series

Specifications

Controls

Finishes

• Set-Neck Construction
• 24.75" Scale
• Mahogany Body
• Flame Maple Top
• Mahogany Neck
• Rosewood Fingerboard
• 42mm Standard Nut

• Thin U Neck Contour
• 22 XJ Frets
• Nickel Hardware
• ESP Locking Tuners
• Tonepros Locking TOM & Tailpiece
• Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro (B & N) p.u.

• 3-Way Toggle
• Bridge Volume
• Neck Volume
• Master Tone

• Faded Cherry Sunburst (FCSB)

Q. What makes it 'Traditional'?

A. The EC 'T' guitars have 22 frets as oppsed to the usual 24 you would find on the regular EC range, plus the traditional models have a full thickness body.

REVIEWS

ESP's LTD range of guitars has expanded exponentially over recent years, with more and more quality guitars added to the series that have blurred the line between these budget-concious versions and thier more expensive japenese-made counterparts. Sitting at the top of the EC range and based on ESP's popular Eclipse model is the EC-1000T, a guitar that is one of the few in ESP's catalogue not to be squarely aimed at the shred and metal market. Rather, the EC-1000T has stripped back the active humbuckers and locking trems of its counterparts in favor of a more traditional approach clearly more closely inspired by the Gibson guitar that influenced its basic outline.

Body & Neck

The body and scale length of this guitar obviously feel right at home for anyone that's ever played a les Paul. The body is a generously thick slab of mahogany topped with a subtle but attractive flamed maple top, which is also nicely carved. There are no body contours to the rear of the guitar but it still feels very comfortable whether playing sitting down or standing up. Despite the thick mahogany body the guitar is still relatively light compared to a Les Paul and balances nicely. The main difference in the look of the body itself is probably the sharper cutaway, which gives all of ESP's singlecuts a nicely modern slant on the tried-and-tested formula. Fret access is good as a result so you certainly won't struggle to reach the higher ends of the fingerboard if the mood takes you. This model is finished in Faded Cherry Sunburst, but there's also a Goldtop model in the range that eschews the maple top. Another nice cosmetic touch on the body are the recessed control knobs and pickup selector which all adds up to make a very classy-looking instrument.

The mahogany set neck on this guitar also very different to what you might expect from a Les Paul as it sports a thin and highly playable 'U contour' profile. Whilst not as thin as the kind you'd find on Ibanez for example, this is a nice middle ground that provides a decent amount of mass but enough flexibility to give your fingers a good workout if you're into faster styles of playing. The fret finishing on the rosewood fingerboard is exceptional on this guitar, which makes those big string bends effortless and rewarding. The heel is also unobtrusive, which again very much helps with upper fret access. The glossy finish matches that found on the rest of the guitar and is also of a very high standard also, gliding under your hand effortlessly withou t any issues. The pearl 'flag' inlays offer a slightly meaner-looking alternative to those you'd find on a Gibson but thankfully aren't too obtrusive or detrimental to the look of the guitar. The guitar is built to the standard Gibson 24.75" scale length and features plastic binding, so overall the vibe we're getting here is very much a modernized Les Paul that places just a subtle change to the look but a surprisingly different playing experience.

Hardware & Parts

Hardware has also been carefully considered on the EC-1000T and features a few subtle but important refinements. The TonePros bridges are amoungst the best in the business and their locking Tune-O-Matic unit is featured here. Partnered with ESP locking tuners, tuning is rock-solid and enables you to play around with different tunings and string gauges whilst still being able to get the intonation spot on and the guitar not wandering out of tune whenever it feels like it.

In terms of electronics, here we have a pair of Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups, some of the most popular and versatile models in Seymour Duncan's extensive catalogue. Taking the look of this guitar into account it shouldn't surprise you that these pickups have been used by Slash for many years, but the fact that they are also used by Michael Wilton of Queensryche fame and Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age should reassure you that these are far from one-trick ponies and can be applied to just about any genre of music.

A three-way selector switch together with two volume controls and a master tone control the pickups. Some may miss the additional tone control for added versatility but likewise we know there are plenty of you out there that prefer not to have them at all! The controls are arranged with the bridge pickup's volume control closest to the pickups, which might throw some people off at first but we found it helpful to have the volume pot we use most often as close as possible to the picking hand for quick and easy volume changes on the fly.

Sounds

The benefits of that thick mohogany body are immediately apparent from the first strum, you can feel the guitar resonating nicely, and there's obviously bags of sustain hidden away. Acoustically the guitar is reasonably bright but with plenty of that mahogany mid-range. This comes through clearly when you plug in for the first time also, with a very thick and dynamic tone ringing through. The maple top adds some clarity and top-end to proceedings, which greatly helps balance that mid-range honk that comes from the large mass of mahogany providing the core of the tone. The tone is very balanced and the clean sounds produced from the Alnico II's are more than capable of covering any number of genres. Chords ring out with reassuring volume and single note sounds are very clearly defined, all in a very Les Paul-like manner that you wouldn't normally associate with an ESP.

Upping the gain though really does allow a lot of character to shine through and you start to get a sense of how much depth and sustain you can coax out of this guitar. As one would hope, the pickups absolutely nail that classic rock crunch that Slash fans adore and those big notes can ring out for an eternity. The pickups really are very adept at picking up all the subtleties of your playing, and we found ourselves missing around with our technique and vibrato more than usual to see what the impact on the sound would be.

That's not where things end though. This is afterall an ESP, a company very well known for decidedly metal-focused instrumments. With that slim neck and great upper fret access we were curious to see if the rest of the guitar could stand up to the more monstrous side of distortion, and we certainly weren't dissappointed. It often seems a strange myth that you need to have high output humbuckersto enjoy high gain to its fullest, but we had a great time enjoying the versatility of this guitar and flicking from bluesy clean lines to heavy distorted chords and lead embellishments. There's plenty of low-end growl available form these pickups when you want it and as previously mentioned the maple top adds a nice high-end clarity to the sound and stops things from getting to muddy. Pinched harmonics fly off the fingerboard and chords sound sbalanced and full even with large amounts of distortion piled on. Those after the most extreme distortion sounds will likely find the pickups slightly lacking in power, but considering the other models in the range equipped with active EMG's, this really shouldn't be considered a criticism and this remains a highly versatile guitar.

Conclusion

The EC-1000T has been a bit of a sleeper hit for us here at the GB office. There's an incredible amount of tone on offer here that spans a lot of different genres, and its packaged in a very consistent, well-built and attractive guitar that could easily sit alongside it's Japanese-made siblings outside of the LTD range. Those after a vintage-orientated Les Paul experiance may find the guitar lacks a certain X-factor, but anyone that loves the look of ESP's singlecuts and has found themselves wishing for a version without EMG's will find themselves with a real performer, complete with not only a great set of sounds but some high end appointments to back them up and make the playing experience a real joy.

Guitar Buyer Magazine (4.5/5) - Reviewed by Alun Lower