Price paid: $ 385.25
Purchased from: Local Music Store
Features: This is the little brother of the LTD Phoenix-1000. It has 22 Jumbo XL frets, with a through neck. The body is bass wood; the neck is maple with a rosewood fret board. While the "1000" is made from mahogany and ebony. It comes in two finishes; white and black with a contrasting pick guard. Has the stock ESP tuners (which are pretty slick). Has a three way toggle switch, and tone and volume controls. Has the LH-150 ESP pickups, which are quite nice, very full and "meaty".
Though she lacks any extra features I really like, it is a rather cheap guitar. It's a little hefty and isn't a jump and jam guitar so it wears on your stamina pretty quickly. // 7
Sound: My style is metal and rock, but I picked this guitar up to play in the Jazz band at school. I play mostly clean w/reverb, maybe a little chorus effect here and there. I have played it with some distortion. It sound pretty nice for classic rock, and soft rock. I run it through a Bugera 6262 combo which also adds a sweet sound to the overall quality. The bridge channel is very nice, gives a boost for solos, middle sounds great for just about anything, and the neck is wonderful. I use the bridge channel probably more than anything. It has a full sound and is very beefy. But, I feel like itβs over all ability and range is limited. // 7
Action, Fit & Finish: The basic setup is exactly how I have it, other than a change in strings. Pickups never needed to be adjusted or anything. The only thing it needed was to have the neck adjusted just a little bit. Though it's probably because the guitar sat in the store for several years. The overall aesthetics is why I picked up the guitar in the first place. The body is very appealing to me, has a 50's like body style. Then the paint is pretty sweet and compliments the body very well. However I immediately trashed the strap locks because they were pretty small. // 7
Reliability & Durability: It is heavy. I wouldn't want to have to stand for an extended period of time. But other than that it is going to be a long lasting guitar. As mentioned I throw away the strap locks because they seemed so small, my straps kept falling through. So I installed strap locks. I have full trust in the reliability and the durability of the electronics. I'd imagine if I it took a fall it wouldn't phase it a bit. It's rock solid. // 9
Impression: For me, it was exactly what I needed; it is my jazz guitar and my clean guitar. I really think that is what it should be used for. I own an Ibanez, Schecter, and a Fender. So most of the genres I play are filled by guitars that better fill the positions. I just didn't feel like this guitar could take the distortion like my two other guitars. If it was stolen, I'd probably suck it up and spend the extra $400 on the LTD Phoenix-1000. You get what you pay for, but the quality on the product did exceed my expectations. // 7
