ESP LTD MH-400 Electric Guitar

August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor 


Are you looking for a dark heavy guitar for your hard rockin’ needs? The ESP LTD MH-400 electric guitar is a sleek, beautiful superstrat styled guitar with a deep blue transparent finish and two active EMG humbucking pickups that will deliver the goods. The body is mahogany, with a maple top that adds that top end ring along with beauty beneath the see-through finish. At a list price of $949.00, this is serious metal gear.

The ESP name stands for “Electric Sound Products.” This is a very fitting name for a company that has electrified the sound of countless rock musicians. The ESP company was founded in 1975 in Japan by Hisatake Shibuya, as a replacement guitar part provider. As they gained in parts they were dealing in, they realized they had everything they would need to create an entire guitar, so they began to make guitars.

One of the first big names in rock and roll to buy an ESP made guitar was Bruce Kulick of KISS. Another was Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. A very famous ESP guitar is George Lynch’s Kamikaze guitar, which was made in 1986. ESP is known for high quality at a moderate price, and for making guitars that fit the rock music style. In fact, there are many different endorsed models in their arsenal of potential guitars for you. Some do carry ample price tags, however.

If you are desiring ESP quality, but want to shave a little off the price, check out the LTD guitars. These are less expensive, Korean factory made versions of the full priced ESP guitars.

An interesting historical note about the ESP LTD guitars is that in the 80’s and 90’s, one of their chief competitors was the Jackson Guitar company, which also is known for high-powered extreme rock guitars. When Fender bought out the Jackson name in 2002, a lot of the rock artists who had previously endorsed or used Jackson guitars switched over to ESP. Another company, however, that ESP still has heavy competition from is Dean Guitars.

The MH 400 is basically a superstrat design guitar with great hot pickups and all the spice you need to crank it up and “rawk!”

Advantages: The ESP LTD MH-400 electric guitar has a great tone for all your heavy gigs. It is a real beauty, being a bit darker and more striking in real life than it is in pictures. A major advantage to this guitar is that it contains the EMG 81 and 85 humbucker combination that are so popular with so many musicians. These are very good quality pickups, and you should not see a need to change them out with better ones.

The smooth and thin neck of the ESP LTD MH-400 is extremely fast and good for that furious shredding so many of you like to do. The Floyd Rose bridge and tremolo generally give good reliable service for all your whammy diving needs, although some artists find that it leaves the guitar out of tune. It is truly one of the best rock guitars in its price range, and can be coaxed to turn out some pretty good blues, too.

Disadvantages: Some people complain that the tremolo bridge, being only Floyd Rose licensed and not the real thing, is not that good. It is a major job to change strings on one of these kinds of bridges. It has been suggested that you read up on Floyd Rose bridges before trying to change strings on the ESP LTD MH-400 electric guitar so you will not inadvertently scratch up the beautiful finish in the process.

 

Another caveat about this guitar is that it may need a set up done by a professional guitar tech when you get it. The guitar tech can show you how to change strings and otherwise get the most out of the Floyd Rose trem, too, while you are there. This is usually a good idea anyway, although many guitars are quite nicely set up when they come out of the package.

Specs:

  • Mahogany body with quilted maple top
  • Natural color binding on the body
  • White binding on the neck
  • White binding also on the headstock
  • Set neck construction with minimal heel so the upper frets are easily accessed
  • 3 piece maple neck
  • Rosewood fingerboard
  • 25.5 inch scale length
  • 24 extra jumbo frets
  • Offset pearloid block inlays, with name at the twelfth fret
  • Black hardware
  • Grover tuners
  • EMG 81 active humbucker pickup at the bridge position
  • EMG 85 active humbucker pickup in the neck position
  • One master volume control knob
  • One master tone control knob
  • 3-way slotted toggle pickup selector control switch
  • Licensed Floyd Rose double locking tremolo bridge system
  • Earvana compensated nut for easy tuning

 

Wikipedia has more information about the ESP guitar company.

Ultimate Guitar has a few reviews of the ESP LTD MH-400 guitar posted.

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