At whatever price level you choose, the ESP LTD series offers outstanding workmanship and value. And the LTD EC series is their long-standing take on the classic electric cutaway. At the top of the EC lines sits the 1000 series, and this LTD EC-1000 Deluxe features a snazzy flame maple top, full body binding, stainless frets, and a set of classic Duncan pickups.
This model has been discontinued by LTD and is available at a special savings.
The ESP LTD EC-1000 Deluxe features:
- 1.5" thick contoured Mahogany body - 7.0 pounds
- Flame maple top, Amber burst finish
- Full body and neck binding
- 3 Piece Mahogany neck
- Slim U neck profile
- 24.75" scales length
- 13.75" radius ebony fretboard
- 1.65" nut width
- 24 Jumbo stainless frets
- Seymour Duncan '59 neck pickup
- Seymour Duncan JB bridge pickup
- Volume, volume and tone controls
- Push/Pull tone control to split pickups
- 3-way pickup switch
- LTD locking tuners
- Tone Pros TOM style bridge and tailpiece
- Made in Korea
- No bag/case
The EC-1000 takes its design cues from the original iconic single cut guitar, but the thinner profile body helps keep the weight down to a very friendly 7.0 pounds. The reduced weight does give the guitar a slighter brighter response somewhere between an SG and Les Paul, but it does not suck out the bottom end that often results with chambering the body. Other traditional ESP touches are there including a deep set neck-through construction which offers better fret access, and the volume, volume, and tone controls put the bridge volume control first....because players of this type of guitar often spend most of their time there. The EC-1000 also offers other high-end features not normally seen in this price point including, neck binding, locking tuners, a real ebony fretboard and stainless-steel frets. Workmanship is first rate, and LTD guitars consistently offer the most value at their price point.
For this particular EC-1000, LTD went with the tried-and-true combination of the Seymour Duncan '59 and JB pickup combination. While Seymour Duncan is a household name today in pickups, SD is one of the original boutique pickup manufacturers. The JB pickup dates back to the late 70's and traces it's routes to a pickup he made for Jeff Beck. The Alnico 5 magnet and stout 16K DC resistance will give your amp or pedal a swift kick with strong mids and a clear top end presence. While amps have evolved over the years and overdriving the amp itself is less of a thing, the JB formula still works to produce great rock crunch without throwing good clean tones out the window.
The Seymour Duncan '59 has a long history too as one of the original pickups inspired by early Gibson "PAF" pickups. It's a pretty interesting history and here's a bit of background from the Seymour Duncan website:
“There was a time when I first started here where we would get phone calls saying ‘I don’t understand why you call it the ’59 model when it has Alnico 5 magnets – shouldn’t it have Alnico 2 like a 50s humbucker? This isn’t period-correct.’ So I went to Seymour once and I asked ‘Seymour, what is the ’59? It’s not like the Seth Lover – is it wound to ’59 specs? Why does it have the wrong magnet?’ And Seymour said the Patent Applied For humbuckers had all kinds of magnets – Alnico 2, 3, 4, 5 – whatever Gibson could get their hands on. So I asked what the wind was based on and he said ‘It’s wound to Jeff Beck’s ’59 Les Paul pickup specs, but when we started out as a company in the late 70s I noticed more and more guitarists were playing .009 and .010 gauge strings, and when you play those gauges with an Alnico 2 magnet it can sound thin and weak.’ That’s why Antiquities sound better with heavy-gauge strings, for example. So Seymour said that to meet the demands and adapt to modern times they used Alnico 5 to compensate for lighter string gauges. But the coil wind was to replicate what was in Jeff Beck’s ’59 Les Paul.”
Suffice to say that for rock, blues and classic rock the pairing of the '59 and JB pickups is a natural, and it's why so many guitars of this type feature this pickup set. Paired with the comfortable playing weight, slim profile neck and excellent stainless fret work, the EC-1000 is a well thought out and great playing guitar that both pros and enthusiasts can be totally at home with. The EC-1000 needs nothing to the be the #1 choice in your collection.
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