ESP EC-50 Guitar Review

The entry level guitar market is a hard one to break into. Between Fender's Squier brand, Gibson's Epiphone brand, and the lower end Ibanez models, good quality and value guitars are often overlooked just because of simple name recognition. This, however, doesn't stop companies such as ESP from making these lower priced, good quality guitars. In this article, I'll take a look at the ESP EC-50 to see if it is one of these often unnoticed diamonds in the rough.

Features: The body of the ESP EC-50 is made of basswood. It's a bit of an uncommon make, with mostly just some Fender brands sharing the material. The ESP EC-50, however, is clearly designed after the Les Paul look. There are several finishes available with the guitar, including sunburst, ebony, and cherry red. None are particularly eye catching because they were made with low production costs in mind. They are decently attractive guitars, though. The neck of the ESP EC-50 is made of maple wood. It has a rosewood fretboard with twenty two frets and a smaller scale than most other full size guitars. All of the hardware, including the tuning heads, stopbar style bridge, and control knobs, is chrome. Electronically, the ESP EC-50 has two ESP brand humbucker pickups, two volume and one tone control knob, and a three way selector switch to maximize the diversity of tone options.

Playability: The fact that the ESP EC-50 is made on a shorter scale creates an interesting playability quality. Depending on what you prefer, this could be good or bad. Note bending is a bit easier because of less string tension, but there are fewer frets, and they are smaller than those you'd find on other ESP brand instruments. Additionally, the basswood body is relatively lightweight and well contoured, but the cutaway and neck joint inhibit some high fret access.

Sound: Considering the ESP EC-50's price range, the sound is pretty nice. The ESP brand humbuckers do a decent job in versatility. They can play some pretty pure clean tones. And the distortion side is strong too, though a little fuzzy. In the hands of a beginner, though, this guitar will sound great. It's a matter of taste more than anything else, and you'll find few guitars at this level that hit most palates like this one.

Overall: The market that the ESP EC-50 is completely flooded. There are thousands of name and off brand copies and originals with low quality and a build that wouldn't really satisfy even the most inexperienced musician. This instrument, however, is not one of those. It has a good quality look, feel, and sound, and is a great springboard from which to start. You can find the ESP EC-50 in music stores for about $350.