ESP LTD MH-401 Guitar Review

To play rock, there is a wide selection of guitars available, depending on what you want to play. Many choose Fenders and Gibsons for blues and classic rock, some go with Ibanez for harder rock, and others decide on B.C. Rich or Dean for metal. One brand that covers every one of these sub-genres is ESP. In this article, I'll take a look at the ESP LTD MH-401 Floyd Rose electric guitar to see what, if anything, makes it a worthy purchase among so much competition.

Features: The body of the ESP LTD MH-401 is, just like most other ESP's , made of mahogany wood. The top, meanwhile, is carved and quilted maple. This greatly improves the aesthetics and allows for see-through style finishes that the ESP LTD MH-401 offers, including bright red and blue. The neck is made of maple, and is set into the body. It has a rosewood fretboard with twenty four extra jumbo frets, and block inlays on the top half of the frets. As for hardware, the guitar has high grade Grover brand tuning heads and a genuine Floyd Rose double locking tremolo bridge made of black nickel. Electronically, the ESP LTD MH-401 has two EMG humbucker active pickups, one volume and one tone control knob, and a three way selector switch.

Playability: ESP clearly takes special care in making sure their instruments are highly playable. This has helped earned them a good reputation in the hard rock and metal guitarists' community. The set neck and deep cutaways on the ESP LTD MH-401, combined with the thin neck style, makes high fret access and long scale runs very easy for its player. Also, the locking tuners and nut make sure that use of the tremolo system won't throw the guitar out of tune. And, finally, the body is extremely light and well contoured for comfortable playing.

Sound: The sound of the ESP LTD MH-401, as you could probably guess, is geared toward the harder side of the musical spectrum. Active pickups are known for being able to scream at both the high and low end, and the EMG's on the ESP LTD MH-401 certainly do the job. But, on the clean end the settings must be just right to avoid issues with the pickups.

Overall: The ESP LTD MH-401 is an excellent mid-range, intermediate guitar for those looking to play mostly hard rock and metal. Its distortion is as good as you'll hear, it has great playability, and the look is unique enough for the musician who wants to stand out. You can find the ESP LTD MH-401 in music stores for about $700.