ESP

LTD MH-1000 Deluxe EverTune

- ART THOMPSON

ALWAYS SEEKING TO improve its guitars, ESP recently announced it was adding stainless-steel frets to all of its LTD 1000 Series guitar and basses. It’s a notable update since stainless steel can provide a smoother playing feel as well as better resistance to wear and corrosion than alloy-based fret wire. The LTD MH-1000 Deluxe EverTune on review here is a beautifully made guitar that has a mahogany body with a flame-maple top finished in Dark Brown Sunburst and a three-piece maple set thru-neck. The ebony fingerboard has hip-looking square/rectangular pearl position markers and carries 24 jumbo frets that are crowned and polished to perfection. There are elegant multi-ply bindings on the body and headstock, while single white binding adorns the fretboard edges. Everything has been so well-rendered and smoothed on this guitar — including a neck joint that literally flows into the double-cutaway body — that it’s surprising the corners of the nut were left fairly sharp.

The electronics consist of a pair of active EMG humbuckers — a 60TW-R in front and an 81 at the bridge — along with a three-way blade switch and volume and tone controls, the latter being a push-pull for coil-splitting the pickups. Power for the system comes from a nine-volt battery housed under a cover that’s secured with machine screws to make it easier to remove.

SPECIFICATIONS

LTD MH-1000 Deluxe EverTune

CONTACT

espguitars.com

PRICE

$1,299 street

NUT WIDTH

42mm, molded