“I’d bet most rock guitarists use only the bridge pickup with the tone control wide open 90% of the time… so why bother with a neck pickup and tone controls?” ESP LTD Deluxe EC-01FT review

What is it?

I’m a big believer in simplicity when it comes to the electric guitar, especially when the priority is the boldest, most dynamic tone.

I often find that the best approach is to strip things down to the barest of essentials and that any and every addition to the signal path is more likely to take away than add to the equation.

Hey, this theory worked for everything from Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein to Leslie West’s Gibson Les Paul Junior, and who could argue with that?

Playability and sounds

The LTD EC-01FT may be stripped down, but that doesn’t mean it’s austere. The mahogany body and three-piece mahogany neck are seamlessly joined as if they were crafted from a single slab of wood, and body routing is kept to a minimum to ensure maximum resonance.

The control cavity is a little larger than usual, but it provides ample space for a battery should you choose to later install an active pickup.

The neck’s Thin U profile combined with the deep cutaway facilitates fast, unimpeded playing across the entire silky smooth Macassar Ebony fretboard. The recessed bridge keeps the strings close to the body, making it easy to comfortably palm mute the strings.

Full disclosure: I’d bet that most rock guitarists use only the bridge pickup with the tone control wide open 90 percent of the time or more, so why bother with an extraneous neck pickup and tone controls? The EC-01FT proves that you don’t need all that extra hardware to enjoy big, aggressive tones for rock.

If you want clean tone, just back down the volume control. Prefer a more mellow attack? Pick closer to the neck.

The Duncan Custom 14’s high output (14.65k ohms resistance) can push an amp extra hard, but it delivers an alluring midrange roar with outstanding articulation, clarity and bite. The split function provides honking single-coil tone with assertive mids that fall between a P-90’s growl and a Tele’s twang.

Verdict

The ESP LTD Deluxe EC-01FT may be stripped down to the essentials when it comes to its single humbucking pickup and solitary master volume control, but its upscale materials, design refinements, quality hardware and impeccable craftsmanship result in a luxurious ax that’s much more than a bare-bones Junior model.

Guitar World verdict: If you prefer to keep your tone as big, pure and uninhibited as possible, this guitar certainly meets those goals without any feelings of compromise or missing out.

Specs

Launch price: $1,099 / £1,039 / €1,019
Origin: Indonesia
Type: Solidbody electric guitar
Body: Mahogany
Neck: 3-piece mahogany, glued-in, Thin U profile
Scale length: 24.75″ / 629mm
Fingerboard: Macassar ebony, 13.8″ radius, 22 extra-jumbo stainless steel frets
Pickups: 1x Seymour Duncan Custom 14 humbucker (ESP exclusive)
Controls: Volume, tone, coil-split
Hardware: ESP-branded locking tuners, Recessed TonePros Locking TOM bridge with String Thru
Finishes: Black [as reviewed], Olympic White, Vintage Burst
Contact: ESP Guitars

Hands-on videos

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• ESP LTD EC-201FT review

Chris is the co-author of Eruption – Conversations with Eddie Van Halen. He is a 40-year music industry veteran who started at Boardwalk Entertainment (Joan Jett, Night Ranger) and Roland US before becoming a guitar journalist in 1991. He has interviewed more than 600 artists, written more than 1,400 product reviews and contributed to Jeff Beck’s Beck 01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll and Eric Clapton’s Six String Stories.