Cheap guitar of the week #37 - ESP LTD H-101

Looks expensive, but it's not.

ESP LTD is one of those guitar brands that's easy to miss, mainly because most players don't go looking for them. When you do look at them however, you quickly find out they make some pretty good stuff.

I think what the H-101 model guitar shown above suffers from more than anything else is Looks-Too-Expensive Syndrome. There are guitar buyers who will - and I kid you not - pass on a guitar and not even try it just because it looks expensive. Will they examine the price tag? Nope. They'll see the fancy flame top, instantly make a judgment that it costs too much and move on to something else.

Their loss is your gain, because as you'll see from the link, this guitar is really affordable.

My favorite part of the guitar, other than the burst finish, is the fact it has black nickel hardware. I actually really like that specific dark-color hardware because it doesn't pit and chip over time like regular black hardware does. Sure, it will fade and discolor as the guitar gets used, but will do so in a desirable way that looks good.

And as for the rest of the guitar, I can tell just from looking at it that it will age well. Black nickel ages well as does cream color pickup rings along with the dark-but-not-too-dark rosewood fingerboard. This particular cheap axe was definitely built to be truly played.

Published 2015 Dec 2