Cheap guitar of the week #43 - ESP LTD M-50FR

LTD continues to hit home runs with cool, new guitars that are cheap, and this is one of them.

This is the ESP LTD M-50FR. You may have to hunt a little on that link to see the guitar, but trust me, it's there either in neon green or neon orange seen above. This is a cool axe because it's a cheap rocker/metal/shredder axe that actually looks good.

I applaud LTD for having the balls to release this guitar in neon colors, and do it for a low price. In a sea of guitars all with muted "safe" colors, it's nice to see the super-bright stuff to change things up a bit.

Specs

Basswood body. Bolt-on 25.5-inch maple neck with "Extra Thin Flat" contour, rosewood fingerboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, 350mm (13.78-inch) fingerboard radius, 42mm (1.65-inch) nut width.

Tuners are standard LTD, bridge is "LTD by Floyd Rose". Neck pickup is "ESP Designed LH-150N" and bridge pickup is "ESP Designed LH-150B". Passive electronics all around. Switchgear is volume, tone and a 3-way blade selector. Nice and easy.

The good

It's cheap, easy-to-use, looks awesome and has a very fast-playing neck.

The bad

Basswood body that while light will dent easy.

The FR system will probably break in 2 to 3 years. But then again, for the price you really can't complain.

Pickups are spaced very close together, possibly making neck pickup useless since it has been shoved back because of the 24-fret neck.

Verdict

This is a great "beater" guitar. Looks cool, the electronics are simple, the layout is easy to get along with and the guitar was made to play and beat the crap out of.

Don't buy this guitar only to sell it later. Buy it to play the thing, play it loud and play it often.

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