Review: Ltd EC 401

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!
Today we are going to review a guitar that is considered by many one of the best quality to price ratio in the market, capable of uniting aesthetics, premium hardware and rationality at the right price, and this combination allowed it to have an enormous success, that is keeping it in production after many years.

Ltd guitars is a sub brand of the American/Japanese premium manufacturer Esp guitars, and it's focused on the low to mid tier prices (a bit like Epiphone with Gibson), but its high tier instruments really offer a lot for the price (we're talking about the 600 to 700$ / € area), and at that range they represent probably an even better alternative to most of the equivalent Epiphone models.

This Ec 401 is the Ltd version of the Esp Eclipse model, and it's a single cut that represents Esp's take on the Gibson Les Paul, borrowing from it a very similar shape and most of the specifics: a mahogany set neck and body, tune o'matic bridge, but it adds to it top notch hardware: active Emg pickups (60 on the neck, 81 on the bridge) and Grover tuners, plus it offers, unlike the Gibson, 24 extra jumbo frets and a Pau Ferro fretboard with the classic Esp flag shaped mother of pearl inlays.
Finally, the neck has a different shape: Thin U, instead of the classic slimtaper design (in all its variants).

The guitar comes in various colours: Olympic white, black, and military green satin, all with binding.

The feel when playing is quite Gibson like: the body is heavy (but not as heavy as a Les Paul), dark sounding and familiar, but the neck feels slimmer and a bit easier to play, plus the Grover tuners offers a big update to the classic Gibson style ones, which are famous to not be very stable.

In terms of tone this guitar just sounds perfect for metal: the pickups are uncompromising, and good to even out the boominess of the body, bringing out a lot of output and clarity.
Above all this guitar, as all the upper range Ltd ones, is reliable: for the price it basically doesn't need any kind of upgrade, and will ensure great build solidity and tone.

If you have the chance try it out, you might easily fall in love with it!

Thumbs up!


Specs Taken from the website:


CONSTRUCTION Set-Thru

SCALE 24.75"

BODY Mahogany

NECK 3Pc Mahogany

FINGERBOARD Pau Ferro

NECK CONTOUR Thin U FRETS/TYPE24 XJ

TUNERS Grover

BRIDGE TOM & Tailpiece

NECK PU EMG 60

BRIDGE PU EMG 81


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