ESP LTD James Hetfield Iron Cross SW - Snow White

I am a beginner right now. This is the 3rd guitar I've owned. I own a Mitchell MD300 electric guitar which is pretty decent. This seems easier to play. The action is lower and the"EMG Hetset" pickups just scream. Taking lessons now and trying to unlock the magic of the guitar. Yes, I'm a Metallica fan. I've even met James Hetfield backstage at a show! This guitar is awesome!! It has inspired me to to keep picking it up to practice. Fit and finish is beautiful. The sound through my Marshall Code 50 amp is incredible. It looks amazing hanging on my wall in the "Man Cave" among the pictures and autographs I've acquired over the years. This guitar is gorgeous!! It has most of the features of the $5K ESP version at 1/5 the cost. Only differences I can see is the plastic /bone nut, The LTD has standard strap buttons VS the Schaller strap locks (24 bucks) and the 3 piece mahogany neck/ vs one piece. This guitar is made in a Korean factory vs being hand built in Japan (but the quality control is damn good....just like Samsung/Iphone) . The ESP case is super nice too. 2 Years later... I am still taking lessons and getting better. I've added a few guitars to my collection as well. I actually appreciate the quality of this guitar even more. It really sounds great and is holding up really well. I use Elixir nanoweb strings now and love the sound and feel. This was a great purchase!

Oh wow this thing is AWESOME!!!Okay so you"re a Metallica fan that's why you're buying this,obviously.You want to play their music.Well this guitar totally captures virtually everything they have ever done (Minus some of the few songs James played on a Strat type).Especially their early stuff.You do have to tweak the tone settings on your amp of course, but this sounds perfectly like them. Actually it has James Hetfield's pick ups in it, the same ones he uses.It plays really nice too. My hands struggle with Les Paul type necks but this I can play easily, and its fast too.I think I am playing faster and cleaner on this than any other guitar I've ever owned and I've owned a few nice ones and some crappy ones too.I was really torn between this and the Snakebite but I only had one tax return so this won. James plays that type more often it seems, so that it would theoretically be better if you wanted to cover their music often, but because this is less easily associated with Metallica other people just think you have a really cool looking guitar until you tell them what it is and then everybody just thinks that it is the coolest thing in the world.So ya that's what I think.

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my husband. He LOVES it. My ONLY complaint was the box came in clearly identifying what it was. This would make it very easy for people lacking in integrity to steal such a high value item. I would recommend a less conspicuous box to protect the contents from being stolen or ruining a surprise.

Did not like the metal cross screwed onto the body. Would be nice painted on.

Guitar came without ltd logo on head stock, and with different knobs then on the picture present. I bought from Amazon warehouse( in good condition). Keys also do not fit the case they come with.

This is the most expensive guitar I've ever owned. It was a Christmas present from me to me last week. I've been deliberating on it for about 18 months now, and wondering whether I should spend $1K on it, or buy the Het set for $200 and put them in one of my other guitars.After all the rave reviews I guess I was expecting more from it, but it's not the holy grail of guitars.It is nice though. I bought an Epiphone Les Paul about 4 years ago for $400, so this is mainly a comparison to that guitar. This LTD plays well and has amazing sustain. I like the Het set of active pickups they have a great growl to them, and the bridge pickup has a nice, smooth tone that I find fluid and enjoyable. It is a lot lighter than the Epi, and with a thinner body it is more comfortable for my right arm as the edge of the body doesn't jab into it so much which tends to happen when playing thrash. It came out of the box with a vague tune, and intonation is a bit off so I have to delve into that (later). There was also horrendous fret buzz at first, enough to make me think about sending it back, but a bit of research told me it would subside of its own accord as it acclimatised to the house, and it has mostly. It has a low action by comparison...not much lower, but enough to notice.I thought it would be cool to play a JH copy guitar...but now I'm thinking that I probably look like a wannabe playing a wannabe guitar. Like buying Nike Jordans because I can't play basketball and want people to think I'm a basketball superstar maybe?So based on comparison of my other guitar and cost of each one, bottom line is I think I spent too much on this (and I got it for $990 including tax) guitar and not sure if I would go out and buy it again, I would explore other makes suited for thrash like Metallica, and then I would add the Het set for $200. Bear in mind also that there are no real cons to this guitar and I do enjoy it. And it came with a really nice hard case.Edit January 2, 2017: Been playing it a fair bit and I'm starting to get a good feel of the guitar. I've changed my tune a little, pardon the pun, and the more I play it, the more I am enjoying. The tone, sustain and action are really superb, and I think I was a little harsh in the earlier review. Now would I go out and buy it again if I had to replace it? Good question. Ideally I would buy the ESP $5000 jobby, but let's not go down that road.Edit December 15, 2017. After playing it for a year, I have to scale down my rating. I go back and forth with my guitars (and I've since bought a Gibson LP HP) and I find that the action on this LTD is simply not up to par. And this is my only con with it really. When I lower the action to match that of my Epiphone and Gibson guitars, I get a lot of fret buzz; too much to make it playable. So I raised it just high enough to make it playable, and it's a little too high for my liking. By comparison to my other 2 guitars, this one's action is a lot higher...but I might add that the other 2 guitars have strings that are 1 gage smaller, and I'm sure that using a larger string gage adds to the performance/action/fret buzzing issue.

Very nice guitar, I love it; except when I received it for my Birthday and it had a scratch on it and I notified Amazon and had no problem with returning it. The only issue is having such a long wait to get a replacement because they are back ordered.