NGD – LTD Elite Horizon-III

[littledoc]

My other guitar is a Carvin DC800. I've been wanting to get back into teaching (it's been a few years), and it occurred to me that an 8-string with no fret markers might be confusing for students. So, I made a, uh, capital investment.

I'm extremely pleased with this guitar. The frets are polished to a smooth sheen that I haven't seen (or felt) on too many production guitars. They're much smoother than both the Ibanez Prestiges I've had, and are basically indistinguishable from the stainless frets on my Carvin (with my Ibanezesez, I noticed more friction doing bends). Pots and hardware are rock solid. There isn't a flaw on this guitar and dare I say it plays at least as well as my Carvin, and that is one damn fine playing axe.

Btw, in case you were wondering what the difference is between an LTD Elite and a regular ESP (since these sort of bridge the gap price-wise):

• ESPs have an original floyd rose; this has a 1000 series. I've used plenty of OFRs and I can't tell any difference. To my knowledge the only difference is the place of manufacture.
• ESPs, like the Eclipse, have multi-ply binding; this has single-ply.

Aaaaand that's pretty much it.



My only "camera", if you can call it that, is on my phone. So I threw in some of the pics from Sweetwater (which they sent me in an email), which do a much better job of capturing what it looks like:

Eat your heart out, Ansel Adams

Mysterious disappearing horn...

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

It's a 1000 series? I thought it was an OFR?

 

[Pezshreds]

The body shape is sweet and awesome binding too.
HNGD Dude Welcome to the LTD club

 

[littledoc]

On the ESP website, all the higher-end LTDs that have the 1000 series (as opposed to the Special) just say "Floyd Rose Bridge"; on the ESPs they say "Floyd Rose Original Bridge".

But if I'm wrong, I can't tell the difference anyway.

 

[Pezshreds]

I felt a different between the original and licensed. It's been so long since I've touched a floyd or anything similar (Hard tail all the way for me now)
I do miss doing dive bombs though

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Yeah, it does get a bit confusing.

Also, 1000-series Floyds are good. They're made of the same stuff as German FR's, just made in Korea, so I'd easily prefer them over Licensed Floyd Roses.

 

[KarlMagnusRobin]

Looks soo good! HNGD, I want one!

 

[gigawhat]

Nice, I'm anxious to try one of the LTD Elites. You just increased my GAS tenfold. HNGD!

 

[77zark77]

Niiiiiiiiiice ! I dig the shape ! Congrats and HNGD

 

[iRaiseTheDead]

Hot damn it gets sexier the more you look at it!

 

[Danukenator]

Not to turn the thread into a Floyd discussion but I'll also vouch for the 1000 series Floyd. I had one on an ESP LTD RL-600 and it stay in tune through dives and whatnot.

The new logo on LTD's (and maybe ESP's?) is awesome. Love the sleek look of it.

 

[wannabguitarist]

Start teaching so you can write this purchase off on your taxes

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

dang that looks sooo good.
the ltd elite H3 (in RDB, no trem) is one of the few guitars that literally taunts me every day.
how do you like the custom 5 in the bridge?

 

[littledoc]

how do you like the custom 5 in the bridge?

At the risk of overselling it, it's one of my favorite pickups I've ever used. Hot and clear but warm at the same time... hard to describe. I like it much better than the JB. I'm less enthusiastic about the Jazz in the neck, but I still like it.

 

[jephjacques]

That's some damn good looking fretwork for a guitar at this price.

 

[MikeSweeney]

I felt a different between the original and licensed. It's been so long since I've touched a floyd or anything similar (Hard tail all the way for me now)
I do miss doing dive bombs though

We all do Bro we all do

 

[purpledc]

Congrats. I have a the blue TOM version on order from sweetwater and I was going to switch my order the guitar you bought because I was getting sick of waiting. But alas you pulled the trigger the very moment I called to switch. Thats OK though as for me the TOM is a better fit for my needs. Congrats on the guitar. I cant wait to get mine. Im hearing rumors that they stopped offering cases with these now so you may have got even luckier than you thought. Sam Ash lists them as No case included. Maybe that was a mistake but it would make sense if esp stopped doing cases with standards.

I felt a different between the original and licensed. It's been so long since I've touched a floyd or anything similar (Hard tail all the way for me now)
I do miss doing dive bombs though

Well the 1000 series isnt a licensed bridge. It is essentially a korean OFR. In fact when they were first released they were labled as ofrs by many companies selling guitars with them in them. They are identical to an OFR in every way even materials and build method. In fact the ONLY difference Ive seen is that the 1000 series trems actually keep tune better and have better fit and finish. Recent OFRS have been garbage.