ESP LTD SN-1000 FR - Black Blast Reviews

The feel of the neck was the most important thing to me. I had tried out plenty of other necks where I didn't like the profile, or there were fret sprouts, but this neck profile feels amazing with the satin finish, and the fretwork is perfect. As far as the pickups go, I usually play exclusively humbuckers, but it's cool having the different tonal options in the single coils that I'm not used to having. This is my first Floyd, and it hasn't given me any real problems since I've had it (3 months). The sand blasted finish of the body looks really cool. There's no neck dive whatsoever. 24 frets. It can play heavy metal or some mellow blues, and anything in between.

The only two things worth noting as (small) cons:

-Fine tuners don't turn as smoothly as I'd like, but maybe they'll break in.
-I wish I would've noticed that it doesn't have glowing side dots.. probably still would've bought it though if I'm being honest, but its the one feature I wanted that I forgot to make sure would be on it

First, I want to thank Sweetwater for the easiest way to get me to my dream guitar. Very quickly response and informative emails detailing the status of the order and the quality check they have given to the guitar.

Back in 2020, when the guitar was announced by ESP, I knew that want it. 3 years later, Sweetwater make it possible. Nice sound, soft touching, this guitar is a beast. Even though is my first Floyd Rose guitar, I keep learning the tricks of it.

Sweetwater send the guitar very protected, with lots of bubble wrap.

Again, thank you Sweetwater. I am definitely buying again from here.

I am still, to this day, a year and some change later, blown away by how great this guitar is. It's amazing the quality that is put into the instrument at this price range. Stainless steel frets, AND you get scalloped frets 17-24???? This is a no brainer. I constantly get compliments on the body of the guitar and the roasted maple neck looks amazing. I would purchase this directly from Sweetwater, mostly because of the 55 point inspection since you know you'll be getting an instrument that's been looked over at by at least 3 people before shipping. 10/10. I would buy this guitar again (actuslly, I have, I bought the Snow White version now LOL).

I'm a big metal head, but I have a soft spot for bands like Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Ray Vaughn etc… so I was looking for something versatile. Coming from a Les Paul and this being my second guitar, it took a bit of getting used to the Floyd Rose, Scalloped Frets and all that. When I first got it, I felt like a beginner again. That being said, it didn't take long for me to start playing better than I ever had on my Epiphone. If you already have a guitar I would definetly recommend this, but if you're a newer guitar player or looking to get your first, I'd look elsewhere.

In one sentence, this relatively budget-friendly rock machine is an impressive combination of high-quality sounds and solid construction. It is made in South Korea – its two-piece swamp ash Strat-style body is sandblasted and painted black, its bolt-on roasted maple neck (25.5" scale and 13.8" fretboard radius) features 24 stainless steel frets with scalloping from the 17th to 24th frets (which greatly facilitates your vibrato and soloing finesse in those positions) while the 1st–16th fret positions remain unscalloped for easier chording. The guitar's Grover tuners work smoothly and the roasted maple fingerboard is decorated with abalone dot inlays at frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 12 (double dot), 15, 17, 19, 21 and 24 (double dot). These features together with the neck's "Thin U" contour makes this neck one of the most comfortable and fastest-playing necks I've ever come across.

The fine-tuning screws of the Floyd Rose 1000SE tremolo's bridge do not work as smoothly as, for example, the fine-tuning screws of the Japanese-made Gotoh Floyd Rose tremolo bridge [indeed, it is no accident that very expensive Suhr guitars with floating tremolos use exclusively either the Gotoh Floyds (locking) or the Gotoh 510 bridges (nonlocking) made in Japan]. However, there is absolutely no problem to turn the Floyd Rose 1000SE fine-tuning screws with your fingers and a tiny drop of oil on each screw's thread improves the screw's movement dramatically. This is in contrast to many fine-tuning screws in some Chinese-made Floyd Rose bridges, which you cannot initially turn with your fingers even if your life depends on it (initially, you really need a pair of pliers and lots of oiling to get them going).

The guitar's versatile H/S/S pickup configuration consists of one Seymour Duncan Pegasus humbucker in the bridge (one of the best-sounding passive bridge pickups I know of) and 2 great-sounding Seymour Duncan Hot Strat single-coils (they sound similar to the Kinman's Woodstock Plus single-coils). The guitar has one volume pot, one tone pot (with a push-push coil split function – please, don't pull it, otherwise you may break it!) and a 5-way blade pickup switch, all of them functioning nonproblematically as they should.

My guitar was a demo model at Sweetwater so I changed the strings, re-intonated the new strings (all strings intonate on all frets really well), adjusted the string action and neck bow and began to enjoy playing this slick neck with no sharp fret edges, which plays exceptionally fast and with an incredibly low action and no buzzing.

In conclusion, it would be nice if other colors than black were available. However, in spite of this minor 'color-choice deficiency,' I should perhaps stress that even if this "that's-a-steal" guitar was several times dearer, I would still give it '5 stars' for its truly great sounds and superb playability. If you are looking for an amazing H/S/S configuration Strat-style guitar – I believe your search may end right here!

Scalp neck is awesome. Need to turn up the gain as I'm used to real hot pickups. The floyd feels stiff but thinking its cause its new. Very nice guitar. Was looking for a strat with a floyd.

The HSS pickup config is versatile, and as expected for a $ guitar, the pickups are solid. The Bridge pickup (Pegasus) is a slightly lower output bridge pickup but great clarity and smooth to my ears.
The Single coils are also smooth, with good depth. Surprisingly, I have a budget Jackson with brighter/clearer stock single coils... but you have to consider 'depth' and body as well, and I'm able to adjust my amp easily to get a bit more top-end out of the Hot Strat singe coils on the SN-1000.
The bridge pickup can be used as a single coil via push-button single-coil tap option on the Tone knob - and I do use this on occasion - nice option to have, and speaks to the versatility of this guitar.

The neck, while a 'thin U', isn't as thin as my LTD EC-401 guitars, but that's ok as I'm easily able to adapt. I was happy to see the fretwork was flawless and the action setup low - no buzzes. Excellent intonation right out of the box - very impressed with the setup on this guitar, and grateful.

It's just a lot of fun to play, and I play and record a lot (hard rock... similar to Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, etc).

Overall the guitar has a unique vibe, due to the contrast between the roasted maple neck and figured swamp ash body.

I recommend this one.

A do it all axe at a great price. Great hardware and pickups, very solid guitar. I did upgrade the tuners to hipshot barrel head tuners. I put them on all my guitars.
This competes with the charvel dk24 but with a floyd rose instead of the gotoh.
So far it performs flawlessly.