ESP LTD SN-1000 HT - Purple Blast Reviews

Neck is amazing. Really smooth and fast. Sounds great, plays great and is perdy!

I've had this guitar for a couple months now and it's become my go-to guitar. The neck is incredible on this. The pickups are a great combination. If you like a strat body, then you will enjoy playing this.

I bought this last week and I am extremely satisfied. I was nervous about buying a guitar online I haven't played but read all the reviews I could find and pulled the trigger. It was everything I hoped it would be. I like high end strats and Ibanez Prestiges. The quality of this is comparable to those for half the price. My only complaint is that this model isn't offered in single coils with a fixed bridge. I owned an esp vintage plus strat copy and sold it. I've regretted it ever since. I'm respecting esp more and more every time I buy one. Even their higher end Ltd's impress me, which is what this is. I need esp to make a basic strat copy with those fast flat necks. Please, take my money. Also, sweetwater was awesome. You won't regret buying this if it's the style you're looking for.

I got this as a birthday present for myself last year & have been loving it ever since. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Dimarzio Super Distortion because that's my favorite pup but the stock pup was cool too. Fantastic tuning stability and the lack of tremolo just makes me play weirder and harder when I need to freak out. Fantastic, comfy neck & flawless fretwork. The scalloped frets encourage even more expression- enabling little micro-bends with minimum effort.
I got it figuring it'll probably be the last guitar I buy before I die and I'd be happy if it was. That said I got a 12 string about 2 months ago so I guess no Grim Reaper for me yet!
Also- note to anyone buying a sandblasted guitar- get a clear pickguard for it! If you see cool figuring on the back of the body, there's cool figuring on the top under that guard- peel back the guard and check it out- mine looks 100% cooler with a clear guard.
Everything about this gat has style & precision- the bridge is smooth under the hand (unlike a Fender trem!) and the contoured body is beyond comfy.

The guitar came perfectly set up ,it looks even better in person. The Pegasus and sentient pickups are warm and articulate . They are medium output ( I don't like high output pickups) I was a little worried that with the roasted maple fretboard and ash body it might be too bright but the pickups are warm with depth and suit the guitar well. The neck is smooth with no sharp fret ends. Max from Sweetwater kept in touch throughout ,and was really invested in the process. I ordered it on Friday and it showed up on the following Wednesday. Sweetwater is easily the best online retailer. Being able to look through the guitars and select the one you want is awesome, especially with a deep grain finish like this one. From the guitar to the service they really hit it out of the park.

If you happen to stumble across this review, hope its available and just buy it. Max Dillon, you the man!

I bought this guitar approximately 4 months ago and have been playing it almost everyday. I mainly play heavy metal and blues styles of music. First of all lets talk about the neck. The neck on this thing feels amazing. It's the best guitar neck I've ever laid my fingers on. I don't even normally like maple necks, but this thing feels like butter. It is really fun for shred styles of playing. The Semore Duncan bridge pup gives me a dark and beautiful tone at high gain, great for both rhythm and leads. I can actually play 4 note chords at high gain and the articulation of each note is still clear ! The neck pup (Semore Duncan) sounds really nice for clean blues. Last but definitely not least the finish on this thing looks awesome. It literally looks like it was carved out of a tree in the abyss. If you like playing heavy styles and shredding this axe will not disappoint.Locking tuners makes changing strings a breeze. Overall it's a very versatile guitar and it's now my main wife.

The last 3 guitars I've bought before this one ended up going back. Jackson RRTMG back in 2014 that I purchased from American Musical Supply. The detail in the finish work was appalling. Left guitar alone for a few years. Bought a Charvel San Dimas earlier this year. A guitar I was eyeballing for quite some time. The craftsmanship on it was fantastic but it just didn't have that "it" factor. It also had a defective allen screw for one of the bridge saddles that broke rendering the guitar unplayable. Back it went. Next, feeling I needed a change, decided to take a left turn and bought a classical guitar that I cant remember the name of. Ended up not being for me, so back it went as well. I dont like conducting business in a way where I'm constantly returning items and seeing how I just wasn't satisfied with anything I touched anymore I decided to step away from guitar for a while.

If you're still with me then I assure you, I've told you all that for a reason. I got back into drooling over guitars here on Sweetwater and stumbled upon this...thing. It was one of those moments where my brain immediately went "YES GOTTA HAVE IT". So I bought it and it arrived very quickly, and thats with an excellent Sweetwater set up to boot. I dont know if its because I've never had an ash bodied guitar before, if its because I've never tried these particular Seymour Duncans before, or because I've never had stainless steel frets before, but this guitar sounds absolutely PISSED. Riffs have this intense, snarling bite to them I've never heard in person. God I love it. Tonally speaking the thing I love most about this guitar though is the coil split sounds. I've had a few guitars with coil splitting, particularly the instruments mentioned above, but they were underwhelming. This guitar on a clean channel with the coils tapped sounds absolutely heavenly. So much so that it made a clean channel on an amp I've rarely used in the 15 years I've had it sound divine without any effects whatsoever. It's seriously that good. Even unplugged this guitar just sounds so musical. All in all, about 15 seconds after plugging this thing in for the first time I texted my sales engineer, John Tonello, "Sweetwater is not getting this one back".

Build quality is impeccable as well. Theres not a single flaw in any way on this guitar. From the craftsmanship to the finishing. Fret work is fantastic and the nut is cut properly. The tuners also are awesome. No play in them before the gears actually grab and start changing the pitch. A pet peeve of mine. I've had $70 Sperzels that were far worse. Flawless.

Sweetwater is amazing. Their commitment to customer service is second to none. John Tonello, my rep, is fantastic at his job. He really took the time to get to know me as a guitar player. To help guide me in the right direction on all my purchases and just questions in general. He's a passionate musician of integrity and someone I enjoy talking music and gear with. Thanks John and Sweetwater. I will be doing all my business with this amazing company.

Long story short, this guitar appealing to you? Buy it. Period.

This guitar is so beautiful. If I'm not playing the guitar then im staring at the guitar. I had the guitar pro plekd and a tusq nut put on it. The sound straight from the box was outstanding. I had to do zero tweaking. Its just such a great guitar. This is the first brand new guitar I've ever bought. I'm incredibly happy with my purchase.

Curt Meyerowich was my sales engineer and he kept me in the loop throughout the entirety of my purchase. He's an absolute legend.

It's all I hoped it would be.
Great specs, plays great, sounds great.
The Purple Blast is my favorite color on a swamp ash that is sandblasted.
So many tonal options.
It will be my new #1.

I was in need of a new 6 string to write and record with, and man did this bad boy deliver in every way! The finish is gorgeous, the craftsmanship quality is excellent, and it comes stock with my favorite Seymour Duncan pickups. I do tune down to Drop C, so a bit of setup work was needed on my end, but that's at no fault of the manufacturer.

Shout out to one Stephen Oppenheim for being a boss and getting this out to me in a timely fashion. Dude rules.

Amazing, high quality instrument. Well done. My only critique is I wish my finish was more sanded and purple on the front, but I know each one is different and am extremely pleased regardless. May buy another.

Amazing guitar for the price. Sounds great, plays great, looks great, and will be great forever.

First of all, LTD are good guitars. And stainless steel frets are awesome! I was torn between getting the EC-1000 see thru purple with passive pups and the SN 1000 Purple Blast. I wish I got the EC-1000 instead. I returned the SN 1000 purple blast because it felt like a toy. Sorry, kind of harsh. But the guitar just didn't feel solid compared to my Charvel San Dimas. The neck on my Charvel feels solid like a rock, and the SN 1000 neck felt like balsa wood. And btw, the scalloped frets that high on the neck felt like a regular neck. So no worries there. Overall, the guitar just felt too light to me. But I did test out the neck for buzzing and dead spots. I played every note and bent every note and there were no dead notes. Good Job LTD! Oh, and those passive pups sound great! If you are more of an old school player and like a heavier and more solid feel, then my advice is to try out the EC-1000.

I bought this guitar based on three things: (1) the finish, which is magnificent; (2) the Seymour Duncan pickups (which sound excellent - very balanced with high clarity); and (3) ESP's reputation for slim, fast necks and high quality.

The guitar succeeded for reasons (1) and (2). It failed for reason (3). My model came with a defect on fret 15 - I could not bend any string at that fret without immediate fret friction and loss of sound. I raised the saddles to a nearly unplayable height, and the problem persisted. In short, it came with a manufacturing defect.

Also, the neck is thicker and chunkier than I expected, almost like a Les Paul or older Strat. This is fine, I like those guitars. But that's not my preferred neck style, nor is it what I was hoping for with this guitar.

Hopefully, you'll have better luck with this model.