LTD vs ESP: Upgrade or UPGRADE!!!!
LTD vs ESP: Upgrade or UPGRADE!!!!
If I were to upgrade with the listed components would I hear an improvement in tone and would this upgraded LTD even compare to an ESP Horizon NTII?
Yes and no. It would definately improve the guitar, but it wouldn't come near the NTII. I'd say sell the guitar and put that money and the money you would've spent on upgrades towards the NTII.
As for SD/EMG, it's all a matter of preference. You can play brootal shit with SD's just as well, but if you like EMG's better just get an NTII with EMG's or put some in yourself.
Does anyone know if I go with the NTII how the action is compared to the LTD? There any more play in the Gotoh bridge as far as height adjustment?
On my MH250NT the TOM bridge was set the lowest it could possibly be and it felt like you barely had to touch the string to fret the note, though I did get slight buzz in the first fret on the B string and maybe the G.
I purchased and put on a Roland GK-3 midi pickup and the it mounts to a plate that sits under the TOM bridge raising it's height.
I had to adjust the truss rod to compensate. Now the strings aren't as close as before and there's more buzz in the lower frets.
I can also use double sided mounting tape that came with the GK3. I was just leery about paying $1500 for a new guitar and then putting tape on it.
Also I really wanted to try out the Earvana compensated nut. How would that compare to the 42mm bone nut that comes stock on the NTII sound wise and would it be easy/hard to swap out?
Ideally, since I can't afford a custom guitar I would get the Horizon NT-II DBSB swap out the Duncan pups with my EMGX's drop in an Earvana nut that's hopefully the same color as the standard bone nut, and put on my GK3. What do you guys think? Oh and would it be worth swapping out the Gotoh bridge for a Tonepros?
Sorry bout all the ?'s. I have OCD and this would be a huge purchase for me!
It'd probably cost the same to buy an older MH1000 with the tonepros bridge and sperzel tuners than to upgrade your 250. At least go for an MH400 or higher to get the same wood types as the Horizon before upgrading. Obviously, you can swap upgrades out into another guitar at any point, but it makes more sense to dump as much into the guitar as the upgrades. And that can still be done for less than $1000 which is what the Horizon will cost in the best case scenario.
The horizon is a different guitar. MH1000's or MH400's can be great guitars and you will never have problems with them, but the Horizon is just different.
To the OP,
As far as the resonance of your LTD unplugged, if you can feel it when you play - like you say you can - then it's good. It shouldn't be any louder than when you normally play it unplugged, and the vibrations should be strong enough to be able to feel it thru-out the whole guitar when you play it like you are now and describing. As for playability, it all depends on the guitar honestly... I've had 7 different M107's and 2 different H207's (at various times of course...) and each one plays and feels different than the next. In reading your posts, it seems to me that you have yourself a "Wednesday" guitar. The reason I say a "Wednesday" guitar is as follows - You don't want a guitar that was built on Monday, as everyone is coming back to work, some hung-over from the weekend and not really looking to getting back to work. Tuesday is similar to Monday. Then on Wednesday, everyone knows it's the middle of the week, and tends to focus on doing and getting work done. On Thursday, people are starting to look forward to the weekend and start getting side-tracked on other things. And you don't want a Friday guitar, because everyone is focused on the weekend and getting sloshed and partying. So Wednesday is a good day for anything, as you know attention was paid to what was being done.
But getting back to the topic... The material and craftsmanship between ANY of the LTD's versus the actual ESP are night and day different. LTD's are all machine made, while all the ESP's are hand-made which will compensate for a huge difference in tone, playability and attention to detail. However, there's nothing wrong with an LTD either, especially if you've got a good one which it sounds like you do. I would honestly say try and start with a few of the upgrades first. Pickups would be #1 on the list. If your looking at the EMG X-series, you're making a very awesome choice right off the bat. I have the 808X in my FM-408, and it's one of the best pickups I've used yet. It's got a little less output than the normal EMG's do, but has more headroom and dynamics than the regular ones. It also has more of a passive pickup feel to it, so it's not as compressed as a lot of people claim EMG's to be. I'm looking forward to getting a set of the 707TW-X & 707TWR-X for the new EC-407 I'm going to be ordering soon, and a set of the 707X's for one of my other guitars.
Also the fact that all the new EMG stuff is slderless, so you'll have everything installed and wired in less than a half an hour. Everything is plug and play, and the wires from your selector switch will screw into a little switch buss board - everything you need will be included in the pickups when you buy them.
As for the bridge, I would first try something like the GraphTech String Saver saddles in your existing bridge first. I have done this for my fixed bridge guitars and it helps in changing the tone for the better. Plus it helps in minimizing pre-mature string breakage due to burrs forming in the normal steel saddles that's on the bridge now.
Tuners: If the ones you have stay in tune pretty good now, don't mess with them. But if your having tuning instability, then I would look at something like the Gotoh's you mentioned or even the Sperzels. I have standard ESP & LTD tuners on all of my guitars except the FM408 which came with Grovers and I have no issues with tuning.
Nut: I wouldn't go with the Earvana nut, but would go with either a new specially made graphite or bone nut. GraphTech also makes replacement nuts as well. Replacing the nut is easy. I've done it to almost all of mine so far as the stock plastic ones can wear out too fast and easy - especially if your letting the wound strings ride in the slots while your re-stringing. Doing this will put increased wear and grinding on the nut and lower the action at the nut side which will cause buzzing if it gets too low. If you decide to try and replace the nut yourself, just be very careful when removing the old one. Then just measure the factory nut (BEFORE removing it, as you'll still want to ply your guitar while you wait for the new one to show up...) by how it explains on the GraphTech site, and find and buy the one that best matches or most closely matches your existing factory nut.
But before you go all out with the rest of the hardware, I'd do the pickup swap first and foremost. Pickups are the first major source of a tonality change. I think that replacing the HZ's with a real set of EMG's will make a huge difference, and you may not even need to look any further at the rest of the hardware swap. If you have any other questions, or need help with getting the EMG's in and wired, feel free to PM me!
Good luck and happy modding!
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If you're happy with your MH then don't get the Horizon. I had the MH and mine had issues, and I now have a Horizon NT-II. The Horizon is a very different guitar and the neck and fretboard will feel very different as well. I think you should upgrade the pickups and if way down the line you're still not satisfied then go Horizon. More expensive guitars aren't always as amazing as they might seem. The Duncans will sound very different than EMGs and won't be as clean or tight sounding. Its' a matter of taste. I think if you happen to have a good LTD it can hang with the ESPs just fine, and at least you know you have something that feels right to you. If the LTD sounds lacking unplugged then you may want to upgrade. I know that my agathis MH sounded and felt like shit from the first strum, although when recording it sometimes sounded very good. That said, my Horizon sounds more detailed and refined, however it's a fairly dead guitar in that it doesn't resonate much and is quiet unplugged. I don't doubt wood quality and tone varies within the standard series or any guitar.