The ESP Guitar Company

I agree with 5150. the viper is sturdier and has fatter tone- i have 3 - a 200, 400, & 1000. I ended up with Vipers after years of owning shitty and flimsy Gibson (not Epiphone) SG's. Those had some serious tuning issues and the Hardware just sucked compared to what comes on the Vipers. Plus being able to get around the upper neck has always been a big plus with SG style guitars and they are the best body style for sitting down to play. The les paul is very uncomfortable to do that because the waist is further up and not in the middle of the body. Vipers are SG's on STEROIDS.

After extensive playing of all three guitars; the Viper SD and EMG, and the EC1K Deluxe w EMGs I decided to order a gloss black heavily blingy with gold hardware, EC-1000 Deluxe for a great price.

This does not rule out a future purchase of the way less blingy Viper 1000 Deluxe with SDs or EMGs. The grey tiger fur looking flammed maple Viper 1000 Deluxe plays and sounds super great, not like the EC-1000 Deluxe; different EMG pickup sets.

I really like the black Deluxe's EMG sound thru a great amp, a Fender Supersonic, both clean on Vibrolux setting and dirty on the Bassman burn setting. Both Vipers sounded really good thru it as well.

I think my main deciding point is that I want a black LP type guitar. The only LP I have in black is my son's hot rodded Epiphone Studio. I want a black one for myself and am not turned on overly by the Gibsons in my price range.

I also really like, unusually, the highly blinged out EC-1000 deluxe. The abalone looks good to me and gives it a sparkly look and the gold looks really good. Black is hard to keep clean but I like it. Almost all my guitars are demure in their layed back profiles.

Also, besides wanting to get a really good LP style guitar, I like the way the EC-1000 sounds. Really good useable sounds. I wonder if the similarly priced Gibson faded mahogany studio LP would come close to the sound of the EC-1000; problably not possible to compare the two different tones. I had a great sounding new '09 Gibson SG faded for about 4 months that sounded great until it was stolen along with my Fender Hwy 1 super strat. I don't think I remember the sound of the SG getting anywhere near into the territory of the EC-1000's EMGs.

Sirloop

I'm glad your digging this man as we were one of the few that got that deal :). after playing the guitar for a few days, i gotta say i still like my viper 400 more.. I have a sh-6 / sh-2 combo in my viper and just like the overall tone better (warmer and fatter)... Now don't get me wrong the mh-1000 still rocks and i love the fact that it has the single coil option... plus she is a beauty

Well.. its also the 24.75" scale that I'm not too keen on either. I own a bunch of 25.5"'ers and my big hands appreciate it. I think the next guitar I get will be a baritone 6 string...

i do notice that as i have big hands to.. I also noticed that the neck on the viper is more round and fat, where as the mh1000 has a thin flat neck.. flat being on the back of the neck..