Esp Ltd Xtone Acoustic Electric Guitar For Sale (2024 Update)

Very pleased with the guitar, sounds excellent but I do feel slightly let down that the model I was sent has a crack in the finishReviewed by Andertons Music Co.

The looks alone had me sold, but when I plug it into my Marshall JVM it sounds so sweet, all the jangle you could ever want from a 12 string but with a extremely wide tonal range, the action is at just the tight just and the neck is very playable. I could not be happierReviewed by Andertons Music Co.

I’m a huge fan. Bang for buck can’t fault it. Have it tuned down to B and this thing hammers. The pick ups provide solid tone and can’t fault them at all given there not top of the range.Love simplicity and the fact that it’s only rocking a volume dial and pick up switch. The vintage white is a way more dynamic colour then the photos, so I’m stoked the lads at the shop sent me picks before I bought off the online store. With blacked out running gear it has an old school but hardened look. ESP you’ve got a fanKris W.

Great guitar my second esp from and always expertly packed no setup issues whatsoever. A tad heavier than a strat but the top doesn't resonate like a 3 or 4 ply semihollow it's more weight relief. The p90s are more lively than woody I really like them nice mid-range string definition and balance. 5 star no bag or case I bought the only case that will fit this from esp direct stone xl formfit case is what it's called $198 it's $230 anywhere else hope this helpedCraig

So I originally wanted to buy a Taylor T5 because they feel so good and sound so awesome. This guitar sounds just as good as a Taylor T5 and about the third of the price. And its appearance is just absolutely beautiful. I was all set to upgrade the strings and set it up to my own preferences but once I started playing it it was just perfect. Vendor was excellent to work with. Very professional. Very efficient. The guitar was delivered a day earlier740*gn

This is my first classic style guitar. Its heavy, really heavy, I thought it would be light to pick up. Its really well made. The pick up are great and very bright. Shipping strings are good. No case or cover, box was well done, awesome even. Has a nubone nut, had to lube quite a bit for tuning. I feel like its a bit over priced, but that might just be me. Again, its solid, like you can smack someone with it and it won't care. I love the head stock. I got this because my hands are falling into ruin from diabetes. I'm trying really hard to find a falt for it, its just a beefy hard core classic style guitar. Volume is pretty low. If your getting into nylon strings i'd recommend it. I honestly can't find any faults for it. Heavy, beefy, Rawr.Meatpopsicle

So after about 40 years of playing music and traveling everywhere I had never actually owned and played a hybrid acoustic guitar. I wanted a Taylor T5, so sweet. $2000 was more than I wanted to give to add to my collection of 30 guitars already. My I caught this gorgeous ESP Telluride acoustic electric guitar. Playing it acoustically was nice but running it through an amp I was extremely impressed with the overall sound quality specially wearing a suit of quality headphones such as you would use in a recording session. I had about a third of the price of the T5 the quality is exceptional, not as good as a T5 before the price it is well worth it. I love this guitar and since I've bought it I rarely play anything else. Awesome guitarGary

This guitar has a warm bright tone easy action and is beautiful in design. This guitar is easily a favorite to me as it allows me to speak even when Im not sure what to say. Its design makes ecen an unseasoned guitarist sound like a pro. You definately will not regret purchasing this axe.tarquill61

I needed a low action 12 string acoustic guitar that wasn't the size of a battleship. Something I could practice on at home without annoying half the neighborhood. An 'acoustic' guitar that would give me stonkloads of volume plugged in but with absolutely zero feed back even when I'm standing right in front of the monitor. It also had to sound like an acoustic guitar at any volume level. Turns out that's exactly what I got. Easy…..now I need to get a case…turns out not so easy here in the UK. Why don't dealers buy in the correct case when they order the guitar? Or is this just an ESP thing? Anyway, when a guitar is this good it is not so easy to get annoyed.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Great guitar my second esp from and always expertly packed no setup issues whatsoever. A tad heavier than a strat but the top doesn't resonate like a 3 or 4 ply semihollow it's more weight relief. The p90s are more lively than woody I really like them nice mid-range string definition and balance. 5 star no bag or case I bought the only case that will fit this from esp direct stone xl formfit case is what it's called $198 it's $230 anywhere else hope this helpedCraig

So I originally wanted to buy a Taylor T5 because they feel so good and sound so awesome. This guitar sounds just as good as a Taylor T5 and about the third of the price. And its appearance is just absolutely beautiful. I was all set to upgrade the strings and set it up to my own preferences but once I started playing it it was just perfect. Vendor was excellent to work with. Very professional. Very efficient. The guitar was delivered a day earlier740*gn

This is my first classic style guitar. Its heavy, really heavy, I thought it would be light to pick up. Its really well made. The pick up are great and very bright. Shipping strings are good. No case or cover, box was well done, awesome even. Has a nubone nut, had to lube quite a bit for tuning. I feel like its a bit over priced, but that might just be me. Again, its solid, like you can smack someone with it and it won't care. I love the head stock. I got this because my hands are falling into ruin from diabetes. I'm trying really hard to find a falt for it, its just a beefy hard core classic style guitar. Volume is pretty low. If your getting into nylon strings i'd recommend it. I honestly can't find any faults for it. Heavy, beefy, Rawr.Meatpopsicle

So after about 40 years of playing music and traveling everywhere I had never actually owned and played a hybrid acoustic guitar. I wanted a Taylor T5, so sweet. $2000 was more than I wanted to give to add to my collection of 30 guitars already. My I caught this gorgeous ESP Telluride acoustic electric guitar. Playing it acoustically was nice but running it through an amp I was extremely impressed with the overall sound quality specially wearing a suit of quality headphones such as you would use in a recording session. I had about a third of the price of the T5 the quality is exceptional, not as good as a T5 before the price it is well worth it. I love this guitar and since I've bought it I rarely play anything else. Awesome guitarGary

Captains log, earth-date Jan 2021. ‘Ding-dong’. I opened the front door to see the courier standing there po-faced and shivering, holding an oblong cardboard box with Anderton’s printed on the side. Trying my best not to show my excitement, I said “thanks” in a cool James Dean-esque manner – casually took the box and closed the door. I carried out the obligatory air fist-pump with a simultaneous squeal like a prepubescent boy. This was followed up by a gruff Jeremy Clarkson voice, “The Eagle has Landed.” Due to the cold weather and transit, it was hard to resist putting my grubby mitts all over it but I resisted and left it to acclimatise to room temp for 24hrs. Out of the box, it did need a setup. There was a lot of relief in the neck and needed adjusting. Also the string height and intonation needed tweaking to my liking. Upon setup and firing on all cylinders, it feels absolutely superb and worth every penny of her majesty’s coinage. I’m still getting used to ESP’s XJ frets – I think they’re equivalent to Dunlop 6100 fret wire or very similar, but that’s just a personal thing. I did some reading up on ESP guitars before I purchased, and according to ESP, the MH-1000 is a marriage of the M (Mirage) series and the H (Horizon) series. ESP and LTD are the same company with the ESP range being the premium line and the LTD being the affordable line. Saying that, some of the LTD series have premium attributes of the ESP series like this guitar has – ‘Set-Thru’ neck and premium hardware. There’s a lot to like about this guitar. The obvious eye-catching cherry-fade on top of a slightly arched ‘figured’ quilted maple top. Construction is sublime and very good fret finishing. Hardware-wise, it has coil-splitting via a push-pull on the tone knob. The Floyd Rose 1000SE, for all intents and purposes, is almost identical to the Original Floyd Rose albeit uses zinc for a few less important parts and has a smaller 34mm zinc tremolo block. It holds tune perfect even after the most extreme use of the whammy bar. Do I have any gripes? If I was being really picky, I found one tiny blemish on the top finishing. It’s underneath the poly and you’d have to be sharp-eyed to spot it. Personal tweaks – I’ve replaced the screw-type tremolo arm for a push-in type. In the future I may swap the zinc 34mm tremolo block for a bigger brass one like I have in my other guitars.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Overall: In a YouTube review of this guitar, there was one guy that said he didn't understand why any experienced and knowledgable guitar player would want THIS guitar over something more high-end (i.e., a "real" Eclipse), because of the differing body design features. I, myself, am not anything of a virtuoso player, nor do I have the fattest wallet at the moment, which is why I settled on something more in the midrange for my first relatively decent guitar. I've been playing for years, writing songs on "piece of crap" guitars, and it didn't matter to me that my instrument was nothing to show off when that's all that I was using it for (i.e., to write songs). Before I am an instrumentalist, I am a vocalist and songwriter… but I digress. Anyhow, coming from someone that has a limited span of what truly "decent" is in this department, I, personally, found this guitar to be worth the price. I am not the most knowledgable about guitars, no, but I know what feels right to me as a player. This one is pretty nice. The body is lightweight and thin without feeling or looking cheap or flimsy, and the playability is fantastic. There is little strain on your fingering hand due to how easy it is to press the strings down, unlike on cheaper guitars. Had I learned to play on this one, I would have been totally spoiled! Maybe like that guy with the YouTube review. Haha. The sound is nice and crisp… and the color is beautiful. I went with the Cobalt Blue, because it matches with my room. I have no complaints about it, under the circumstances. It is everything that I needed it to be. The available payment plan was the cherry on top. Just two more payments! Thanks, zZounds!Note: I was required to rate "Manufacturer Support" when I submitted this review, even though I never made any direct contact with the manufacturer. I couldn't give it less than 5 stars when there was never a problem with it. *shrug*Emha

I've been playing rock and metal guitar for 35 years. As a longtime superstrat player, I found the neck profile thinner than those of other popular sub-$1,000 LP-style guitars, and I took to it immediately. The 13.75" fretboard radius makes it easy for me to play barre chords. The guitar's 24.75" scale length lets the strings be more "slinky," enabling extreme bending of notes. The other standout features are light weight (7.2 lbs.) and the contoured "belly cut" on the back that lets the body rest comfortably against your waist instead of a 90-degree hard edge digging into you. Off the rack, the intonation was spot on and the neck relief was just right; for an optimal setup, I only needed to lower the bridge about 1mm on the bass side and 0.5mm on the treble side. Intonation remained intact! I've barely had the guitar home for 36 hours, and I can't stop looking at it. The fit and finish is on par with guitars costing twice as much! Everything is tight, the finish is flawless, and the electronics are great–I don't feel the need to swap out the pickups at all. The frets are glassy smooth. The only complaint I have is that the jatoba fretboard has visible traces of what I suspect is dried fret polish, which I plan to remove with F-One Oil when I change strings. (BTW, the strings feel great. They remind me of my preferred strings, Ernie Ball Slinkies.) I look forward to using this guitar for alternate tunings in my alt-rock cover band. Its aggressive styling looks the part, but it's still classy and timeless enough to look at home playing classic rock, blues, or country.Identity Crisis Tim

The Maton 808 fits perfectly. Usually the 4" will fit most guitars but, not this one. I had noticed a few questions concerning this so I thought I would post this. A 4" cover can be ground down to size but, it's a chore that you may not want to tackle. The size here is actually pretty close to 3 3/4". The Maton is 95mm which translates very close to 3.75". A few thousands of inch at best. Pretty snug fit but, you don't want it slop around at all. Just FYI.Terry

I purchased this guitar twice because the first one had a bend to the neck, so the strings would buzz and not play properly on higher frets. I returned it and then ordered another one assuming the first was a fluke. The second one came in and was fine, but within a month the same issue occured. Still have it and just play the lower frets, but still was a waste of money. Looks amazing and sounds great when it works properly.Matthew

I played guitar for 15 years back in the day and owned 6 acoustic guitars in my lifetime. From mid-priced Takamines to cheap Washburns. I went to Guitar Center for a "learn how to play again cheap guitar" and tried all the cutaways in the $150-400 range. Fender, Yamaha, Alvarez, Ibanez and even above my price range. A salesman said one sentence. Try the Mitchell Guitars, they are the best bang for the buck. I went home that night and did my research. I looked at wood quality, body/bracing styles, neck sizes/wood types, hardware. Made a list and went back with 7 guitars in stock I wanted to feel/hear. Yes, Mitchell guitars absolutely had the best materials for the money. But how were their playability and actual sound? I tried a few models and they were either soft/flat sounding or had a sloppy fretboard. Other brands in the same price range had much cheaper materials. It came down to the Alvarez Regent (wish they had the Artist series to try) and this Mitchell guitar. I was able to buy the MX430QAB on sale but this guitar plays above its actual price. I tried a few $600 dollar guitars and the quality is much closer to those guitars. Bass tones are deep/rich/punchy (not dreadnought deep but enough). The mid-tones really shine and the highs pop without being too bright or overwhelming. A wide-ranging rich-toned balanced Orchestra guitar. The neck is so playable. I have read that about other guitars. The Talman series, or Festival series. Maybe they just needed to be setup. This guitar was set up perfectly. Going up and down the fretboard doing scales or chords was a total breeze even for someone who hasn't picked up a guitar in 5 years. It holds the tuning very well and I am sure this guitar will settle in and have an even richer tone over time. Guitars all have different personalities, so trying them out is recommended. But this is a good bet for the 300-400 price range.Myles

I've had this guitar for about 10 months, and it's great! It's everything you'd come to expect from the ESP LTD line. But the big question is, "How's that bridge?" My motivation for buying this specific guitar was my unending frustration with the floating tremolo on my previous guitar. We started jumping back and forth between standard and dropped D in our set, and making that work with a FR was a nightmare. With that, I had set out on finding a non-FR or fixed bridge, since I rarely used the trem' anyway. I had always wanted an ESP and the idea of each saddle being independent of one another was compelling. It can take a little to get used to, though. Tuning is done at the bridge, and the tension on the strings is adjusted by the tuning pegs. Once the string has the right amount of tension, that saddle will be "activated" in what is referred to as "zone 2". Here, the springs will counter any additional tension applied to that string up to a given point. This means that you cannot do bends or change the pitch in any real or easy way. Some people may like this, but it feels very odd, and the people at Evertune know that most people don't play like this. So, to get the best of both worlds, you will need to apply enough tension on the saddle to bring it right up to the edge of zone 2 by turning the tuning pegs. What I found to be helpful here is to not just listen for the note to change, but to pull on the string and visually inspect movement in the saddle. Once this is set, it feels like a normal guitar with just a tad more tension on the strings. The guitar will come with 10-gauge strings. I gave that a shot for a while. Only recently did I switch them out for some 9s. I think it feels a lot better with a lighter gauge string, especially considering that tad bit of tension. A tip I learned regarding Dropped D was to tune the guitar down by default. Then tune up the low E, which puts that saddle into "zone 3". This is far easier than the reverse and stiJohn Q. GuitarPlayer

Excelente guitar. I´m very dissapointed about the factory setup. For the price, I was expecting at least a playable factory setup. Instead it was with a really high strings action, pickups height totally out of pattern. And the finish wasn´t flawless. I has a little detail by the end of the scale. Besides that, Tumbstone Hard case is amazing! I was expecting more of the ESP inspections before it left the factory. By the way, the guitar was packed in the original box yet.Rodrigo

Overall: I was thinking about buying an ESP LTD for a while, and when I saw this guitar I was just blown away by how it looked, and the features it has. I'm happy to report that when it arrived at my home( which only took one day, thank you zZounds and fedex) I was even more blown away. The action is perfect out of the box, it's super lite, it plays faster than almost any guitar I've ever played, the Floyd Rose is top notch, and since I've stretched the strings and locked it, I hasn't gone out of tune once, and the sound is just mind blowing. I was a little nervous when I saw the body wood type was alder, being most of my guitars are mahogany, I thought the low end response would be affected. But I'm happy to tell everyone, it sounds like a beast. And of course the emg pickups are always incredible in my opinion. Plus it comes with the coolest case ever. It's got a tombstone motif on it. There's not enough good things I could say about this wonderful guitar. I was wailing sweep arpeggios all day on this bad boy, and every note was clear as a bell, no matter how fast I was playing. I highly recommend this guitar to anyone who's a metal aficionado. You won't be disappointed.Rob

Sound: The 'Blackened' Black Winter pickup is very bright. Not shrill, but definitely will cut through a mix. It's incredibly clear, and touch sensitive. Very high output, which is appropriate for a guitar called the Black Metal! Features: This guitar has an alder body, which is amazing for almost all tonal aims. The raised LTD logo on the headstock is an incredibly nice touch! The Grovers are smooth, and stable, and the OFR is also stable and reliable. Ease of Use: This is where this, and just about every other LTD I've purchased shines. The fretwork is immaculate. I have the action at .75mm, and it doesn't buzz, for those who aren't familiarwith action measurements, this is incredibly low. The pickup height was perfect right out of the box. The only thing I needed to adjust was the truss rod, it had a bit too much relief. But once that was done, it plays like butter and sounds brutal! Quality: This guitar has absolutely no quality control issues, and feels extremely well made. As stated above, it has all high end appointments, such as a Seymour Duncan pickup, OFR, and grover tuners. It functions amazingly. Value: Absolutely. I'm a Jackson fanboy 90% of the time, but I can say (and zZounds can verify) I've had to return multiple Jackson products and never a single LTD. The Jacksons cost more, and have less. Manufacturer Support: I haven't needed to deal with ESP, as I've never had an issue with their products. The Wow Factor: When you're playing this guitar, if feels metal. The guitar is so easy to play, and sounds so brutal. I can't recommend it enough if you like to play extreme genres of music. Overall: LTD never disappoints. This guitar is metal as it gets, and plays fantastically.Matheau

Have had this for a few months now and am still very happy with it. Can't be beat for the price. Great look, great sound, great neck. Does the world really need one more person playing a Les Paul? Nah, get something different! I let another friend play this who owns a dozen plus guitars (including LP and tele), many of them vintage. After a day with the PS-1 he was off looking at ESP's website to learn more and see what else they have that he did not know about. These guitars are the best secret out there!TickyTicky

Best guitar for the money out there. A+ body, neck, hardware, craftsmanship, and playability. Way better than anything in this price range out there. Haven't touched my Epi Dot since I got this. Neck and set-up were spot-on from factory, stays in tune. Love the block inlay and white binding. Feels expensive, solid and weighty. After 3 yrs of high use I have had no issues at all. The stock pick-ups are a bit thin sounding. I recently installed some Gibson 57's and its barely secondary to my LP Custom. In closing, I currently buy and sell a lot of guitars. I haven't found anything on par with my PS2 for less than a G-note. Good buy for the beginner, easy to mod. Great for someone who already has pups. Get it! You know you want one!guitarHog

I'm pretty new to playing guitar. I've been at it for a couple of months when I started looking for another guitar. I wanted a black sandblasted one with as few switches and knobs as possible. I came across this and took the chance on it. I don't regret it one bit. It's beautiful, light and the neck is smooth, no fret buzz and overall has a comfortable feel. On top of that, it just rocks! I would definitely buy this again.Thug nasty, B

The Purple Blast is an ash body not Alder which gives a nice top end shimmer but the roasted maple neck gives this guitar its dark nasty (in a good way) tone. Cuts through gain like butter. Pick ups are powerful yet very articulate, you hear every note of the cord. Its an ESP product so the neck is flawless and comfortable like a flat Fender neck it was very familiar feel. Frets are wonderfully done smooth rounded ends. I now have 1 ESP and 4 LTDs love them all but the Snapper is more of a guitar players guitar, It plays like an old friend but SCREAMS like a mother. Plugged in to my Dual Rectifier its so Brutally Beautiful.Big T

If I custom spec'd a guitar it would be this exact guitar but with an ebony fretboard. Pictures cant capture how cool the finish is. The neck has no finish and feels a bit chunky for being a Thin U. Plays really smooth. I can tell nobody touched this guitar or used as a display. Straight out the box it was in tone and straight action. Solid maple! A change of strings and it came to life! Ive done my research over and over before getting this. I am really satisfied with this Guitar!mortem

First about the EMGS. The bridge is not a 81. The old 81 had almost no dynamic elements and the bone breaker does. 2nd the neck pickup is the smoothest I ever played and pick attack is my favorite element of this thing. The finish is excellent. Mirror finish every time I polish it. Neck is more like a compound which I like better than the thin U . This the only ESP that felt compound thank you Guitar Center Nashville and the General Manager he is a great 👍🏻 guy!!!James

Just picked up the new KH-3 today from a special order and to my knowledge ended up getting it a BIT earlier than expected, out of box the action is set-up SUPER well. Pickups are nice and aggressive with the bridge, as you would expect from an EMG. Neck position is crisp and beautiful on cleans. Scalloped frets are very fun as well (cant think of many guitars with scallops for the price range either)…Floyd Rose per usual on KH's! This LTD feels like a solid and superior guitar right out the box with very good build quality and parts, literally a Kirk Hammett fans dream come to reality and a guitar that will stay with me forever.USE-ESP

Been playing about 20 years and I’ve had them all. I’m playing in a cover band and can get what ever sound I want (minus the compressed active sound) out of this thing. From 60s to 90s nu metal, the neck through and fixed bridge gives it sustain for days and the classic 59/ JB pick ups with a coil split gives you so many choices for tones. I have smaller hands and the 24.5 scale neck is so comfortable and fast. Only complaint is fret buzz on the E and A strings out of the box but that is it. If your looking for an all round player this is it. And always great service from AMSDennis

My wife picked up this guitar for me for my Father's Day/Birthday. Of course, I had a bug in her ear on which guitar to buy. Right out the box, it screams! Beautiful paint job, the white absolutely pops! It has a nice weight to it, it's sits perfectly on your lap, when you stand up to play it, it is very well balanced. The p/u's give a variety of tones, which wont disappoint. The head stock is what drew me to this guitar, a non-traditional head stock for a TE body style. Definitely a feature not seen on other guitar with similar body style. It was a half step out of tune when it came out of the box, but that was a simple twist of the locking tuners and it was ready to play! Added my Ernie Ball Strap locks and it was ready for the stage (my music room). This guitar definitely brings a smile on my face and hopefully for you as well.Dave

Overall: After waiting for about a month (ordered it back in April 2020) and with covid-19 slowing everything down I finally received the guitar today (may 12 2020) the guitar is awesome it has some nice chunky weight to it but it’s not back breaking heavy. It doesn’t feel at all like a 7string guitar. The fishman are as amazing as I thought they would’ve been and this is coming from a player that’s used emgs since my first guitar the finish is amazing the pictures online don’t do it justice on how beautiful it looks I’m not a fan of the macassar ebony looks exactly like rosewood but we’ll see how it holds up with the radical weather changes in the state I live in. Everything in the guitar works perfectly BUT the wiring is all backwards!!!!! The volume knob is the tone knob the bridge position is the neck pickup on the pickup selector and vice versa!!!! I’m paying $1000 bucks for this guitar the one thing I shouldn’t be worried about is the damn wiring quality control really screwed up this time. It’s not game breaking and it’s an easy at home fix but you’d expect better from ESP. Overall Great Guitar.Gildardo

This guitar is awesome but has the muddiest tone and lack the sensitivity I the Fishman pickups. No real clarity and doesn't have the bite, harmonics, or sustain that EMG active pickups do. Even my ltd with passive EMG's tops these. I tried adjusting pickup height and string height several times but little to no improvement. Either they're defective or they just suck! LTD needs to get back to the active EMG's and ditch these real low muddy sounding tone killers. Pick another LTD with EMG's and you'll be much happier.Christo

Sound: The fishmans sound so clear and sharp, even with loads of gain. Cleans sound nice and chimey as well, but… we’re here for the brutal tones. Features: The voicing on the pickups, to my ear, don’t make a huge difference in sound. It’s very subtle but nothing to complain about. Pickups sound great. Ease of Use: Getting a good tone is effortless with this guitar. Quality: The guitar came out of the box with no blemishes or imperfections that I could see. It was even set up nicely, frets were crowned and polished well, no buzz, no tool marks on the fret board. Awesome. Value: The price on this guitar is very fair. Super comfortable guitar, great looks, even better sound and feel. Manufacturer Support: I’ve owned several LTD guitars in the past and this one definitely takes the cake. They’ve never been bad quality instruments, but they seriously hit it out of the park with this model in particular. The Wow Factor: The feel and sound of this guitar make it nearly impossible to put down. Comfortable, awesome tones. I could sit around and play this thing for hours, and I have. Overall: This is a great instrument. No sharp frets, nice set up out of the box, hip shot bridge intonates with ease, locking tuners are solid, pickups absolutely crush.Jerry

I bought an LTD M10 about a year ago and love it so much that I bought an EC10 too, planning on slapping some humbucker-sized P90s in it for a different tone. Here's the details on how DIFFERENT these two guitars are, despite appearing more similar at first glance. – Headstock shape; just personal preference. I prefer the 3+3 design of the EC (functionally). – Scale length; the EC has a slightly shorter scale length (24.75" vs 25.5") than the M, making it somewhat easier to play, especially when performing wide stretches and chording. Bends are easier due to lower string tension. The longer scale of the M I believe contributes to superior tonal qualities. -The EC has a painted neck back to match the body. The M has a natural satin transparent finish. Personal preference, but I prefer the transparent finish for the more natural feel. -Both guitars have a 350mm (13.7") fretboard radius, which is somewhat flat, but not extremely so. -The EC has 24 frets, while the M has 22. -The M has slightly better upper fret access since the body shape is less restrictive of fretting hand thumb placement. -Both guitars have TOM bridges, but the M is strung through the body, whereas the EC has a stop tailpiece. String thru designs are lighter and arguably provide more resonance, but the tailpiece is adjustable, allowing you to raise or lower string tension. -Slightly different control layouts, particularly with the pickup selector; a blade on the M vs a toggle on the EC. -EC is slightly heavier. -Strap button placement affects strap retention and where the guitar hangs. The M retains a strap better and sits "closer" (further right) due to the horn, providing easier lower fret access. The EC has no horn so it sits "further" out (further left), naturally guiding the left hand towards the middle of the neck. -The EC sounds beefier, but muddier. The M has clearer but a BIT thinner tone. -The M is made in China and the EC is made in Indonesia. Hope this helps you decide between the two.Pazuzu

I did not buy mine from MF, but I had to put in my opinion. I bought my EC-10 from some guy who posted it on an app. He had not taken very good care of it and the body had a lot of dings and chipped paint. The neck was still good and the hardware was solid. I stripped off all the paint and sanded out most of the dings, stained it and put a coat of shiny finish on it. Topped it off with a new set of EMGs (just my preference the stock pups were actually pretty nice). Now it is one of my favorite guitars to play and I wouldn't give it up for anything. If my used and abused old EC-10 can be this good, I can only imagine what a brand new one could be like. May be buying a new one in the near future.Chris

I am just beginning to try and teach myself to play guitar. So I'm hesitant to give it any kind of star rating or say anything about the guitar in regards to quality of playability, electronics/pickups, tone or any of that important stuff, as I don't have the experience to fairly do so. I've played drums for about 20+ years in bands, so have been around plenty of guitar gear that I know was good. Vintage or custom Gibson and Fender guitars with high end or specialty pickups and hardware, running through half stack 100 watt Mesa Boogie triple rectifiers, 100 watt Marshall JCM 800s/900s, Vox AC 30s, Orange Rockerverbs, Sovteks, etc. Pretty much guitars and amps that sound amazing and are my only in person points of reference. However, It would be completey unfair to try and compare this sub-$200 guitar going through my little Blackstar HT5R combo to the guitars and rigs mentioned above that I'm used to drumming along with. My girlfriend was wonderful enough to buy this guitar for me and she took a good friend who's played for 20+ years and has a 1978 Les Paul himself and after checking out/playing a few lower budget guitars in the store, some in the used section that cost a little more, he recommended this one. Said it played good to him, didn't have the fret buzz that the guitar I wanted to replace had and happened to be the sweet satin black finish he remembered me saying I liked. To sum it up, I doubt this is a guitar any of the experienced players I know would have, but as a beginner still trying to figured out how to fret chord shapes, I'm very happy with this entry-level/budget guitar. Only minor complaint I have so far is that the low E (which I drop to C or D) string seems to need frequent tuning. I'm considering taking it to GC for a proper setup and have larger gauge strings put on, so hoping that might help. But for the price I'd say it's worth any beginner checking out. If only these entry level guitars would include some in-person lessons, lol.Marcus E.