“Full review with photos this September.” Gosh, that was two years ago. Better late than never.

This is a guitar that originally belonged to my brother, Trabye, and he was about to let it go after owning it for a couple of years. Well, after keeping the EMG pickups and replacing the old ESP ones back. I told him I wanted it and, well, it is now mine and sits with my Explorer and Daphne.

This is “Spidey”, which is a 2006 EC-50, which is the second lowest Eclipse-type LTD guitar and is made in Indonesia (these guitars are now made in China). This EC-50 originally came from Guitar Collection in TTDI. The EC-50’s body is solid agathis and has a bolt-on maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. As you can see, this baby has been hotrodded – the stock ESP pickups have been replaced with two white EMG81‘s bought at Thomann. I was told that for some reason, any Indonesian LTD’s that has been QC-ed by a chap named Susilo (you can tell by a little sticky at the back of the guitar), the setup would be pretty ace.

The unique thing about this EC-50, the headstock has the same colour as the body (the current models have black headstocks regardless of body colour). And as I alluded earlier (yup, back in 2010), I got the old volume/tone knobs back on, together with the black truss rod guard. Unlike the Japanese market ESP’s and the Les Paul, the knobs comprise volume knobs for each bridge and neck pickup, together with a master tone knob. Spidey is otherwise a typical Les Paul-type guitar with a Tune-o-Matic bridge and a 24.75″ scale length. Since the guitar is pretty much all white, I got myself a KH-3-esque spider decal from eBay, hence the name. The guitar doesn’t have a white Floyd Rose trem (nor the narrower KH-3 headstock) but that’s fine by me.

LTD’s are pretty much the budget range for the pricier ESP’s but its built and playability is bang for buck. I have to say the higher range LTD’s are so much better but Spidey’s a joy to play when compared to my other, err… vintage budget guitar, Xingxiao, that is loved by all and sundry. Heh.

And now, to find Spidey a hard case.

BODY Agathis
NECK Maple
GRIP SHAPE Thin U
FINGERBOARD Rosewood, 24 XJ frets
RADIUS 305R
SCALE 24.75″ / 628mm
NUT (width) Standard (42mm)
INLAY MOP Dot, with EC-50 at 12th fret
JOINT Bolt-On
TUNER ESP
BRIDGE ESP Tune-O-Matic
PICKUPS EMG-81 (Bridge, Neck)
COLOUR White
PARTS COLOUR Chrome
CONTROL Volume, Volume, Master Tone, 3-Way Toggle PU Selector