ESP LTD M-7HT B Black Metal Black

I bought this guitar 5 weeks ago and my first impression was very good. Its an awesome guitar very versatile and has a wide range of tone with the Seymour Duncan black Winter. The manufacturing is awesome and the black paint with all black hardware makes it very enticing and attractive.

Use: Exceptional for multiple genre use in Metal

Clarity: The tone is bestial and it has a very wide spectrum. The treble, bass and mids are all present.

Pros: Versatile guitar with very comfortable neck radius and size. Was not a problem for me to switch from regular 6 stringer to this awesome 7 string guitar. Tone is wonderful for the metal head exploring different genres.

Cons: The only hitch i encountered are the strings. The guitar comes with D'Addario XL110-7 (10 to 59). It is not the brand that is problematic but i find the lower B string (gauge 59) a little cumbersome to tune and to have good intonation on the 12th fret. I tried different gauges and the gauge 64's for the lower B works well. Basically you can keep the same factory string gauge and replace the 59 to 64. However with the 68's it works best. In fact i'm used with Elixir nanoweb Baritone gauges 12-68 however these are available on the 6 string guitars only but you can always add an extra 10 at the high B string and use the Elixir Nanoweb Baritone 12 to 68 with added 10. This will work wonders and very stable. Tone gets brutal when you increase the gauge on the lower B and E. I recommended the change in gauge from Factory.

I have tried a gauge 78 on the lower B too and it supports it very well. The guitar is a beast. I recommend it.

I already own an ESP M Black Metal and I got tired of needing alternate tunings (drop A#) to have a lower sounding tone, so I decided to purchase the M-7HT and I think it was a good idea. Probably I will sell the ESP M Black metal since the two guitars look and sound almost the same.

Pros:
- good quality build
- good aggressive pickup
- push and pull volume knob to allow switching to single coil. Not sure is a true pro, since you don't buy this kind of guitar to use it single coil. Nevertheless the option is there if you want to explore it.
- the black satin paint looks very good
- quiet enough
- nice shine-in-the-dark dots

Cons:
- the volume knob is like a switch on/off. You can’t really use it to gradually turn the volume on or off. Going from 100% to 50% almost makes no difference and around 25% it just turns off. Not a volume knob but a switch. I will solder a capacitor to solve this
- the paint is more sensitive than the usual high gloss paint
- the last fret (24) is cut not exactly straight (it is probable a small problem which affects only my guitar)
- the fretboard is not pure black but more like a very dark brown. The ESP M black metal has a darker fretboard (to my eyes), but the M-7HT is more like almost black but not quite.

I am using it in drop A (A, E, A, D, G, B, E) with 0.64, 0.46, 0.32, 0.24, 0.16, 0.12, 0.9 string gauges. It sounds very good and aggressive and its quite playable. Bends are almost as easy as on a 25,5 inch guitar. The frets are not too large. I was afraid of this because I have rather small hands but it is not an issue at all.

Not exactly sure why there is a price difference of 240 Eur between M7-HT and M black metal. Its the same pickup, same materials and the Floyd rose 1000 is actually more expensive than the M7-HT' LTD locking system. Sure, the neck is a bit wider and longer but I don't think 38 mm longer and a few mm wider can justify +240 euro. So probably is just the ESP pricing policy.