This ESP LTD EC-1000 Quilted Maple See-Through Black Cherry Electric Guitar looks and sounds stunning. This appears to be LTD’s version of the ESP Eclipse Custom (EC) series guitars that retail for $6000, except is has a set three-piece mahogany instead of a set three-piece maple neck, and it has a rosewood rather than ebony 24-fret fingerboard. And of course the LTD EC-1000 QM was made in Korea, not the USA ESP Custom Shop that opened about the same time that this LTD guitar was made. The LTD EC-1000 QM has the same mahogany body, quilted maple top, EMG-81 humbucker pickups, TonePros System II locking bridge, three knobs, three-way switch, black hardware and See-Through Black Cherry finish as the ESP Eclipse Custom guitar. This LTD EC-1000 fingerboard has abalone flag inlays and model name at the 12th fret, full guitar abalone binding, and a matching color headstock. The abalone looks amazing in the light and of course abalone is almost extinct now.

The action is fast, clean and low, and the intonation is perfect. The tuners have been replaced with locking tuners. The only flaw is the big chip on the headstock pictured, perhaps making this a Good, but everything else is Excellent condition, so I rate it a Very Good. Comes with a gig bag.

Looking into this a little further, I found that this EC1000 guitar is the seventh (serial number ends in 0007) LTD guitar built in the new ESP LTD factory in Korea, and since there were other models in the initial production number series, this is likely to be the first LTD EC1000 ever made. The Korean LTD luthiers were being trained by the Japanese ESP master luthiers (brought to Korea), who had already made ESP’s worldwide reputation for crafting high quality guitars. Presumably, at about the same time, they also trained the luthiers for the then-new USA Custom shop that still makes the high-end ESP guitars now. It is likely that ESP sent their very best luthiers out on the training mission. It is possible that a Japanese ESP master luthier made guitar number seven in Korea in front of, or in close conjunction with, a trainee in order to show him how it is done. With its its historical significance, this likely first or second LTD EC1000 electric guitar ever made is a collector’s item to be proud of.