ESP LTD EX-400 Electric Guitar

Info:
It has a black diamond-plate finish and lots of muscle from a set neck, mahogany body, and EMG-81 active pickups. Traditional 24-3/4" scale. Rosewood fretboard with 22 extra jumbo frets. An Earvana compensated nut puts it in tune everywhere on the neck. Grover tuners. Tune-o-matic bridge with stop tailpiece.

Features:

* Construction: Set Neck
* Scale: 24.75"
* Body: Mahogany with black diamond plate
* 3-piece maple neck
* Rosewood fretboard
* 22 extra jumbo frets
* Dot inlays with name at 12th fret
* EMG-81 active pickup set
* Volume, tone, 3-way toggle controls
* Black hardware
* Earvana compenated nut
* Grover tuners
* Tune-o-matic bridge with stop tailpiece

Pic: http://store1.yimg.com/I/guitarshopnet_1844_12183983

Musician's Friend is selling this axe for $699.00, but I found it on another site at $595, and MF have that "Guarrenteed lowest price" thing, so if I buy this axe from MF I'll get it for the lower price if I can prove that the other site is selling it at a lower price, mainly because I get free shipping.

This would be the first electric I'll ever own. Is it worth the price or should I settle for something cheaper and change the pickups later on? I've always been thinking of getting an EX-50(same series, different model that sells at around $220), which has (apparently crappy) LH-100 humbucker pickups, and getting a set of EMG's in the future, it seems to me as if this will be cheaper then getting the Ex-400 flat out. But I don't know crap about guitars except for a bit about bridges and pickups, so I can't tell which would be a wiser choice.

Thanks in advance for any help.

By the way, I'm just curious, does anyone know of any v-shapes of good quality at around the same price? Just curious, I don't like v's all that much, but I have a friend planning on buying a V that has EMG pickups...

The EX-400 will be made with higher quality woods, built much better, and generally have a bit more time taken over it than the EX-50; the price difference isn't solely based on what pickups it has

The high-end LTDs are awesome, they play alot better than some guitars you could get for that price. If you want a guitar that'll play nicely, and you're comfortable with the Explorer shape, by all means go for it

sounds much better than what i started out with

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Its a great guitar...i almost bought it, but its heavy as brick. Its like...3 les pauls...i mean, its a normally heavy guitar, with some metal just to add more weight. Honestly get the version that doesnt have the metal plating...It may not look as Kvlt, but your back will thank you.

Also, the F series guitars are nice, expecially the one with the flamed maple top and the tribal inlays...if you want a showy guitar that is.

In the end its up to you, just my 2 cents.

(ps...in the end i ended up getting a Schecter XXX from guitar center for $500...and i think it plays better :P)

EDIT: Also, if you are lookin for good V's, check out the Jackson KVX10 King V, or the Jackson RX10D Randy Rhoads.

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Yeah, I wasn't planning for the diamond-plate metal thing, it just looks way too heavy. :P

I'm taking a look at the the F-series right now.

Edit: Okay, I found the EX-400 without the metal plating at $595. Silly me, the $700 price tag was only for the diamond plate one! The normal Ex-400 has EMG 81/60 active pickups instead of two 81's, is this a good thing? Here are the full specs again just in case:

Body Mahogany
Bridge/Tremolo Tune-o-matic w/ stop tailpiece
Controls Volume, tone, 3-way toggle
Fingerboard Rosewood
Frets 22
Inlays Dots w/ model name at 12th Fret
Machine Heads Grover tuners
Neck Joint Set-Neck
Neck Material 3 piece Maple
Pickguard None
Pickups EMG 81/60 active pickups
Scale 24 3/4"

The Emg 81 - 60 is better IMO. The 60 has nice cleans. And that explorer is a killer guitar. I have one. Only mine is over customized at this point

And the ltd version looks a lot better than let's say the epiphone one. Ltd is more pointy. So for a explorer the Ltd is the way to go IMO

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I would put in some different pickups tough, Seymour Duncan probably, Dimarzio maybe.

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yes, its a good guitar, but i think youd start with something worse and cheaper if your only starting ... i mean if you spend 500$ on a guitar your just gonna throw under your bed after a week, that would be a big wast of money...

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Yea that will do you good for quite a while, just take good care of it when you are a beginner and that will be usable for quite some time! It wasn't until my thrid guitar that I had a set neck. My little timeline:

Start to about 4 months - Peavey Raptor International
4 months to about a year - LTD M-155
year to now (yeah and a half) - Kramer Vanguard Pro

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