ESP Guitars (NAMM Booth 208A/B) used the 2024 NAMM Show to unveil the LTD Deluxe EC-01FT, a new guitar that will be available in Black, Olympic White, and Vintage Burst finishes.
“The EC-01FT is a brute, yet with sport-class refinement where it counts,” said Blue Wilding, ESP Brand Manager. “It answers the request for a no-nonsense, flat-top take on the Eclipse design. At first glance, it looks pretty bare bones, but there’s more under the hood. With a new pickup designed with Seymour Duncan exclusively for ESP, and other special design refinements, this is no entry-level EC. The EC-01FT is meant for the world’s most hardcore ESP players.”
The LTD Deluxe EC-01FT is a single-cutaway guitar with a flat-top body and clean electronics layout. It features a comfortable 24.75” scale with a smooth set-thru heel construction. It features a mahogany body and a distinctive brushed black pickguard. Its mahogany neck has a 43mm nut, slightly wider than is standard for EC models, allowing for comfortable ergonomics in power chords and fluid lead lines. It features a Macassar ebony fingerboard with pearloid block inlays and 22 extra-jumbo stainless steel frets. A recessed TonePros TOM bridge with string thru body keeps string height low and comfortable while maximizing resonance. Other components include LTD locking tuners.
Perhaps the biggest feature of the EC-01FT is the Custom 14, a new custom pickup designed exclusively for ESP by Seymour Duncan. Purpose-built to cover the specific needs of the ESP player, the EC-01FT’s flexible and dynamic Custom 14 pickup offers the range of tones needed by the contemporary guitarist, able to handle everything from clean, chimey intros to sizzling rock, classic metal, and hardcore tones, as well as the most crushing modern chugging and articulate, angular rhythm lines. A push-pull control on the volume knob splits this pickup to a wide-ranging single coil bridge tone.
For musicians on a tighter budget, ESP also introduced the affordable LTD EC-201FT, which shares the streamlined single-cutaway flat top body of the EC-01FT, with a roasted jatoba fingerboard, 22 extra-jumbo frets, a TOM-style bridge with string thru body, LTD tuners, and a single hot, punchy ESP LH-150B humbucking pickup that can be coil-spill via a push-pull control on the master volume.
Detailed information and specs on the LTD Deluxe EC-01FT, LTD EC-201FT, and ESP’s entire offering of guitars and basses is available at www.espguitars.com.
