NGD: ESP LTD H3-1000

[Amon418]

This one came kind of unexpected... consequence of: a. already having an H3-1000FR, which is one the most comfortable superstrats I've ever played and one of my favourite guitars, b. wanting another guitar with fixed bridge, c. having a Jackson Dinky that just doesn't fit me ergonomically that I wanted to sell/replace.
As you might have guessed, I just pulled the trigger and still have the Dinky at home with an active auction on eBay.

All the photos I've seen online show a different colour and now I get why: it's sort of a petrol blue (with a green hue) that just changes... seems like the brighter the light, the greener it turns up in photo
I took these 2 photos when it arrived yesterday late afternoon, I'll come back with a few more and what I found different between the two guitars later today (this is MIK, the FR is MII).

 

[BabUShka]

Congrats! Looks amazing. The 1000 series LTD's are some of the best guitars out there, hard to beat the quality vs price.

 

[Amon418]

Here come some more photos. The first one shows the colour pretty accurately, sorry for the reflections.

 

[Amon418]

About the differences between the two guitars...

The finish is totally different. The H3-1000FR (MII) has thinner finish, also showing imperfections from pore filling and sanding, you can actually see the coat following the wood pattern against the light - the H3-1000 (MIK) has a thick, quality coat which is perfectly smooth. The headstock logo is wavey on the H3-1000FR and covered with a thin layer of coat, while on the new one it's well done and under a thick coat of transparent high gloss.
The neck is a tad thicker and the fretwork is much better on the korean. The top shape has more emphasis on the curves, while the indonesian results a little flatter.

The H3-1000 is also heavier, having a 5 mm thicker body - I think this is not due to the country of origin, but rather the guitar design being FR vs TOM.

The nut looks like a plastic piece of shit, but that's not an issue to replace.

Both guitars come with Duncan Sentient/Pegasus with split coil option, very flexible combination.

Congrats! Looks amazing. The 1000 series LTD's are some of the best guitars out there, hard to beat the quality vs price.

Thank you @BabUShka!

 

[Shawn]

I really like those! I thought about picking up a 7-string version of these. Very nice!

 

[Amon418]

I really like those! I thought about picking up a 7-string version of these. Very nice!

The LTD H3-1007 I guess, indeed a nice guitar. Have always liked the Horizon 3 asymmetric shape.

 

[Surveyor 777]

Congrats! That's a beautiful color.

Love your FR one - that's the same one I have. I should play it more - it's a really comfortable shape for my playing.

 

[gh0styboi]

Happy NGD, dude I’ve got this guitar as well, and it’s insanely good. One of my top players for sure.

 

[nightsprinter]

Sick. Absolutely love the color. Been wanting one for years, easily my favorite esp shape.

 

[gh0styboi]

Sick. Absolutely love the color. Been wanting one for years, easily my favorite esp shape.

The balance on the H3s is amazing, honestly. It's one of the most comfortable shapes overall easy, imo. The bevels and slightly arched top make it so nice to use, and it's a good weight as well - not a back breaker at all, but also not so light that it feels foamy.

 

[Amon418]

it's a really comfortable shape for my playing

Main reason for me to get a second one! Now that I see your location... I have a guest from Wisconsin right now in my house

Thanks all, people, glad to see I'm not alone liking this model

 

[Dambo55]

Happy NGD!

I love that exact guitar, that is my favorite finish.

I've considered that, and the red one. The newer ones now have a compound radius FB.

How is the fretwork? Neck profile??

 

[Amon418]

Happy NGD!

I love that exact guitar, that is my favorite finish.

I've considered that, and the red one. The newer ones now have a compound radius FB.

How is the fretwork? Neck profile??

Thank you!

I would have loved the red one, but over here it was 500€ more than this and the purple one... and also difficult to find.

The fretwork is great on this one, less great on the black H3-1000FR: you can feel a few sharp frets, nothing major or painful, but not as smooth.

The neck profile is supposed to be a "Extra Thin U" for both, on resellers websites "U", "Thin U" and "Extra Thin U" are randomly used.
I find it comfortable and nice to play, wouldn't complain or notice if one sold it to me as a "C" or "Modern C".

The neck is thinner on the black one, for some reason. I don't know if you read my post above about the "differences" I found between them... the new one is MIK, the black MII. I'm afraid I don't really know which differences are due to the production and which are due to the fact that one is FR and on TOM (the latter also has a thicker body).

 

[Dumple Stilzkin]

What a nice looking pair, HNGD.

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

absolutely tasty!

 

[Millul]

Molto, molto schoen!

 

[Amon418]

For those as picky as I am... after a few days, I noticed a chip on the side of a tuner, see below.
It's a small thing and being the rest of the guitar close to flawless, with very good fretwork, great finish, top and overall build, I absolutely didn't want to send it back for such a minor thing and risk getting a lemon in return.

It was clear that the tuner hid a portion of that chip.

Had some black cyanoacrylate glue at home, it was pretty difficult to see already, so didn't look for anything fancy and just used that to drop-fill (would have been cool to have some thicker transparent CA to mix, but hey).
This is the end result after drying, sanding, polishing. Used buffing paste for polishing, as even 12000 meshpads were too coarse compared to the shine on the rest of the headstock.

 

[Amon418]

Sorry to bump this again, but I wrote some wrong info about the bodies' thickness.

The two bodies actually have the same thickness in the middle and where the neck joins the body, but the H3-1000FR (MII) gets thinner and thinner towards the edges. This is very easy to see in the second image, where they clearly had to shape the binding differently to accommodate for the different profile (and you can also see how the horn gets thinner).

 

[ZLE]

Nice repair.I really wish if they stopped slap those ugly compliance stamps on the headstocks.If the expensive models can do without it,then there is a way.It's a musical instrument after all,not a plastic bag.