This is the ESP Ltd Viper-400 in it's orginal state. ( pictured above )

Yes, I was fortunate enough to get this fine instrument on loan for an undetermined amount of time. So I thought I'd better take advantage of this time and pop a review up here on it.

I recieved it in Midnite Black and it hosts two active EMG pickups in it. Bridge is the EMG81 and neck has the EMG85. What I mean by the term active is these pickups operate off a 9 volt battery ( installs in the rear back of the guitar ) It works on the principle that when the cord is in the input jack, the pickups become active. When the guitar is unplugged, the pickups are no longer active. Make it a point to always unplug this guitar after playing it to maximize battery life.

These pickups generate huge sustain and offer a more focused tone, to cut through dense mixes. I use a Traynor YCV50 combo which is notorious for it's clean sounds. You can dial in a Marshall style tone with a guitar with regular pickups in it, but the best you'll get is a 70's style Classic Rock Tone out of it. Not the case with the Viper. Although you can't get that Nu_Metal tone with this guitar straight into the amp, you can get a grungy metal sound from this guitar. Mind you, that's with my amp pegged at maximum gain on it's dirty channel.

Incorporate a Hot British ToneBone or a Boss Metal Zone footpedal into this setup, set on the clean channel and this guitar will deliver any sort of metal tone you could ask for. However, if Metal Music is your forte' then you're best off with an amp that's meant to deliver that sound. Since I was only using the Viper on loan and I only own a YCV50, that's what we'll focus on in this review.

The Viper is able to deliver more than just that Metal Tone. All that's needed is to roll back the volume knob on the Viper. The more you roll it back, the cleaner it will sound. So it is quite verstile.

The ESP LTD Viper-400 hosts a 3-piece mahogany neck, Mahogany body, the pickups stated above, an Earvana compensated nut and Grover tuners. The mahogany neck has a bound rosewood fretboard featuring extra-jumbo frets and flag inlays. Simple controls on the ESP Viper give you volume, tone, and a 3-way selector. The contoured upper side of the mahogany Viper 400 body offers supreme playing comfort.

The Earvana compensated nut is suppose to help tuning at the lower frets. Whether it does or not is hard to say. May just be a marketing gimmick. 

Normal humbucker pots are rated at 500K ohms. The Viper however, has tiny mini pots rated at 25K ohms because of the active pickups.

 

 

Viper at home ( original state )

 

 

 

Viper at home ( customized and modded )

 

 

This particular guitar has been modded by it's owner. Here, I'll go over his mods.

The Viper orginally came with stock grover tuning pegs that had mini paddles that were changed out to full-size paddles in gold from another old set of grovers from a Gibson double-cut that he had left laying around from a mod on that guitar ( quality spare parts ) The black metal control knobs ( tone and volume ) were changed out with Gibson black speed knobs as well as oversize gold strap pins. He had to adjust the truss rod two separate times as the strings past the 19th frets sometimes buzzed. He only increased the tension by 1/8th  turn at a time to raise the action a skiffy and all was well.  Neck seems to have settled in.

 

He states he has heard there is a mod you can do by adding another 9 volt battery in series, to give the active pickups 18 volts. He would have to route out the battery cavity and get another 9V battery connector

to make that work.  Is supposed to not really increase the output, as one might think, but it changes the tone somewhat.  But he never did it as he thought the guitar sounded good as it was ( and I do too )

 

I'm one of those players that feel most comfortable playing in the standing position. I found when armed with the mighty Viper, that the strap locks are in the wrong location ( probably due it's SG shape ). The strap didn't sit or fit comfortably around my shoulder and neck. A relocation of the strap pins would be in order. The owner didn't mod this feature due to the fact that he does most of his playing sitting down. He also is wary of drilling holes into it's body ( and I don't blame him ). It's just one of those features to consider if you plan on buying this particular guitar. But other than that, it's my only gripe with this guitar.

 

The neck on this instrument feels Superb! The string action height is near perfect and plays just as well as my Gibson Les Paul ( which is three times the price of the Viper ). It plays like butter and the neck is most comfortable. Truley a fine investment for it's pricetag ( under $1,000 Canadian ).

 

Are you itching for an SG style guitar but not the Gibson pricetag? Do you want to shred and play hard agressive music? Are you after a quality guitar with EMG pickups in it?

 

All I can say is you need to look no further than the ESP Ltd. Viper-400. It's available in red, white and black.