Are you a bassist? Do you enjoy an instrument’s weird/demonic look? Do you like weird colors that you don’t see on an instrument every day? If you answered yes to any of these three questions, then this article is for you! Look no further sir/ma’am, your search ends at this:
Sexy, isn't she?
The ESP LTD F-155DX is a beast of a Bass Guitar, played by Taiwan’s very own Chthonic’s Doris Yeh (for those who don’t know, Chthonic are a taiwanese extreme black metal band, think Cradle Of Filth, only 10 times better), the bass sports a couple of them ESP active pickups that deliver a nice punch through your amplifier, while some may tell you that EMGs will sound nicer, a bit of a research will indicate how these pickups are pretty competent, and can hold their own against the aforementioned EMGs with pretty similar tone. The shape of the bass allows for comfortable playing when you’re either sitting or standing, and take it from a big guy, you need a bass that is big to not seem like you’re holding a violin, but that’s not the point of this review anyway, the bass features 3 equalizer knobs, a tone knob, and a master volume knob for maximum variations in tone, the frets are big and comfortable, and the tuners don’t get loose easily, but I wouldn’t mind upgrading to some locking tuners instead, also, the strings that come with the bass aren’t the best, so I do suggest you get another set of your favorite strings and slap’em on that bad boy! Action wise, it could get lower, though it is not terrible, but after a while, it does get a bit hectic.
Onto the woods within this baby, it has a Basswood body which allows for a clear metal-like tone, unlike Mahogany which offers a darker, richer sound that could work really well for either Jazz or Blues, but I don’t think you’ll be playing any Jazz when this infernal Bass is begging to spill some blood! It has a maple neck, with a Rosewood fingerboard, 24 XJ frets and as you can all see from the picture, 5 strings to slap like there’s no tomorrow!
From personal experience, this bass owns! It delivers wonderfully within my band, we play a mixture of Thrash/Death/Metalcore, and record in a home-studio-esque manner, though the Bass plugged through the sound interface sounds amazing.
This baby runs for $379 on Musician’s Friend, though for the money, you’re getting a $500~$600 quality Bass! So it is a pretty nice bargain!
I’m going to leave you all with a demo of the bass that I made:
Tech Specs courtesy of ESP:
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Metal Geek 