My friend, who wanted to start learning the guitar asked me, what guitar should he get that can last him a long time. Well, not forever but at least something that can fight GAS for a while. The first guitar that came to my mind was the ESP F-50. I've personally tried the MH-53 and I find it of above average quality for it's price.
Measuring 42mm at the nut allowing enough string spacing for fast scale runs while sporting a 25.5 scale neck makes it a real pleasure to play with. Although not super wizard thin, the neck however has a comfortable grip to it giving it a shred-able feel. Sporting a rosewood fingerboard, this gives warmer tones compared to harder woods giving nice tonal balance with pickups of high output while easy maintenance makes this a beginner friendly guitar.
The neck is also equipped with super Jumbo frets, giving you the feeling next to a scalloped neck allowing very minimal fretting strength when fretting notes. The amazing thing about the factory dressing is that, I am actually able to lower the action to 1.5mm at the 12th fret without the next buzzing like a bee. This is something to be applaud for a guitar that is made in china.
The guitar features a Tune O Matic bridge, a bridge I highly recommend to beginners. No Tremolo string changing nightmares or tuning instability. Lowering or raising action and string changing is like a walk in the park.
The guitar sports a Basswood body, which is considered a tonally neutral tonewood. I personally think Basswood is an excellent tonewood to allow Pickups tone to sing through and to me, Basswood is more of a Mid Bass dominant wood. Basswood is also being used by well known guitarist such as Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai and John Petrucci.
Lastly, the thing that I hate most about this guitar, is the pickups. It lacks character and is muddy when you push the gain high. This is a nightmare for shredders and metal head. However, this can be easier solved from a pickup swap.
