NBD ESP LTD PT-4
 

My new ESP LTD PT-4 is here. And here is the story of this bass, and a little review...

I was at the NAMM show working with ESP. Our bass clinician this year was Pancho Tomaselli of the bands War and Philm. He was quite cool to hang with for a week. And he is one heck of a bassist. He has a signature bass. Its a very unassuming J-Bass type of thing. But the spec was truely top notch, and it played like butter. And it just felt right to me. So i had the guys at ESP send me one (after I sent them a bunch of money of course). And I couldnt be happier.

The PT-4 is super high end for a Korean made LTD. It has a matte black swamp ash Jazz bass style body where the horns are just a little more pointy. Jazz proportioned maple neck with a maple board and smokey black pearl inlays, which are beautiful. It has extra jumbo frets too, which are really nice to play and do big string bends. The high mass Gotoh bridge is cool and functional. And it is outfitted with a set of EMG X Jazz pickups, and an EMG BTC System active preamp. The BTC features a master volume, pickup blend control, and a stacked trebble and bass control. Inside there are a series of dip switches to configure the mids and other aspects of the preamp. Its a nice sounding system, and the bass sounds monsterous. The action is super low and buzz free. This bass plays very well, and sounds killer. In drop D, the low string stays nice and tight, and sounds it too.

I looked closely at Frank Bello's sig bass as well, but the neck was too fat, and the bass was too damn heavy. This one fit the bill. I am a happy camper.

At a street price of $899 with gig bag, this bass is a bit expensive for an import. You can get the new USA made Gibson EB with a hard case for $999; and you can score a USA Fender P Bass Special for $999 with a gig bag as well. So this bass is up there for an import. But in my opinion, this bass plays better and sounds better than both of those other options. It is a top quality bass any way you slice it. If you handed me this bass and told me it was a $2500 ESP custom shop bass, I would have no issues believing that based on the peformance and looks of this bass.

My band is playing at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach for Spring Break next weekend, and I will be sure to play this bass for a song or two, and get some stage photos. In the meantime, here is a little pron. Enjoy.

Looks great!

In general, I don't understand comments like "Super high-end for a Korean made." IME, Korean-made instruments are consistently very good. But what do I know, I think a good bass is a good bass, regardless of who made it.

Thanks. I hear what you are saying. And I agree to a point. Korean basses and guitars are predominantly less expensive and typically not quite as finely made as most from the USA, Japan or Europe. But there are many fine instruments made in Korea, as well as other parts of Asia now days. And there are some crappy guitars made in the USA, etc. However, this bass exceeds even those expectations of a higher end Korean made instrument, and has a build quality and material quality found in much more expensive basses. I didnt mean anything derrogative towards Korean instruments by my statement. On the contrary, I think this is an indicator that Korean guitar and bass building is getting to the point where it can rival USA and Japan quality and construction. I recently purchased a Dean 35th Anniversary V made in Korea, and the build quality and materials literally blew me away. Working for ESP during the NAMM show every year, I get to see most all of the ESP and LTD models. Lately, when you compare the high end Korean LTD models to their corresponding Japanese ESP models, the quality gap seems to be closing, and the Korean LTDs are becoming better every year. But again, this particular bass doesnt have a corresponding Japanese ESP bass, and the quality to price ratio is mind blowing.

that's amazing news, I play in a metal core band in drop C and I really love the way this bass looks. Im very curious on how this bass sounds with a pick through a sansamp

I think in general the LTD basses are an amazing value. I have a B204-BM (burled maple top) that plays like 4x its price. Its Indonesian made and very good quality.

i dont even know the guy's band or music, but that is a pretty nice jazz regardless of whose name is attached to it. if it were available lefty i'd probably be having some pretty bad GAS pains right now. sidenote, it also kinda looks like a metal version of geddy lee's signature jazz. at least to me it does.

that is not a bad thing to me at all :bassist:

The bass is a signature model for Pancho Tomaselli. He is from War (Low Rider, etc), and a Proggy Punk band called Philm (with Dave Lombardo).

But that is inconsequential with this bass. Pancho just happened to help pick a bunch of features that I really liked all grouped together that made it a good fit for me personally. He even states that he purposely did NOT put any signatures, or had his name anywhere on the front of the bass. There is only a small scribble of his signature on the back of the headstock. So it is by far, the least signatured sig model I have ever seen. :-)

And yes, this bass can go from understated rock and blues, to metal, and fit in just great.

I've done a couple of gigs with it so far, and it is a super bass.