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LTD Ride The Lightning

ESP Guitars unveil the new LTD Ride The Lightning limited edition guitar, featuring a graphic finish that replicates the cover art of Metallica’s second album.

LTD Ride The Lightning

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This guitar is ESP’s ode to the 30th anniversary of Metallica’s second album, Ride The Lightning, which was released on the 27th of July, 1984.

Just last year, ESP released a limited edition guitar for the 30th anniversary of Metallica’s first album, Kill ‘Em All. This new guitar follows up on that successful limited run.

The official press release says, “The Ride the Lightning album helped establish Metallica as a serious contender in the metal arena, and led to their major label signing later in 1984. Some of the now-classic songs on that album include For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fade to Black, and Creeping Death”.

According to the company, only 300 of the LTD Ride the Lightning guitars will ever be produced worldwide. So if you are a fan of Metallica, or specifically, their second album, the chances of getting your hands on will vanish if you are not fast enough. In fact, a company representative mentioned that their ESP dealers already bought all of the guitars on the first day that it was announced, which means you can’t get one straight from ESP anymore.

While the graphics of the guitar is undoubtedly cool, the guitar itself is not so bad either. It has a double cutaway “superstrat” style alder body and a bolt-on maple neck with ebony fretboard. The guitar comes with a familiar 25.5″ scale length and has 24 extra jumbo frets.

Giving the guitar its Metallica approved tones are a pair of active EMG humbuckers, an EMG 60 on the neck and an EMG 81 on the bridge. The EMG 60 is the favorite neck pickup of many metal players, while the EMG 81 is even more popular, and is the favorite of Kirk Hammett himself.

Other features of the guitar include a distinctive Metallica logo fretboard inlay, TOM bridge and string-through body design. The guitar is protected by an ESP form-fit case with the band’s logo and each of the 300 has a certificate of authenticity.

ESP President and CEO Matt Masciandaro says, “ESP and Metallica’s guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett have a relationship that goes back more than two decades. Last year, we successfully released a limited-edition guitar for the 30-year anniversary of their first album, Kill ‘Em All. We are happy to offer another new Metallica-focused guitar for serious players, collectors, and fans.

Before being sold out to their distributors, one of the 300 LTD Ride the Lightning guitars were put on display at the recently concluded 2014 Summer NAMM Show. For more information, head over to ESP Guitars.

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