Decoding an ESP LTD guitar

The modified EC-500 guitar

So Facebook Marketplace showed me this guitar (a made in Korea circa 2006 ESP LTD EC-500) when it was listed for $280. I wasn’t that interested in a Les Paul style guitar, the price was good but not jaw dropping, and the seller was all the way down in Orange County. But. They dropped the price to $200 and I happened to be going down to O.C. to meet a friend at Disneyland, so, well, you know ...

Original equipment / specs vs. as-modified:

• SET NECK CONSTRUCTION
• 24.75” SCALE
• MAHOGANY BODY
• 3-PIECE MAHOGANY NECK
• EBONY FINGERBOARD
• MODEL NAME AT 12TH FRET
• EMG 81 (B) / 60 (N) ACTIVE PICKUPS (replaced with “Hot ceramic pickup”)
• VOLUME & TONE CONTROLS W/3-WAY TOGGLE
• BLACK HARDWARE (Now mixed...)
• GROVER TUNERS (replaced with “Hipshot locking tuners” (these?))
• EARVANA COMPENSATED NUT
• TUNE-O-MATIC BRIDGE (replaced with “Babicz bridge” (this?)) W/STRING-THRU-BODY
• 24 XJ FRETS

Anyway. It apparently had an MSRP of $899 when new. So far, I love playing it. Everything about it feels higher quality than the lower end guitars I’ve been playing (the nicest of which were probably the Ibanez S521 and the ESP LTD MH-100QMNT from around 10 years ago and probably about the same era (respectively), mid-range/entry level guitars that probably sold for 1/2 of what the EC-500 did and both I think made in Indonesia). I threw Type O Negative’s Black No. 1 up on the TV and played along and hit every note easily, a song I’d just taught myself (via tabs) a day or so before (though, yes, it’s a simple song). It just felt so effortless! A friend who was staying with me caught glimpses of that ‘performance’ on her phone camera and I used that to create this:

A ChatGPT idealized version of someone like me playing the EC-500 along with a video