ESP Ltd M-53 Electric Guitar

Body - Basswood
Neck - Maple, bolt-on, 25.5" scale, extra thin flat contour
Nut width - 42mm
Fingerboard - Maple, dot inlays, 22 X jumbo frets
Hardware - Chrome, Vintage Tremolo bridge
Tuners - ESP tuners
Pickups - ESP LH-150 (bridge) 2 * LS-120
Controls - 1*volume, 1*tone, 5-way selector

The M-53 is a quality, entry level, nicely priced rocker guitar from ESP. It features a Maple fingerboard, matt black body and decent tremolo bridge, making for a cool looking guitar, that plays nicely and has a great sound.
Lets start at the top, and the M-53 has a reverse headstock, with the tuners on the underside. Sharp and angular, the face is satin black, with LTD's logo in gold and white block capitals.
The rear of the headstock is natural Maple, with a smooth satin finish, and 6 black Nickel ESP branded tuners in a tight row. These are of good quality, the same as used on all of the Ltd guitars.
The neck is also satin Maple, it's good and smooth, nice for fast runs up and down the board. The 22 fret fingerboard on this model is also Maple, a slightly darker grain than the neck, and with a satin finish as well. The fretwork is all to an excellent quality, as on all ESP guitars, and there are small black dot position markers, with the 12th fret having a large Abolone block showing off the model number.
The neck feels fairly chunky, a broad D profile, extra thin flat contour ESP call it. Nut width is about 43mm, and on this model straight from the box, action height is good at 3mm on the bass side, 2mm on the treble at the 12th fret.
The neck is bolted onto the double cutaway body, there is a nice ESP branded black Nickel plate on the back, joining at the 16th fret on the bass side, and 20th on the treble. The back of the basswood body is heavily chamfered away, giving a comfortable playing position.
The front of the guitar is pretty plain, there are master tone and volume controls, and an unbranded Tremolo bridge, all in black Nickel, and a 5 way selector switch.
The pickups are very hot, 2 single coils and a humbucker at the bridge, all branded ESP, giving an excellent tonal response, great on your dirty channel, bright on the clean channel as well.
A really nice guitar to play, if you're after an ESP guitar, and they are a very popular range for us at Guitarbitz, but you're on a budget, who isn't nowadays, then the H-53 should be what you're looking for.
A quality, entry level ESP guitar, with good sounds, good playability and great looks.

£199