ESP LTD SCT-607 Baritone Guitar Review

Signature guitars have the advantage of being designed with input from an actual professional musician.

They know what features a guitar needs.

The disadvantage is that this is usually very specific to that musician’s style of playing.

That is true for the ESP LTD SCT-607 as well, but to a much lesser degree.

It was designed with metal in mind and is ideal for that genre. But it has some unique features that make it incredibly versatile, so that it will work well for just about any genre.

The rest of this review will cover everything you need to decide whether this is the right baritone guitar for you.

 

ESP LTD SCT-607 Review: Overview And Features

Even after all these decades, the world of electric guitars still hides some exciting gems that can surprise us. Baritone electric guitars are somewhat “unexplored” territories, with many interesting, yet underrated instruments to discover.

One of those is definitely the ESP LTD SCT-607, which is a pretty unusual guitar for the standards that we’re used to, with qualities you don’t generally see. I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising, considering it is a signature model of Deftones‘ Stephen Carpenter, an incredibly innovative musician and guitarist.

And with ESP and their subsidiary LTD, you know you’re not going to get a bad guitar model. As expected, the build quality on this one is top-notch.

Although this baritone guitar is intended mainly for metal music, it can work great for many different musical styles. If you need something for those lower notes and want versatility in tone-shaping, then this is the right instrument for you. Of course, it is not exactly the cheapest option, but it’s easily every single penny.

 

Key Features

• 7-string guitar with a 27-inch scale length
• Neck-through construction
• Classic Telecaster body shape with some “modern” features
• Sparkling green finish
• Alder body and 3-piece maple neck
• Thin U neck profile
• Fishman Fluence SRC Signature active pickups
• Additional controls for pickup voicings
• Tonepros locking bridge with strings going through the body

 

Design And Construction

At first glance, you’ll notice the classic Telecaster shape, along with some other vintage features, like the control plate for volume, tone, and pickup switching controls.

But the design is rounded out with a few modern-looking twists, including the headstock design. And then we have the elephant in the room: the guitar’s sparkling green finish. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but one thing’s for sure – it’s certainly done really well. Overall, the design is an unusual blend of vintage and modern features.

It’s sometimes a little difficult to define what a baritone guitar actually is these days, especially since there are 7, 8, and 9-string guitars that cover those deeper territories. Case in point: this one is a 7-string with a standard 27-inch baritone scale length.

It features a neck-through construction, which gives a significant boost to its sustain. The string through construction adds to that. But the tone, and eventually the guitar’s sustain, is primarily shaped through the pickups.

 

Hardware

And the pickups are a major strength of this instrument. It features an amazing pair of Fishman’s Fluence active pickups and there are two things that make the pickups especially interesting.

First is the unusual positioning: one is in the standard bridge pickup position, but the other one is in the mid position, not the neck. Second, they feature different voicings, which gives this guitar a lot of versatility.

 

Advantages And Disadvantages

Pros

• Versatile instrument due to different pickup voicings
• Unique-sounding pickup formation with bridge and middle positions
• Neck-through construction provides you with great feel and increased sustain
• Ergonomic design with cutouts on the back side to make it easy to reach higher frets
• Amazing tone
• Unique-looking design which blends vintage and modern elements really well

Cons

• The pickup configuration with the bridge and mid position might be a bit weird
• Although the design is amazing, it might not fit everyone’s tastes

 

ESP LTD SCT-607 Vs ESP LTD BB-600

As mentioned, baritone guitars are somewhat of an “unexplored territory” for many guitar players. But there are actually some pretty amazing top-quality instruments in the category that get overlooked.

One of them is the ESP LTD SCT-607 reviewed here. But there’s another great baritone guitar by LTD that also deserves our attention. The model in question is the ESP LTD BB-600, so let’s compare it with this mighty 7-string Telecaster-styled guitar.

The most obvious difference is that the BB-600 is a 6-string guitar. Despite that, it has the same 27-inch scale length as the SCT-607 and the same 3-piece Thin U maple neck, with the same 350 mm (or 13.77 inch) radius.

The other obvious difference is the body design. The BB-600 has the company’s now well-known and respected Eclipse body shape. It is essentially a modified version of Gibson’s legendary Les Paul.

Another difference is the so-called set-through construction with a mahogany body. In practical terms, you won’t notice much difference in sustain, though the mahogany might bring some darker and mellower tones than the alder.

The backside, where the neck meets the body, has almost the same design on both models. The feel at the higher frets is also almost the same, with the only difference being that the 607 has a bigger neck, since it’s a 7-string guitar.

The overall look of this guitar is a bit sharper and more modern than the 607, and it doesn’t give off the same vintage vibes. 

The pickup formation is completely different. While we had those Fishman Fluence pickups on the SCT-607, there’s a pair of Seymour Duncans on the BB-600.

These are a little different and are not as bright and crispy as the Fishman pickups. But they still delivery an amazing tone.

They are positioned in a standard bridge and neck formation with a simple 3-way selector switch. The switch is a bit unusual. It takes the form of a classic pot, not a regular switch. Its definitely unique, but perhaps a little impractical, since most of us are used to regular switches.

There are no additional features like coil-splitting or other tone-shaping options. But there is a piezo pickup, which brings in some versatility to the tone.

The guitar comes has two separate outputs: one for the regular magnetic pickups and the other one for the piezo pickup. This makes it possible to combine and blend these two completely different types of tone. Of course, that requires two amps or two separate channels on a mixer or some other stereo device that supports two channels.

The piezo is also very useful if you want to record sparkling acoustic-sounding parts in the studio, or if you want to play some acoustic songs during a live show, without bringing a second instrument.

Looking at these two guitars, it’s pretty obvious that both are top-quality instruments. But they give you completely different tones.

While the feel might be similar due to the same neck profile and the access to higher frets, the pickups and choice of materials make for some striking differences in the tone.

Neither baritone guitar is better or worse. They’re just different.

If you need more of those sparkling crunchy bright tones, then the LTD SCT-607 is the better choice. But if you prefer more of a conventional approach and want a regular metal-sounding instrument with a baritone scale length, then we recommend the BB-600.

Both are metal-oriented, but they will serve you well no matter the genre you’re into. That’s especially the case with the SCT-607, which is a bit more versatile than the BB-600.

Read all about the BB-600 in our full review.

 

ESP LTD SCT-607 Baritone Guitar: Conclusion And Rating

It’s pretty obvious that the ESP LTD SCT-607 is an amazing instrument. Yes, it’s kind of expensive, but we cannot mention this as a downside.

In fact, the price is actually one of its strengths, because it costs far less than it should. Like most ESP LTD instruments, this one easily outperforms any other guitar in its price range.

This is a budget instrument built for pro-level musicians or enthusiasts who are extremely dedicated to their craft and want to take things to a whole new level.

There are many features to praise in this guitar, but one really stands out above the rest – the pickups. Fishman is a company that changed the game when it comes to the modern guitar and all of their pickups are incredible.

But the LTD SCT-607 brings another twist with the second pickup in the middle position instead of the neck position. Although this is not conventional and might bother some guitarist, it is an example of how innovative and boundary-pushing this instrument actually is.

To put it simply, if you’re looking for a versatile and modern-looking 7-string guitar that punches far above its weight, this is it. As long as the specific design and the unusual pickup formation don’t put you off, you will not find a better value on the market when it comes to baritone guitars.

That is why we give it a perfect Musicaroo rating of 5 out of 5 and we also voted it the best baritone guitar, period.