For quite a while now, LTD has been one of our favorite bang-for-your-buck guitar lines available. The M-1000 Koa was one of our favorite >$1000 guitars of 2016, so I figured we’d look at another M-Series model today and see how it compares!

Let’s hop right into our review of the LTD M-400M

Features:

  • Solid Mahogany Body
  • Maple Fretboard
  • 3Pc Maple Neck
  • Blue Chrome Metallic Finish
  • Bolt-On Neck Construction
  • 24 XJ Frets
  • Grover Tuners
  • 25.5″ Scale
  • 13.77″ Radius
  • Extra Thin Flat Neck Profile
  • Floyd Rose Special Bridge
  • Seymour Duncan JB/59 Pickups
  • 1xVol/3-Way Toggle

The cosmetic appointments of the M-400M definitely help it to stand out in a crowd. The Blue Chrome Metallic Finish is clean and attractive and the choice of the Maple fretboard was a perfect addition to accent the blue of the body.

Something that separates the M-400M from the majority of the LTD line is the Extra-Thin Flat neck. It’s not as thick as the standard Thin ‘U’ profile that LTD is usually using. It’s akin to the Wizard Profile found on the old RGA Prestige models and is just begging to be shred on. It’s still comfortable enough for riffing and rhythm playing, but good lord is it sweet for soloing.

The bridge is a Floyd Rose Special, which is essentially a bridge based off of the Original Floyd Rose, except it’s built in Korea as a more affordable option. It’s not quite as stable as the Original Floyd, but it’s still solid.

Something I really wish was included is locking tuners. I pretty much prefer locking tuners 100000% of the time.

Of course, you could always add locking tuners if you wanted! Check out our article on installing new tuners for a tutorial on that!

LTD M-400M

Tone:

The all-Mahogany body design can often make for a flubby low-end response and overly warm tone. Luckily, the addition of the Bolt-On Maple neck really makes up for this with a ton of extra snappy attack.

The M-400M features one of my personal favorite Seymour Duncan Humbuckers of all time, the SD JB Bridge Pickup.

The JB generally pairs really well with Mahogany bodies and that is further proven to be true with this guitar. Made using an Alnico-5 magnet, the JB uses a fairly hot wind to achieve the right balance of distortion and clarity. The really crisp high-end adds a fair amount of resonance and cut to the dark sound of the Mahogany.

The JB/59 set pretty much works for whatever you need. Heavy distortion and modern metal tones are punchy and clear, but rock tones really excel the most. Power chords sound super punchy, and lead sounds punch through with an almost vocal-like quality.

Really fat, warm clean sounds are effortless without too much breakup (although the JB doesn’t do the best for chimey, crystal clear sounds).

Build Quality:

Although all of the hardware and electronics are much cheaper, Korean LTD guitars are often built with similar care and QC as their Japanese counterparts, so the quality speaks for itself.

There are almost zero flaws in the finish. The guitar looks and feels really well made. It didn’t feel like a cheap guitar by any means.

The fretwork wasn’t incredible, 2 noticeable dings, but they weren’t very deep and didn’t affect the playability for me.

Final Verdict:

The M-400M brings a lot to the table. It’s a really attractive guitar, offers a super versatile tone, and is highly comfortable for lead players.

I would have liked to see locking tuners on this model, and there were a few fret dings, but overall I’d say this guitar brought some serious value. It would be a great buy for the guitarist looking for a classy, clean look with a plethora of tonal options.

9-7-8

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This article was written by Zac Buras, our editor located in Louisiana.

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