I bought this guitar because I love ESPs and the Explorer body style. The Snakebyte is slightly lighter that the Explorer and pretty nicely balanced. However, before I even received this guitar I located an ESP that I had been searching for, for a very long time. I just can't justify keeping both and frankly I wouldn't even play it that much.On to the guitar itself...I bought it new and I'm the first and only owner of it. As you can see from the serial number it's newly built. It's in near mint, immaculate condition with zero scratches, dents, dings, or any other imperfections that I can see. And believe me I've inspected this thing thoroughly! It has the new EMG Het Set pickups that sound fantastic. I always switch out pickups on my guitars but I couldn't honestly justify it on this instrument! I have found these LTD guitars to be pretty close to their ESP relatives and I've played both versions. In some case you can't tell the ESP from the LTD. However, with the LTD you save yourself over $3,000 - $4,000.00!It comes standard with an ESP hard shell case and associated tools/keys.- mahogany body/neck- set neck- ebony fretboard - Custom snake inlay at 12th fret- tune-o-matic bridge and bridge- EMG James Hetfield sig pickups- LTD locking tuners- 2 volume controls/3-way pickup selector switch- all matter black finishThis is a great feeling and an awesome looking guitar. Whether you like metal, hard rock, the Explorer body style or you're just a huge Metallica fan this guitar would be a nice addition to any player's arsenal.