I feel you on the finish, I actually had black ones and white ones and swapped the pickguard on them and it looked a lot better.
And Yeah, I’ve got one of the vintage white LTD’s as well. The current LTD’s and the old Standard Series are also a little different sound-wise, as the standards were maple neck-thru with mahogany wings, and the newer LTD’s are all mahogany (Some of the old LTD 400 series phoenixes were also all mahogany). I prefer the all mahogany as it’s a bit beefier of a sound. Sound more like a Les Paul. The newer LTD’s also have painted necks, the old standards (and my custom) did not. I’d take the new 1000’s over the old standards these days, personally.