Anyone ever heard of Esoterik guitars?

[KnightBrolaire]

Their guitars popped up in my instagram feed. They only do superstrat bodies but their prices seemed very reasonable.
http://www.esoterikguitars.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEADnqFh660
old video but it give you an idea of their body shape.

I am legitimately tempted by their 27" baritone...

 

[The omnipotent one]

That logo looks like some stock windows font, but otherwise I dig it. I'm still looking to score something with a kahler after missing out on an Esp Hanneman last year.

 

[Hollowway]

Never heard of them. But I checked their website. The designs are a little esoteric, but good.

 

[marcwormjim]

I first read of them and their import models in a thread about mid-price guitars with high-end specs, a few years ago. I was curious to buy one to try it out, but was concerned I'd never be able to get rid of it. I think I decided to just keep my eye out for one on eBay/reverb, then forgot about them.

There's a USA-made one that's depreciated an insane amount:

https://reverb.com/item/651151-esoterik-dr2-natural-usa

I don't subscribe to the notion that the trivia of the builder being American necessarily means the guitar will outclass one from WMI, South Korea - I would compare that guitar to similarly-specced Korean and Japanese guitars on auction sites, then compare which brand retains the most resale value, before even considering buying it to try.

 

[Demiurge]

It's kind of hard to look at a builder website that one hasn't heard of and not start trying to identify red flags: pricing suggestive of over-priced imports or under-priced MIA, a long roster of artists that- no offense meant- is not terribly selective (Filter still exists!), and a gallery that appears to show the same handful of guitars over and over again to make one suspect that not a whole lot of these have been built.

 

[Jacksonluvr636]

Will be honest at first they did not impress me. I kind of thing the wings are a little ridiculous in the photo and they seem overpriced for an unknown guitar.

Maybe I am naive and I have no idea how much it costs to make a guitar but for a completely unknown company, I would suggest a little more competitive pricing. I did not compare the models but $900-$1,300 seems a bit steep when you could buy a used ESP or even a brand new ESP at $1,300 or even Ibanez any many many others.

I will admit though once I saw the 16" radius I became a little more interested. I can't really knock it until I try it so I guess I would not mind playing one to see.

I typically do not care what other artists use but I do like how VOD uses or has used them.

 

[BucketheadRules]

I've known about them for a while, thought they were really expensive so I'm surprised to see such low prices.

I dig them, I think the natural finish ones look cool.

 

[Steinmetzify]

Had a friend that's a touring guitarist in his own project that was endorsed by them for a couple years. He always spoke highly of them, but he's endorsed by Carvin now....he wanted a LP style that was lighter and Esoterik didn't make anything like that at the time, if they do now.

 

[narad]

destroyallguitars started pushing them a while ago at pretty ridiculous prices. I used to be such a fan of that store -- like everything they stocked was established, high quality stuff. Now it's all this stuff, dean gordon, prisma, sinuous, etc...just crap, crap, crap from unproven builders, most of them appearing to put more time into their advertisements than their builds. I just don't know why anyone would bother with them frankly.

btw, it's not uncommon amongst these brands to push some high price and back down when they don't sell. Especially on DAG listing... I think I recall some Aristides on DAG when it was all their first two shapes, something in the 4-5k range. I'm glad Aristides has found a foothold in with the design and crowd they have now, but obviously selling their guitars around $2800 has a lot to do with that too.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I usually hate solid black guitars, but man I like the look of this thing (minus the placement of that stupid killswitch).