Esp ltd deluxe fm-1001 color variance(translucent black)

[Vince Caruana]

I've came across this guitar on the esp website and the thing looks gorgeous. It has flamed maple top that has a dark grey and almost purple look to it with a dark ebony like rosewood fretboard. In the process of looking into this specific model and color I came across a video on youtube of a guy who bought the same model. His model looked NOTHING like the photo on there site and he was so pissed he sent it back, don't blame the guy. I know there obviously is a lot of variance with flamed maple tops especially with the one they choose for the photo before they process the hell out of it but this guys guitar looked like a very pale almost greenish color. The ebony like fretboard looked very patchy, faded and very light. So all in all, I would love this guitar but don't want to go through what this poor bastard did. How did your guys guitars match to one advertised? The rosewood, flamed maple top and all. Also any good companies to go through regarding return policies? Here's a link to this guys experience with his purchase, worth looking into if your interested in this model and finish as well..

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pnV0kDPsy3Y

 

[gunch]

There are many factors involved when it comes to consistency with transparent finishes, doubly so with fretboards. It's not like they're going to go "SCREW IT SEND IT THROUGH" but they're not going to be poring over every piece with a magnifying glass either. They're about efficiency and throughput on their production line.

Also published photos on official websites are either:

A.) Purpose built or cherry picked off the line
B.) Doctored to hell and back

Also most import guitars come with really dry rosewood, some mineral or lemon oil would work magic.

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

silverabyss is pretty much right on the money; website photos are doctored quite a bit and at best only represent one specific guitar that they have complete control over as far as looks go. It's like going to McDonalds and complaining that the bigmac looks nothing like the picture. Yes, in some cases these types of complaints are justified (depending on what the item is). I think in this case it's moderately justified.

It's always a good idea to try and find actual photos of the guitar you are looking to buy so you can see what some real-life examples of the guitar look like. I have seen some H1001's and even played a H1007 with this finish that looked much much closer to the stock photo (body color and fretboard color). LTD H1001 guitars are often very well built guitars and are worth the dough. Google some photos or see if a local shop stocks them and order one if you like the looks of it! If you get something that doesn't look close to what you want then send it back like this guy did.

 

[feraledge]

This might not help much, but just to add to what everyone else here has said, from my experience burst flame tops are hard to photograph. Even more so than quilted tops. That makes it more likely that there are filters used when photographing them, more time spent on using the most ideal lights when taking photos, and use of photoshop to help bring out the finish.
I had a few burst flamed LTDs that looked amazing in the right light and looked straight gloss black in some live shots.
There will definitely be differences in how they turn out, but if I was a manufacturer, I'd make sure that the photos really let the flame show. That takes a lot more preparation.

 

[Neilzord]

As said Alot of it is down to over edited photo's, or even just photo's taken with a different white balance setting or daylight vs spotlights etc.
I think the best bet when buying a guitar like this is to look on google, and then expect anywhere inbetween the various colours you see. (I saw this same thing when looking for my LTD!)

For example many places advertise the LTD MH1000NT in trans blue to look like this....

ESP Ltd MH-1000NT STB See-Thru Blue

But when they turn up they will look more like this...

ESP LTD MH-1000NT

Again I could take both of those photo's, of the same guitar and get both of those results so alot is just down to the pictures.


As said about the "pale" neck - that can be sorted relatively easily by treating the fretboard. A few of my guitars had the pale looking necks due to being very dry, I Applied some fretboard Re-Hydrating fluid to them and they are much better. Something like lemon oil would no doubt come up even better!