ESP Owners Club-Show Us Your ESPs!

[cardinal]

I’m sure this horse has been beaten, but do you notice a difference between your Originals and USA’s? I have a USA M-I that I love. Looking to add an Eclipse soon.

Amazing collection.

Not who you were asking, but I have an OS MII DX and two USA MIIs (one Deluxe, the other not). The OS is lighter both in weight and playing touch. Feels like the neck is thinner to me but I haven't measured. It's also more resonant and maybe has that bit of extra "mojo" to me. That could just be the wood selection differences. The USA fretwork is better. They all can get the action as low as you'd want, but the USAs can nearly bottom out the strings and still not choke out some how.

 

[cardinal]

Got this monster today

So far so good. Set up like a dream and no buzzing or choking out as I went down each fret























Guitar is heavy but well balanced. Great sustain and sounds real big despite the low output pickups.

 

[Samark]

Went digging to find more pics of this beast and found them via webarchive (Bmusic forum). That Koa Horizon is just (insert italian hands)

 

[narad]

Went digging to find more pics of this beast and found them via webarchive (Bmusic forum). That Koa Horizon is just (insert italian hands)

Yea but the 12th fret inlay makes me (insert Italian flailing hands)

 

[feraledge]

Went digging to find more pics of this beast and found them via webarchive (Bmusic forum). That Koa Horizon is just (insert italian hands)

View attachment 119129View attachment 119130View attachment 119131View attachment 119132View attachment 119134

Those are some incredible ESPs right there.

 

[RRD]

I’m sure this horse has been beaten, but do you notice a difference between your Originals and USA’s? I have a USA M-I that I love. Looking to add an Eclipse soon.

Amazing collection.

They're both great, there's no question about that. The USA bodies are thicker so consequently heavier. Fretwork is impeccable on both but I prefer the Originals - can't really say why but they just feel smoother/better. Necks feel similar enough to me comparing model-to-model. I have a slight preference for Original Eclipse vs the USA because of the thinner body and the body binding but like the split flag inlays on the USA a lot more visually.

Considering the prices and wait times for USAs these days, I'd go for another Original personally.

 

[RRD]

As an aside, added 2 more ESPs to the collection over the last month. Got an Original Horizon-III in Cast Metal Andromeda and a USA Horizon in Solar Flare (finally! 17 months from order to delivery, they beat their esti.ate by 2 months).

Pictures when I get back stateside.

 

[PuckishGuitar]

2 of my main players, have an Eclipse VB and LTD Viper-400 also that I'll take add pictures of later. Been really happy with them over the years, just absolutely fun to play!

 

[soliloquy]

Got this monster today

So far so good. Set up like a dream and no buzzing or choking out as I went down each fret























Guitar is heavy but well balanced. Great sustain and sounds real big despite the low output pickups.

Curious how you're liking it compared to other guitars?

 

[narad]

I had one for 6 or 7 years. Description-wise, I found it similar -- heavy, big-sounding, good sustain. Well built with no real flaws so to speak. But, as a vintage sounding Les Paul, it was not very good. It didn't have that honky mid range and brash top end. It had a flatter wall-of-sound type vibe IMO. Although I thought the construction was pretty authentic to 50s style LPs, maybe these would be good replacements for those wanting a more Norlin / Adam Jones sound? Just my take that for 60s/70s sounds, I'm much happier with a Gibson Historic. Mine also had the Seth Lovers in it, which I heard were pretty good PAF style, but maybe that was the issue.

 

[cardinal]

Curious how you're liking it compared to other guitars?

Its a very different thing. My other guitars mostly are MIIs and Eclipses with giant frets and thin necks. The Nav has lower frets and baseball bat neck. But it's great in its own way.

I do have a Duncan Distortion that I'll try to install over the weekend.

 

[works0fheart]

I know this is probably a dumb question, but even the custom shop won't do the lawsuit headstocks anymore right?

 

[narad]

I know this is probably a dumb question, but even the custom shop won't do the lawsuit headstocks anymore right?

I was told no on multiple occasions by multiple shops. But @Samark found a guy on instagram, also in Japan, who seems to have gotten a custom shop with a lawsuit (concorde) type headstock as late as 2021. I think I have to go to the shop this weekend (they say mine should be done), and plan to ask again with proof of that.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I know this is probably a dumb question, but even the custom shop won't do the lawsuit headstocks anymore right?

There seems to be different rules for "regular folks" and the super spenders and legacy artists or just plain folks with some sort of "in".

 

[narad]

There seems to be different rules for "regular folks" and the super spenders and legacy artists or just plain folks with some sort of "in".

I mean, I'm basically going to get to the bottom of this eventually, but I don't think that's true. There's a lot of cross-talk and confusion going on at ESP and I think it's possible somebody winds up (not through connectedness but some luck of the draw) to talk to the right people, maybe it's possible. But it's really hard for me to believe that, talking to the same person, 2 guys would get different options based on money or history. We can always counter-example when Lee tries to order a concorde headstock in 2023, but barring that it's hard to know. We actually don't have any evidence that anyone was ever treated differently though.

From my trip to BigBoss yesterday, we talked about this, and the guy we always talked to knows the guy who supposedly took the 2021 concorde headstock order. Basically 2 things,

1) The serial number is 2021, so the order could have been placed much earlier. How much earlier? Unclear. The wait times weren't exactly outrageous back then. But then again we have really no idea when the "cut off" on the concorde orders began. I remember asking, probably in mid 2020, about this and saying they couldn't take the order.

2) It's possible that the headstock has been changed slightly. To me, it looks like a regular concorde without binding. Also it was on a king V. I was told it may be possible to deviate a little from the regular concorde outline, but essentially order it. @Samark has a collection of photos of ESP concorde headstocks that aren't exactly that, and are a bit sharper along the points like a Jackson, but still not a Jackson because of the angles. Maybe something like this would work.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I mean, I'm basically going to get to the bottom of this eventually, but I don't think that's true. There's a lot of cross-talk and confusion going on at ESP and I think it's possible somebody winds up (not through connectedness but some luck of the draw) to talk to the right people, maybe it's possible. But it's really hard for me to believe that, talking to the same person, 2 guys would get different options based on money or history. We can always counter-example when Lee tries to order a concorde headstock in 2023, but barring that it's hard to know. We actually don't have any evidence that anyone was ever treated differently though.

From my trip to BigBoss yesterday, we talked about this, and the guy we always talked to knows the guy who supposedly took the 2021 concorde headstock order. Basically 2 things,

1) The serial number is 2021, so the order could have been placed much earlier. How much earlier? Unclear. The wait times weren't exactly outrageous back then. But then again we have really no idea when the "cut off" on the concorde orders began. I remember asking, probably in mid 2020, about this and saying they couldn't take the order.

2) It's possible that the headstock has been changed slightly. To me, it looks like a regular concorde without binding. Also it was on a king V. I was told it may be possible to deviate a little from the regular concorde outline, but essentially order it. @Samark has a collection of photos of ESP concorde headstocks that aren't exactly that, and are a bit sharper along the points like a Jackson, but still not a Jackson because of the angles. Maybe something like this would work.

ESP gonna ESP

Even back in the 90's and early 00's, when I still worked with an ESP dealer, pretty much every rep you'd talk to would give you different rules, options, and pricing.

It definitely gave the impression that who was talking and who you were talking to could lead to all kinds of different outcomes.

That's not entirely unheard of with the big legacy shops.

I don't know what's worse, favoritism or luck.

 

[narad]

ESP gonna ESP

Even back in the 90's and early 00's, when I still worked with an ESP dealer, pretty much every rep you'd talk to would give you different rules, options, and pricing.

It definitely gave the impression that who was talking and who you were talking to could lead to all kinds of different outcomes.

That's not entirely unheard of with the big legacy shops.

I don't know what's worse, favoritism or luck.

If it's luck, I just need to roll more dice, and given the amount of times we go to these shops I'm probably guaranteed to get it done some day lol

But ya, one shop notoriously said they could not change logos (as of 2021, because I changed logos on my first refin from silver+gold drop shadow -> black) and because the logo on that guitar I brought in was old and out of stock, they were saying they could refinish it but couldn't put a logo on it. Then recently I was in a different shop, and they took a refinish order with a logo change. Then I tried to change the logo on an existing refinish order at the first shop citing this, and now I can't change logos at the second shop. So they do seem to move to a policy consensus over time

 

[Dudley]

Threw some bigger strings on my Original Series on my lunch break today and tuned it down to C#. Satisfying chugs were had.

 

[JD27]

Threw some bigger strings on my Original Series on my lunch break today and tuned it down to C#. Satisfying chugs were had.

What original series model is that. Not sure I have ever seen a hipshot on one, just FRs and TOMs.

 

[Dudley]

What original series model is that. Not sure I have ever seen a hipshot on one, just FRs and TOMs.

M-II CTM NT

M-II CTM NT /E | ESP GUITARS

スルーネック／エボニー指板／EMG PU／ダイレクトマウント／ヒップショットフィクスド 仕様のM-II CTM

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