ESP Owners Club-Show Us Your ESPs!

[Mprinsje]

I'm just hyping myself up because I just closed a deal on a 90's ESP horizon, with Jackson Headstock. It's literally been my dream guitar for the past 10 years and it's the first one I've seen pop up in this country in quite some years, so I'm so happy I'm finally getting one!

I'll post some pics when I have it, along with pics of my other guitars from the ESP family of brands, I've also acquired two Edwards LP's, a grassroots Starr and an LTD 87 mirage over the last couple of years that I've never posted a picture of here.

 

[Captain Shoggoth]

Gave the Arrow some detailing with a mix of spare parts lying around, extortionate FR push-in arm, and some titanium FU-Tone bits. Also a Schaller Sure Claw although not really evincable beyond the hole I drilled in the backplate

Was never a fan of purple guitars. Now, time to pull out the wallet.
Damn you, ESP.

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Purple quilt with a maple board is always killer. Sensational!

 

[Samark]

Gave the Arrow some detailing with a mix of spare parts lying around, extortionate FR push-in arm, and some titanium FU-Tone bits. Also a Schaller Sure Claw although not really evincable beyond the hole I drilled in the backplate

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Purple quilt with a maple board is always killer. Sensational!

Looking really nice with the gold accents. @narad did the same and it looks stellar. Some nice MoP on there too. Awesome mate.

More pics of the purple M-II for those interested

 

[Samark]

What does everyone here think? I have a spare body around to suit. For the green, thinking either of the following

 

[narad]

I've added quite a few ESPs this year, but just randomly finding this one a lot of fun. For all the talk of multiscale 8s and stuff, I basically wound up viewing straight scale 8s as inferior instruments just because they're not as over-engineered as some of the latest offerings. But actually it's more fun to play than my old .strandberg* or my Oni. The Oni was basically about as good of a guitar as is possible, but 29.5" is asking for a pretty heavy commitment there.

Of course it'll probably be refinished...

 

[MAJ Meadows SF]

This is completely preemptive because I JUST bought it off Reverb, but too excited not to share. Anchang Star II from the Sado Custom Shop. The beveled V headstock is perfection in my eyes and needs to be on more models. That plastic diamond plate cover is coming off and this thing will get a complete refinish. The tips and points are in very good shape; only one chipped point that was reglued. I'm debating the refinish itself, which will depend on the capabilities of the person I go with. Crackle fade, alien blood splatter, combo, ultraviolet pink, etc. Something obnoxious. I'm glad this already has EMGs too, which was a preference for my custom shop order. I'm not the biggest fan of the KH bones inlays but hell, it is a classic. Anchang uses them on most of his SMG axes so I'll live with it. I saw one of these on hiendguitar.com for $4K; this was half of that and in killer shape!

There will be some OTHER custom shop goal now, maybe a VII with the V headstock or the RPR with a Floyd and single hum, in some insane finish. So yeah, preemptive but glad to be a REAL ESP owner finally! It'll hang perfectly next to the LTD SD-2.

 

[narad]

This is completely preemptive because I JUST bought it off Reverb, but too excited not to share. Anchang Star II from the Sado Custom Shop. The beveled V headstock is perfection in my eyes and needs to be on more models. That plastic diamond plate cover is coming off and this thing will get a complete refinish. The tips and points are in very good shape; only one chipped point that was reglued. I'm debating the refinish itself, which will depend on the capabilities of the person I go with. Crackle fade, alien blood splatter, combo, ultraviolet pink, etc. Something obnoxious. I'm glad this already has EMGs too, which was a preference for my custom shop order. I'm not the biggest fan of the KH bones inlays but hell, it is a classic. Anchang uses them on most of his SMG axes so I'll live with it. I saw one of these on hiendguitar.com for $4K; this was half of that and in killer shape!

There will be some OTHER custom shop goal now, maybe a VII with the V headstock or the RPR with a Floyd and single hum, in some insane finish. So yeah, preemptive but glad to be a REAL ESP owner finally! It'll hang perfectly next to the LTD SD-2. View attachment 120916View attachment 120917View attachment 120918View attachment 120919

That's awesome but I just want to warn you a little bit that there was one floating around in Japan that was a modified Edwards. Definitely do some diligence here, to the extent you can. It's a tough model to double check because I can't think of any obvious differences between them, but you want to make sure it's not that one.

Though this one has the sperzels, which is a good sign, and something about the look of the maple on the neck does seem more ESP than Edwards.

 

[xzyryabx]

Do they also fake the serial stamp in the back of the headstock?

That's awesome but I just want to warn you a little bit that there was one floating around in Japan that was a modified Edwards. Definitely do some diligence here, to the extent you can. It's a tough model to double check because I can't think of any obvious differences between them, but you want to make sure it's not that one.

Though this one has the sperzels, which is a good sign, and something about the look of the maple on the neck does seem more ESP than Edwards.

 

[narad]

Do they also fake the serial stamp in the back of the headstock?

I'm not sure, it was a while ago. If the guy hadn't been up front about it being an Edwards in the listing, I wouldn't have even known though. I can't think of anything different about them except the "Produced by ESP" stamp on the back, and the sperzels. The logos are just applied to the diamond pattern so it was an easy swap I guess. He'd have to have painted over the "produced by" stamp on the back of the headstock, so potentially that would be evident.

 

[Chri]

Gave the Arrow some detailing with a mix of spare parts lying around, extortionate FR push-in arm, and some titanium FU-Tone bits. Also a Schaller Sure Claw although not really evincable beyond the hole I drilled in the backplate

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Purple quilt with a maple board is always killer. Sensational!

Your collection here is making me mad jealous.
I'm gonna need some family shots.

I've added quite a few ESPs this year, but just randomly finding this one a lot of fun. For all the talk of multiscale 8s and stuff, I basically wound up viewing straight scale 8s as inferior instruments just because they're not as over-engineered as some of the latest offerings. But actually it's more fun to play than my old .strandberg* or my Oni. The Oni was basically about as good of a guitar as is possible, but 29.5" is asking for a pretty heavy commitment there.

Of course it'll probably be refinished...

I wish I could get over the middle pickup thing on these. Visually, and playability wise these rustle up my jimmies in all the right ways. The pickup config is just such a deal breaker for me.

What are you thinking of for the refinish?

 

[narad]

Your collection here is making me mad jealous.
I'm gonna need some family shots.



I wish I could get over the middle pickup thing on these. Visually, and playability wise these rustle up my jimmies in all the right ways. The pickup config is just such a deal breaker for me.

What are you thinking of for the refinish?

They make some in single hum you could go for. I love the dual HBs for looks. For sound, it's not very useful, so just treating it like single hum.

Hmm, not sure about refinish. Maybe add a floyd and do it in shell pink like Stef's. That's a cool guitar. I like metallics on horizons also, shows off the contours nicely. I could see maybe doing a metallic orange or purple.

 

[Chri]

They make some in single hum you could go for. I love the dual HBs for looks. For sound, it's not very useful, so just treating it like single hum.

Hmm, not sure about refinish. Maybe add a floyd and do it in shell pink like Stef's. That's a cool guitar. I like metallics on horizons also, shows off the contours nicely. I could see maybe doing a metallic orange or purple.

I use the neck pickup constantly, so 1 hum is usually a no go for me, too. I'll probably just bite the bullet and deal with it eventually. This is the perfect body and headstock combo for an 8 IMO.

I was actually going to suggest pink, but I remembered that you also just had the Horizon done in liquid metal pink recently
That's still my first choice, but if you opt not to go pink, I'd say metallic orange would be sick as well.

 

[MAJ Meadows SF]

That's awesome but I just want to warn you a little bit that there was one floating around in Japan that was a modified Edwards. Definitely do some diligence here, to the extent you can. It's a tough model to double check because I can't think of any obvious differences between them, but you want to make sure it's not that one.

Though this one has the sperzels, which is a good sign, and something about the look of the maple on the neck does seem more ESP than Edwards.

Agreed! That's good to know and I had a suspicion based on the ads on other sites. I've been scouring everything (eBay, reverb, search engines, ESP Japan's page, Big Boss, etc.), noting the differences between the sale postings, cases, condition, serial numbers and how they are applied, etc. Even paint, logos, etc. It's really hard to tell. Ebay had duplicates, different sellers posting the same instrument, easy indicators of fakes, Chinese copies, etc. It's such a dangerous site to get authentic anything off of. I saw someone posting a watch, an Omega Planet Ocean Skyfall edition with a "rare blue bezel and dial"- I could spot it was fake from the dial and pip, but also Omega never released a blue variant. I even asked them. So no eBay scores for me.

The Edwards neck plates have a number; the ESP versions do not, and only have a painted serial on the back of the headstock. It varies if they have an ESP sticker or logo (and different versions of the ESP logo) on the back of the headstock. Same with "made in Japan" stickers. One of Anchang's personal models does have an ESP made logo and one has nothing but the serial. The variation in the headstock plate pattern and logo is wide, making it very hard to spot a fake. It's going to come down to running the serial number and taking the thing apart. I found the person who previously owned it and they were sure it was real. I have someone who is going to do the once over while I'm still OCONUS to confirm or if I have to dispute it with Reverb and PayPal. If we've all been dupped, someone went through a hell of a lot of trouble to cover some sins.

 

[narad]

Agreed! That's good to know and I had a suspicion based on the ads on other sites. I've been scouring everything (eBay, reverb, search engines, ESP Japan's page, Big Boss, etc.), noting the differences between the sale postings, cases, condition, serial numbers and how they are applied, etc. Even paint, logos, etc. It's really hard to tell. Ebay had duplicates, different sellers posting the same instrument, easy indicators of fakes, Chinese copies, etc. It's such a dangerous site to get authentic anything off of. I saw someone posting a watch, an Omega Planet Ocean Skyfall edition with a "rare blue bezel and dial"- I could spot it was fake from the dial and pip, but also Omega never released a blue variant. I even asked them. So no eBay scores for me.

The Edwards neck plates have a number; the ESP versions do not, and only have a painted serial on the back of the headstock. It varies if they have an ESP sticker or logo (and different versions of the ESP logo) on the back of the headstock. Same with "made in Japan" stickers. One of Anchang's personal models does have an ESP made logo and one has nothing but the serial. The variation in the headstock plate pattern and logo is wide, making it very hard to spot a fake. It's going to come down to running the serial number and taking the thing apart. I found the person who previously owned it and they were sure it was real. I have someone who is going to do the once over while I'm still OCONUS to confirm or if I have to dispute it with Reverb and PayPal. If we've all been dupped, someone went through a hell of a lot of trouble to cover some sins.

Yea, it roughly checks out. I wouldn't trust the serial numbers though. Especially the neck plate stuff -- I can get one of those basically every other week here. And the serial numbers are easy to find. But it's actually pretty hard to nail the font on the serial, etc. If you can track that one as being in the CONUS for a few years though, that's pretty good. That's before the inflation and stuff that would have incentivized such frauds.

But anyway, I guess it's probably legit, and in that case, very much looking forward to the mods you get up to. I sold my black one to a guy who is way more metal than me and it really suits him, but I still miss it. It's such a badass shape with that headstock, and I'd still love to see someone do a crackle refinish on one.

 

[MAJ Meadows SF]

Yea, it roughly checks out. I wouldn't trust the serial numbers though. Especially the neck plate stuff -- I can get one of those basically every other week here. And the serial numbers are easy to find. But it's actually pretty hard to nail the font on the serial, etc. If you can track that one as being in the CONUS for a few years though, that's pretty good. That's before the inflation and stuff that would have incentivized such frauds.

But anyway, I guess it's probably legit, and in that case, very much looking forward to the mods you get up to. I sold my black one to a guy who is way more metal than me and it really suits him, but I still miss it. It's such a badass shape with that headstock, and I'd still love to see someone do a crackle refinish on one.

All true. There's only so much beyond hand inspecting that you can do. Here's to hoping; at the worst I'm not out more than what the lower ones cost (inflated of course) with shipping. The refinish will definitely happen and I'm like 90% sure it'll be a hi-fi crackle of some sort.

 

[madrigal77]

How are the newer LTD EC1000's compared to the old Standard Series? I've got an '05 Vintage Black Eclipse that I've had for years, but never really gelled with. Tempted to sell it and get this EC-1000T CTM. I like that it's FT and has SS frets, plus I'm a sucker for blue.

EC-1000T CTM

One of the world's leading manufacturers of high quality guitars and basses.

www.espguitars.com

 

[Kyle Jordan]

I've added quite a few ESPs this year, but just randomly finding this one a lot of fun. For all the talk of multiscale 8s and stuff, I basically wound up viewing straight scale 8s as inferior instruments just because they're not as over-engineered as some of the latest offerings. But actually it's more fun to play than my old .strandberg* or my Oni. The Oni was basically about as good of a guitar as is possible, but 29.5" is asking for a pretty heavy commitment there.

Of course it'll probably be refinished...

You thinking the Snake8 here or something else?

 

[101]

Do they also fake the serial stamp in the back of the headstock?

lol, holy hell
"there once was a guy that owned the only actual ESP Kiko sig..."

 

[narad]

You thinking the Snake8 here or something else?

Shell pink maybe. Metallic purple maybe? First question is if they'll ever refinish Stefs. Signature guitars require special checks.

 

[xzyryabx]

lol, holy hell
"there once was a guy that owned the only actual ESP Kiko sig..."

No idea what this means...