MoonJelly
a subtle stinging sensation..
Been listening to a lot of 90s to 2010ish thrash and doom, and it reminded me of how cool dudes like Peter Steele looked with those ESP Forest basses (although Pete's main axes were an Esh and a Washburn). Also bass riffs in general have just been standing out a lot in my recent listening experiences, so I've been thinking about going down that rabbit hole.
I figured I would browse the used market and see if I could find a legit ESP for a decent price. There were a couple Reindeer models that were pretty cool, but then I came across this one:
Yeah you can see I bought it about a week ago. I thought depending on the condition it might be easy enough to swap out the electronics if everything was fried. Cosmetically it seemed fine. I asked the seller if he knew what was wrong with it and he just said he was playing it and it cut out, and all he knew is it wasn't the battery
I pointed it out to a friend of mine (another amateur luthier and a mechanic) that this one was about 500 bucks less than a working one and I thought if it was just a wee bit cheaper I'd jump. He recommended I offer the guy 750 and see what happens. Welp I offered that and boom--offer accepted. Shipping estimated it would arrive by mid-May.
Imagine my surprise when it showed up from Japan 4 days later. It wasn't packed super well and I was a bit nervous as this was a 'pointy' type and I've seen a lot of chipped headstocks/horns on these at musicians friend
but the box was pristine. The gig bag it came with turned out to be genuine ESP as well. I unzipped the little front pocket first because it seemed like it wasn't totally empty. Here's what greeted me:
So that's a bonus now I know when it was made and where it was purchased!
When I cracked it open I was not disappointed. All in all it was pretty dang lovely for 750 bucks...
So the paint seemed pretty good for a 12+ year old instrument. Mostly all I could find was minor play wear and it should glow up with a little Meguiar's. The neck was also lacquered and it appears to have shrunk into the grain a bit, which actually highlights the nice quartersawn fb. Not sure whether it's rosewood or just streaky ebony, but it has some nice fine grain and lots of medullay rays that are pretty easy to see when the lacquer is reflecting the bits of grain.
Some tinkering to follow, I don't know yet if it will warrant gutting the instrument completely, but if so the Frank Bello EMG set looks nice.
I figured I would browse the used market and see if I could find a legit ESP for a decent price. There were a couple Reindeer models that were pretty cool, but then I came across this one:
Yeah you can see I bought it about a week ago. I thought depending on the condition it might be easy enough to swap out the electronics if everything was fried. Cosmetically it seemed fine. I asked the seller if he knew what was wrong with it and he just said he was playing it and it cut out, and all he knew is it wasn't the battery
I pointed it out to a friend of mine (another amateur luthier and a mechanic) that this one was about 500 bucks less than a working one and I thought if it was just a wee bit cheaper I'd jump. He recommended I offer the guy 750 and see what happens. Welp I offered that and boom--offer accepted. Shipping estimated it would arrive by mid-May.
Imagine my surprise when it showed up from Japan 4 days later. It wasn't packed super well and I was a bit nervous as this was a 'pointy' type and I've seen a lot of chipped headstocks/horns on these at musicians friend
but the box was pristine. The gig bag it came with turned out to be genuine ESP as well. I unzipped the little front pocket first because it seemed like it wasn't totally empty. Here's what greeted me:
So that's a bonus now I know when it was made and where it was purchased!
When I cracked it open I was not disappointed. All in all it was pretty dang lovely for 750 bucks...
So the paint seemed pretty good for a 12+ year old instrument. Mostly all I could find was minor play wear and it should glow up with a little Meguiar's. The neck was also lacquered and it appears to have shrunk into the grain a bit, which actually highlights the nice quartersawn fb. Not sure whether it's rosewood or just streaky ebony, but it has some nice fine grain and lots of medullay rays that are pretty easy to see when the lacquer is reflecting the bits of grain.
Some tinkering to follow, I don't know yet if it will warrant gutting the instrument completely, but if so the Frank Bello EMG set looks nice.
