It would be interesting to have really in depth comparisons between various models and eras of ESPs, it's really hard to really figure out differences in quality etc outside the obvious spec variations. I'd love to see videos or posts comparing an MII from the 90s and a similar OS for example, pinpointing the QC, fretwork (although that might be hard to compare for a 90s guitar which might have fretwork done etc) etc. I've been considering getting a KH2 and I'm wondering how much of an upgrade if any it would be from my MII. Same for Eclipses etc... These are hardly affordable guitars and it's incredibly hard to find info on them honestly, just type ESP Original Series in youtube for size. And this thread really proves how much it's difficult to really get info and understand the different ESP tiers and the evolution of the guitars through the yearsThe funny subtext to this whole discussion is that you're having it with the two of the three or so people on the planet who love the pre-custom shop models so much they pay stupid amounts of money for ESP to restore their pre-custom shop guitars. And then trying to make us out like we're saying those guitars are shit.
No one's arguing that standard / EII aren't intended to be lower tier / lower quality. But actually if you were asking for some specific thing to point to that differentiates them hands-on, no one's actually able to say anything specific even for the tiers that are known to be cheaper to produce. And similarly in this case we know that manufacturing changed and the three custom shops were established and took over production of what was then named the custom shop and original series. You want to claim it doesn't make a difference who is building the guitars or in what shop with what tooling. I think it does. And I don't think the guitars before are objectively worse, because I subjectively prefer those guitars. But I think it's clear ESP over time switched to a higher price / lower output / longer build time process for their higher quality tier and the establishing of the custom shops was the start of that.
Well E-II was different in that it was just a rebranding of the standard series.