Can someone fill me on this and why it's been posted for quite awhile with no takers? I've nearly hit buy on it a couple times but I don't know shit about ESP and have almost no need for a block heeled viper right now.
Old 90's "Custom Guitars" ESPs
- Thread starter Swarm
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MetalDestroyer
Heaven's Football Bat
May be overstepping my knowledge here, but who tf wants a knockoff bolt-on SG?
90's bolt-ons don't sell, I've seen Horizons sit for a year below that price
James wrote and recorded Kill'em All on a bolt on fake LP
.Edit: it was fake flying V actually, but you get the point.My brand new Alexi Scythe and the Pinky I also tried are just as good as an EII feel wise with the same neck profile as my SS Horizon at least for the Scythe. The fretwork is just as good as well. Aesthetically speaking the cavities are not as clean as an EII/SS and that's all I can say really, they're just as good otherwise. My bandmate swears his EX220 Edwards is not as good as his EIIs, hard to say for me as a lefty but it looks good. I just changed the FR1000 for an OFR and put an EMG 57 and a led killswitch in mine and it's my main live guitar now, replacing the aforementioned 90's MII. I don't feel like I made a step backwards honestly, it plays just as good and I'm quite picky especially with fretwork cause I need low action on the higher strings but this one is flawless playing wise. YMMV I guess but for what it's worth I have an Edwards Katakana and an EII Eclipse SW on order so that will be interesting, I'll be able to compare with a third brand new Edwards but the other 2 I played made me really confident. These are bargains to me, at least the new ones.
Nightside
I AM THE EMPEROR
The only Edwards I played that didn't wow me was the EX110 or 120 or something. Basically an MX250 shape with rosewood and transparent matt black finish. The two Alexis I played were awesome though. Right up there with the SS MII NTB and UC I had.
But I don't know if they were made in the Chinese custom shop or Japan.
But I don't know if they were made in the Chinese custom shop or Japan.
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
Well, comparing these two side by side-
(E-II is a 2019, Edwards is a 2022)
The fit/finish is very clearly done by the same people with the same products. Fretwork, overall finishing, everything is quite spot on between both guitars. The physical feeling of both guitars, outside of spec stuff, is identical. Like if you pick up an Ibanez and then pick up an ESP, you’ll note some smal differences in the textures of the guitars, the Edwards and E-II have no differences.
At this point I just chuckle at the varying descriptions I’ve heard of Edwards over the years. Anything from “worse than an Epiphone” to “better than anything coming out of the Gibson Custom Shop”. I just know this won’t be my only one and that’s all I gotta say about dat.
(E-II is a 2019, Edwards is a 2022)
The fit/finish is very clearly done by the same people with the same products. Fretwork, overall finishing, everything is quite spot on between both guitars. The physical feeling of both guitars, outside of spec stuff, is identical. Like if you pick up an Ibanez and then pick up an ESP, you’ll note some smal differences in the textures of the guitars, the Edwards and E-II have no differences.
At this point I just chuckle at the varying descriptions I’ve heard of Edwards over the years. Anything from “worse than an Epiphone” to “better than anything coming out of the Gibson Custom Shop”. I just know this won’t be my only one and that’s all I gotta say about dat.
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
Where does 48th Street Custom Shop Guitars play in all this?
Whenever I’d go to Manny’s/Sam Ash I’d stop in there and watch the guys working on guitars as their workshops were right up front when you walked in. Place was stocked full of ESP’s and I’m assuming a lot were made right there?
Whenever I’d go to Manny’s/Sam Ash I’d stop in there and watch the guys working on guitars as their workshops were right up front when you walked in. Place was stocked full of ESP’s and I’m assuming a lot were made right there?
Nightside
I AM THE EMPEROR
I'd like to know too. There's an 87-88 New York custom shop Esp Mirage I'm eyeballing in my local classifieds and I wonder if the quality is as good as the Japanese ones.
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
Maybe a mystery team grabbed my Edwards after it left Japan, stripped and refinished it to feel exactly like the E-II to confuse me when it arrived.
I know you get weird about your Edwards, but honestly thinking you can tell what and who applied a plain gloss finish is batshit insane.
Nightside
I AM THE EMPEROR
Nah I get what he's saying. Blindfolded I would never have been able to feel the difference between the RV350AL Alexi and the two Edwards versions we had. Visually, there were some tiny differences in details. I've read Esp trains workers in all their different factories to build shit the same way.I know you get weird about your Edwards, but honestly thinking you can tell what and who applied a plain gloss finish is batshit insane.
I had a 24 fret Chinese Ltd M10 and a MII standard series at the same time and was really surprised how well the Chinese version copied the real one. Same neck profile and feel. Same body and neck shape. Even all the little angles on the blade headstock were done correctly. I know when Ltd first went to Korea in like 99-00ish, the body and headstock shapes were way off for a few years. Like AliExpress counterfeit looking shit. Like those first Korean Jacksons from the performer series. You can tell the Japanese ones from the Korean ones because the Japanese ones have the proper body shape while the Korean ones look like someone eyeballed it without having a template.
narad
Progressive metal and politics
Well I don't know what you want to know exactly, but they should be pretty comparable. I've heard accounts of 48th street making guitars, but at the same time, I heard straight from ESP that most of the Dusseldorf guitars were MIJ parts... if I have to speculate I would imagine that'd be true for NY, too. I've had both, but I don't really know what the question is.
Of course they'd train them the same, wouldn't they? Not track one group to make nice guitars and another into a "pretty good but not as nice" building method, etc. But right off the bat you can tell that's not CS fretwork, for instance.
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
I know you get weird about your Edwards, but honestly thinking you can tell what and who applied a plain gloss finish is batshit insane.
Have we hit that point where, literally, everything on the internet is taken literally?
Do I need to clarify that I was referring to the same standards/finishing? Really?
Neither of them feel like alllll the Ibanez RG’s/JEM’s I’ve owned or any other brand, which have all been unique to that brand. It’s not a better/worse thing, just different. I don’t think that’s all that batshit crazy.
Two guitars having a similar level of fit and finish and assuming it is so because it was done by "the same people with the same products" and not due to industry standard process and materials is kinda nuts, yeah.
Nightside
I AM THE EMPEROR
Ime an LTD feels a lot more like an Esp than an Epiphone feels like a Gibson or Squire feels like a Fender. And the Japanese Jacksons had their own feel going on that I liked better than the two USA Jacksons I tried. The two Indian Jacksons I played felt the same as a bronze warlock.
