This has to be a fake ESP?

[693]

I just came across this on a Norwegian sales site. It looks wrong all over. Glues fretboard on a maple neck? That floyd cavity on the back?

https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=144677969

What do you guys think?

Cheers

EDIT:
Also looking at the body there is a cutaway there at the back for the high frets, they did not have that at the time. LTD body maybe?

 

[Descendant]

If 7500 krona is 800 USD, there's no way a legitimate ESP guitar would go for a price that low. I'd suggest steering away.

 

[693]

I have mine up for 7000, and it's real. The used marked for ESP is not so good now-a-days in Scandinavia.

 

[StevenC]

Looks like an abused and modified ESP to me, maybe it's been refretted. I'm no ESP expert, but there's nothing here that screams fake.

 

[hamster]

This must be an upgraded fake made a few years ago when most Weifang (the Silicon Valley of MIC guitars, and fakes) factories where not using CNC routers : manual and imprecise trem cavity routing, poor fretboard assembly, low-res headstock logo...

 

[jephjacques]

Agreed, they made maple boarded MIIs, looks like it got an 18v mod and mayyyybe a new fretboard at most. Seems legit enough to me.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Tuners and backplate are throwing me for a loop. a 2006 M-II is supposed to have black hardware, not cosmo black.

 

[Zado]

Why bother? It's black, we all know the coolest M-II comes in White

 

[hamster]

Also, Such guitars often appear on famous Chinese websites :

 

[AlmaMater]

I would also say that is is legit. Had the same model but with a rosewood fretboard (Cost me 1000 EUR new back then in Chile [Official Dealer]). You could ask him for some paper work maybe? I do see the fret job kinda weird but nothing that screams fake as mentioned earlier.
The Maple version came with S Duncans as stock (JB and 59)

 

[Ikke]

Looks real but heavily modified.

I’m sure you could just find an M-II DX/M though. Probably would be the safer bet.

 

[Viginez]

i'd say it's real, but heavily modified. new nut, pickups, pickup rings, battery-cavity, possibly refretted. the stamp seems ok.
800usd is normal for a used m-ii.

 

[angl2k]

Doesn't scream fake to me, looks like it's just heavily modded.

800 usd is a fair price in that state it is in imo.

 

[693]

Well, I have never seen that cutaway on the back, or routing for the cover on the back. If anyone has a picture of the back of an confirmed real onbe with those I would consider it? Looks like an LTD body to me.

 

[hamster]

I maintain my claim that this guitar is 100% fake. Please look at how irregular the neck/body junction is, the neck pocket routing is indeed really imprecise (obviously, all these chips and irregularities can't be the result of years of regular use of the guitar, this is simply poor craftsmanship) :

Please take a look at the locking nut position. It is not correctly centered, there is a 2-3mm space on its right side...

No modern Japanese factory would ever produce a guitar with such blatant irregularities !

 

[StevenC]

Please take a look at the locking nut position. It is not correctly centered, there is a 2-3mm space on its right side...

No modern Japanese factory would ever produce a guitar with such blatant irregularities !

There's a whole thread in the ERG section where we go over how locking nuts aren't the full width of basically any guitar neck. Some of us found it devastating.

 

[hamster]

There's a whole thread in the ERG section where we go over how locking nuts aren't the full width of basically any guitar neck. Some of us found it devastating.

I agree with the fact that locking nuts aren't the full width of basically any guitar neck. However, the particular case we are dealing with would be quite extreme for an ESP guitar, don't you think so ?

 

[1b4n3z]

That nut issue is typical to M-II, it's a R2 nut on a R3 wide neck

Edit Even the manual has a drawn depiction of it

 

[hamster]

That nut issue is typical to M-II, it's a R2 nut on a R3 wide neck

Edit Even the manual has a drawn depiction of it

My bad, I did not know this at all, sorry.

 

[angl2k]

Here's a pic of my custom shop M-II:

https://snag.gy/6yx4HA.jpg