2013 ESP Eclipse Concerns

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2013 ESP Eclipse Concerns

Hello there,

 

I am posting here with a few questions because there's no body else who can really help or offer adequate information in my area. I finally saved up and bought an ESP Eclipse about a year ago, hoping to snag one of the last 2012's, (ordered in January 2013) and I ended up getting a 2013. When I first bought it a few things jumped out at me. From what I can remember, 2013 was the year they decided to change some things up. They took the beautiful whispy ESP logo and changed it to the blocky silkscreen one, which I grew to just accept. The tuners were also changed, from Sperzels to Gotohs, which are a pain in the neck to even deal with and they rarely stay in tune. Anyway, despite all of the random changes which I did not agree with, I really enjoyed playing the guitar. It sounded great, and played better than any guitar I had ever played up to that point. 

 

However, recently I have been getting even more concerned about the guitar. The low E has terrible fret buzz on 17 out of 22 frets. I was wondering if this may be traced back to the strings I put on it which are Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottoms, as the Low E does not fit snuggly into the nut slot, it kind of just rests on it due to being a beefier string. I'm thinking perhaps the string may be too big? Can I seriously not put any string I want on a $2,000 guitar without horrible fret buzz? My buddy has an LTD Eclipse with the same strings, it plays fine, no buzz. I am going to try and switch the strings out to a smaller size later on this weekend, maybe that will fix the buzz but I'm used to playing larger lower strings. 

 

If anyone has any experience with this, any advice would be appreciated. I still love the guitar but if this problem persists, and it's an intonation problem I'm just selling it for a 2012 or older. I've played countless older ESP's and have fallen in love, hope mine is not a lemon!

Pushead

Take the guitar to a reputible tech and have a setup done on it.  It's likely that you need to have the low E slot widened on your nut.  While it's there, they'll adjust the truss rod and set your intonation.

Samuel P.

AFAIK the Eclipse is set up for 10-46s, at least mine was. Its risky business installing 10-52s on that guitar without having the nut tweaked, especially on a premium guitar where the nut slots are usually cut properly and are more snug.

I learned that the hard way years ago after going from 9-42 -> 10-46s, the low E slot cracked and I had to get a new nut installed.

 

Conanthewarrior

Hi mate, unfortunately no matter the cost of an instrument, if you change gauge generally you will need it set up for adequate relief, intonation, etc when changing string gauge, and also changes to the nut, as the guitar comes standard with 10-46, so the nut slots will need to be widened for a fatter gauge.

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