The ESP Guitar Company

ESP > Edwards > LTD. I've seen that a lot of times on these forums, but the only reason I found (and remember, for that matter) was that ESP was handmade by one person, while LTD are made in assembly lines. But what about Edwards? You see, I'm planning on buying an Edwards E-AL-166 (because ESP is way too fucking expensive) from a Japanese website for roughly $1200 - the same price Sam Ash is selling the Alexi 600 LTD. 1. Is ESP > Edwards > LTD true? What makes Edwards worse than ESP, but better than LTD? 2. I looked at the specs, but the only difference between the ESP and the Edwards seemed to be the pickups (ESP: EMG-HZ H4 || Edwards: Seymour Duncan AHB-1b). Are there any other differences I'm not aware of? Can I change the pickups on the Edwards when I get it to EMG-HZ H4? If so, how much does it cost? 3. Is there any way I can buy the Edwards E-AL-166 in America? 4. Would I have to pay anything extra after I pay for the guitar itself? 5. Are there any good sites that sell the E-AL-166 for a good price? (The cheapest I've found was $1259ish, but I couldn't read anything on the site) By good, I mean 1. has extremely good shipping, and 2. has insurance (in case the guitar breaks or gets scratched during the transportation) Yeah, I guess those are all the questions I have so far. I think it's obvious that I'm pretty much clueless about guitars and their specs. xD