ESP Kirk Hammett guitar collection

Updated
ESP Kirk Hammett guitar collection

I finally had the opportunity to take a big family picture of all of my Hammett guitars.

I have posted pictures of these guitars here in the past, but the old family picture only had 9 guitars in it, this updated family pic now has 12 guitars in it.

**Not in this picture is my original bolt on 2001 KH2 that I couldn't fit in anywhere**

Nearly all of these guitars have not been touched or played for around 7 or 8 years now

I spent nearly 12 hours today playing, cleaning and oiling the fretboards on these guitars.

These pictures were taken before I cleaned and oiled them. Some of the fretboards were extremely dry.

I have never oiled any of these guitars in the past, not even my 16 year old KH2 which I purchased new.

A lot of these guitars took a lot of lemon oil to freshen up the fretboards.

Most of them now have much darker Rosewood fretboards that what you see in the pictures here. I will aim to get these all out once a year to oil them as it's a very dry climate where I live and it definitely needs to be done.

I have removed all the batteries this time for storage and the next time I will get this collection out again for pictures is when the new Demonology guitar arrives next year.

I hope you all enjoy the pictures and if there are any questions, please ask.

I have individual pictures of these guitars also which I may post up also.

Cheers




ESP 348
Lewis_08 wrote:

Fantastic collection!!

Thanks man.

ESP 348

Has anyone noticed just how dark the fretboards are on the KH3 and Zorlac?

I crapped on how dark I thought there Zorlac fretboard was in the last pics I posted up here many years ago, the pics I took in 2010.

Zorlac is a 1991 model and the KH3 is a 2003 model.

For the first time ever, I oiled these fretboards and had a real good look at both of them under light and in the sun etc and they both are extremely dark.

I am not sure if they are Ebony or someone dyed the Rosewood, but they are a lot darker than the Rosewood guitars I have here. If they dyed it, it's very hard to tell as I can't see any traces of Rosewood anywhere on the fretboard where they may have missed some.  *I don't know the procedure on how to dye a fretboard anyway*

When I purchased the KH3 earlier this year, the seller said his friend ordered it to "Kirk's specs" directly from the ESP Custom Shop in Japan. He ordered it in 2003, arrived in 2004. He traded it to the guy I purchased it from in 2012. So he owned it for 8 years or so.

When I asked the seller what specs this guitar had, he came back and told me- 24.75" scale, Rosewood fretboard and EMG 81s. The guitar definitely has the correct horn and 'open book' headstock that you can't see too well in these pics.

That doesn't look like a Rosewood fretboard to me. I didn't measure the scale, but I might quickly do that now before I put these guitars away for another 10 years lol

Any thoughts gents?

Lukie Luke

I agree with the KH3 fretboard colour man, had a NTB kh3 and it was mint, the fretboard was really really dark, much darker than both my kh2

Nathan S.



Any thoughts gents?

 

I think you need to play your guitars more!!!

Haha, seriously though awesome collection. 

Have to say, my favorite is the one that seems to be everyone's least favorite, besides the DC anyways,  the SE. I love the greenburst!!

ESP 348

Lol, thanks for your input Nathan.

Yeah, I do. I've had a great week while the Wife and kids have been away. They are back tonight. *sigh, no more guitars for a while*

Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it man.

The SE?? Yeah, I had a little 5 min play on it again the other day and I still don't think it's anything special. But I am sure it's under-rated and one day I will really appreciate it for what it is.

The colour is gorgeous on that guitar and I have shown some non-guitar loving mates these pics and they all seem to love the SE because of the colour.

ESP 348

Btw, anyone know how to measure the scale length on the KH3 with locking nut and FR trem?

I Googled it and didn't have much luck. Do you measure from the bottom of the locking bolts on the nut to the middle of the 12th fret and multiply by two?

I took some random measurements with what I Googled and the scale is not even 24" lol

Pushead

Top of the fret board to the 12th x2 would work.

ESP 348

Cheers Pus, will get onto it again and take a look.

Sephiroth

Nice to see you got updated pics up Pap 

You not doing a group photo now you have cleaned and oiled up the fretboards?

Turtle m.

Very nice collection. Which one is your favorite?

ESP 348
Sephiroth wrote:

Nice to see you got updated pics up Pap 

You not doing a group photo now you have cleaned and oiled up the fretboards?

Hi man,

Thanks mate, appreciate it.

Unfortunately, no. I didn't have time to take another bunch of pics before I put them all away.

They were cleaned before I played nearly all of them, I gave them another good clean and spent a lot of time oiling them lol

It takes AGES oiling the fretboards on all these guitars, some twice and some three times because they were so dry.

Doing all that oiling and cleaning consumed around 8 hours of may day. 8 hrs to clean and oil 13 guitars is a lot of work. I used half a bottle of my Dunlop Lemon oil in the process. lol

Sephiroth

You took all that time to oil them and make them look good again and then didn't take pictures!? dude you crazy lol

ESP 348
Sephiroth wrote:

You took all that time to oil them and make them look good again and then didn't take pictures!? dude you crazy lol

Lol, tell me about it.

All is not lost but, when the new guitar arrives one day I will get them back out again for pics.

With all the new KH guitars available to buy now, who knows..............I might need to buy a bigger couch.

ESP 348
Turtle m. wrote:

Very nice collection. Which one is your favorite?


Thank you for the nice words mate.

Which is my favourite?.........................ALL of them.

Nah, it's extremely difficult to pick a favourite.

They are all awesome guitars and I can't say any are actually shit, but I definitely prefer some more than others.

I love the look of the KH-20 and KH3, but I don't like playing the KH3.

The KH1 is pure 80's metal, but I have never plugged it in.

The quality of the KH-20 and white Ouija is amazing, the best I have ever seen on any guitar.

But I prefer the tone from the 2006 Vintage. That guitar just rocks and has sustain that seems to go forever.

Zorlac and black Ouija, both look great and are fun to play. Both are 90's and old school.

Man, I could go on for hours here!!

They are all awesome and each are just that little bit different which makes them all a joy to own and play.

Sephiroth

What's wrong with the feel of the KH-3? Also any different to the bolty version you sold?

ESP 348
Sephiroth wrote:

What's wrong with the feel of the KH-3? Also any different to the bolty version you sold?

 

Hi man,

Nothing wrong with it at all. I just much prefer the shape/feel of the KH2.

I LOVE the look of the KH3 as I mentioned. I think it looks awesome.

There is a difference in this one compared to the old bolt on one.

My 2003 Custom Shop was a Custom Shop order in Japan. The owner walked in and placed the order which I thought was pretty cool. Was around an 8 month wait to get it.

It has the correct horn and 'open book' head stock compared to my old bolt on KH3 which had the later horn and rounded head stock.

The CS KH3 *may* have an Ebony fretboard on it also. Or perhaps it has been dyed. I don't know man. It's very dark wood on it, although the person I purchased it off was friends with the original owner and he ordered it with Rosewood apparently. So I don't know man, take a look at my pics, it's definitely darker than the other Rosewood guitars in these pics and when you compare them in person.

I have never seen a dyed fretboard before, so I can't tell if this one has been dyed darker or not. If it has been, they did an amazing job because I can't see any obvious signs where they missed a spot on the fretboard or the sides etc. Who knows? Looks amazing but, Ebony is definitely my favourite.

Tone?? They both sounded very similar. Both sound awesome, the tone when in the neck PUP was very thick! I loved that tone, especially from the KH3 CS which is fresh in my memory from last week playing it.

The CS KH3 definitely feels nicer to play compared to the old bolt on one, the NTB gives great access. I am glad I jumped on it when I saw it for sale earlier this year.

MetallicaBeh

 

Here is my collection, I still cannot match ESP 348’s!!! Salute you ESP348!!

Big Daddy B

What numbers are your 09 Ouijas?

MetallicaBeh

Yup, that's 09 Ouija

 

Guitar_Hetfan

Oh My God !!!!!!!

ESP 348

Wow, what a collection you have there man.

Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it.

Will send you a PM.

Pushead

 

For Beh.

No idea why the forum rotated the images on the resize.

Synner

Very nice collection! Congrats!

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