Opinions on used ESP M1 Custom from the 80's
Opinions on used ESP M1 Custom from the 80's
The serial nos cannot be traced as records have been lost. mine is no 1026 stamped in the fretboard. the woods are on mine 3 piece maple neck through with ash wings and ebony fretboard and esp sinclair trem. There are some pics of mine on my profile. Some I think had maple wings and rosewood boards as well.
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Suppose it depends a lot on condition, I saw one go for £700 on ebay uk a couple of years ago, and they are not as common in the uk as the usa. However £800 seems very high for a guitar of this age. I would have thought £600 was nearer as for the £800 you could get newer esp model like the bolt on kh or pick up a Jackson soloist for that price.
Let me see... I paid $750(usd) or 800 for the yellow custom in insanely clean shape... and I traded a guitar I paid $500 for the red one. The red one had the finish stripped off the back of the neck and was in overall kinda rough shape.
I think $600-800usd is a fair price to pay for one in good shape. Got any pics of the one you're looking at?
I have an m1 custom and I love it. Mine came with the stock pickup bit the mini switch wasn't wired in. I now have an emg 85 with 18v and just ordered the emg booster to put on the mini switch. I have several old esp shredders but definately love the look feel and tone of the m1. The cutaway is amazing and mine being all maple is still a good solid weight which I like. I just finished refurbishing a black sinclair for it as in my pics I have a charvel trem since I don't have a bar for the chrome sinclair it came with. I would personally go with the m1 they are much rarer and the shred era esp guitars are the best crafted instruments just my opinion good luck ps I paid 750us shipped for my m1 a year and 2 months ago its what lead me to this forum and all the cool people and great info on all my esp
In my experience, the old ones just seem to feel, well, better... if that makes any sense. The fretwork was impeccable, fretboard woods looked nicer, etc... Funky I know you have some custom shop fiddles so those will get top notch materials anyway, but the standard series just seem weak in comparison to an older 'standard' model. Production numbers were much lower in the 80's which meant stricter/more controlled quality control... and as for the guys at the 48th St. shop... they got shit done right.
Mine's pretty sweet. I haven't tried many other ESPs from the era, but ones I did seemed pretty similar playing-wise to mine at the time. Over the years I haven't found/played a newer ESP/LTD I liked better than my M-I. Though haven't had the pleasure of playing the 2k+ models. Only thing I better bout the new ones is the recessed trems. I've gone back/forth with modding for that. Just been afraid to make any permanant changes to it...till maybe now.
Hi, I have one and personally think they are better than the new ESPs, Is it the neck through model? I paid around £600 for mine but it was well worth it. I also have a Jackson sl1 and ESP custom shop and its equally as good as them.