ESP The Horizon Authenticity Question

Updated
Dire

Hello,

First I want to apologize if this post isn't in the corect location, I didn't know if I should put it here, past models, or in custom shop.

Anyways, I am going to try and give all the info I know so far:

Bought an used ESP Horizon and I have been unable to find any information or anything that looks close to this guitar. 

The title on the Guitar Center website read: "ESP 2000s The Horizon Solid Body Electric Guitar - Japanese Market Custom, Wilkinson Tremolo, Sperzel Locking Tuners"

When I spoke with them on the phone they told me it is a custom shop guitar possibly made for an ESP NAMM show. 

The Serial is very difficult to read and is four digits just above the machine heads for the D and G strings: 1192

I opened the back up to have a look and discovered the guitar is also hollow except for the center block.

With all the experts here I am hoping someone can shine some light on this guitar for me.

Thank you so much for any assistance and pleaase let me know if I should repost else where and if there is any information I can give you.

Dire

Pushead

Well, it's certainly not a production line guitar.  The logo still looks wonky to me, as does the location of the "The Horizon" decal.  Headstock seems off to me as well.  I'm used to seeing nicer wiring in an ESP, but the pickups and electronics could have been replaced at some point.  The hardware seems nice, the Sperzels and Wilkenson are legit.  It's hard to say what the pickups might be.

Might be Japanese market custom build as GC says, but there's enough oddity to get me to pass without seeing it in person.

Hopefully, The Mod™ can turn on the "full size" photos for a better look.

Alex Prado

Sorry, Dire. But I am almost sure that it's an imitation. First I don't remember any ESP Horizon saying "The Horizon". Second, the pickups are not Seymour Duncan. My understanding is that ESP works with Seymour Duncan or EMG pickups. And I don't remember that kind of bridge in an ESP Horizon model. However, I have not seen all Horizons in the world...maybe someone from ESP can confirm the authenticity. Good luck!

Dire

Thank you both for the replies! Yeah hopefully an ESP employee sees this and hops in. I also decided to shoot them a message through the contact support link.

 

I also discovered it has the ability to pick up radio stations when the gain is up. Yay!

Pushead

In the late 90s, they did have "The Eclipse" on a few guitars, so the idea of "The Horizon" is not off-base.  Again, a custom order (which nearly all Japanese market guitars are) can have any hardware or pickups, they don't necessarily need to be SD or EMG.

Something that leads me to lean a bit toward it being legit (or at least a quality made guitar) is that it isn't particularly easy to make a semi-hollow bodied guitar.  If someone was going to make a fake to pawn-off on the public, I'd think they'd just stick with solid-bodied guitars.

Dire

Thought I would update.

I just recieved this via email from ESP:

"Thank you for contacting ESP Guitars. We apologize for the delay in our response, but this particular instrument required a few extra pairs of eyes. Based on the photos provided, we have determined the instrument in question appears to be a legitimate ESP that would have been built in Japan in the late-1980's or early-1990's for overseas markets. It does not match the specifications of any regular production model of the time, and was therefore most likely a custom order. Unfortunately, due to inconsistent record-keeping over the years, we would be unable to provide any further specifications or production date information.
We apologize again, and hope that this limited information is helpful. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.

Best regards,"

 

Thank you for all the help guys!

Pushead

If ESP says it's legit, I'm not going to argue.  Seems interesting enough for me, and the price seemed right to me as well.

Dire

"appears" isn't exactly the confirmation I was looking for and with out being able to find any info on it I think I am either going to try and negotiate a much lower price or return it. I have another horizon that should be here momentarily ... the suspence is killing me. about $400 is the most I'd go considering it pretty much needs to be gutted, new pups, wires, knobs and authenticity in question... that would bring me just over 600-700 and I don't want to lose my butt on this thing.

chris effect

Have you taken a look at the baseplates on the pickups?  I'm curious as to what they are.. could be Duncan 59's   -  It's nice, an oddity for sure.

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