Any Info about this ESP Strat

Updated
Brad L.

I bought this ESP Strat copy in the early 90's from a co worker. I'm trying to firure out the aprox value because I plan on selling it. I asssume it's worth about $400.00 but I just wanted to check before I sold it. I never did learn to play guitar but stuck with keyboard lessons. ESP info does seem hard to find. This is an odd guitar, it has a Brass Nut and it had a decal that Said "Navigator" and I think esp on the neck. You can see vaguely where the decal was as the wood seems to have darkened around it. I was surprised it was a decal and not silk screened. Any thoughts you have would be helpful. Thank You

jt76

Navigator was the orginal production line of ESP guitars.  They split production into ESP and Navigator.  Navigator began producing reproductions of vintage american guitars and ESP began producing more original designs.   The early Navigators By comparison to the current production instruments vary in quality from the EII series up to the ESP custom shop guitars.   As far as I know they were all made in Japan.   I would say a fair estimate for a used navigator strat would be $600-$1400,  depending on the condition and model.     For you particular guitar,  the body does not appear to be a navigator ( because transparent blue is not a vintage spec color).  The bridge looks odd, greco made some unsual strat bridges at one point in time so It could be one of theirs.   The brass nut is definitely not spec.  The neck is a Navigator and  based on the tuners and string tree looks like a 54 / 55 strat copy.  Neck profile probably feels like a V near the headstock and turns into a C near the heal ( if my guess is correct ). But a U shape would also be common.   To me it looks like a parts caster.   To me $400 sound like a fair price, could be worth more I would have to look under the pickguard and in the neck pocket to give you more information.   

If a local guy was selling this on craigslist anywhere between $300 - $600, I would at least go by and check it out.    

 

Brad L.

Jt76

Thank you for taking the time for such a complete answer. In the next couple days I'll see if I can take a peek under the pick guard for any more details.

thanks again

Brad

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Brad L.

So I took a look inside. I don't see any markings on the pickups. The pots are marked ESP. The wood appears to be dark. The light color you see in there is some kinda dust that reflected off the flash.

 

Thanks!  Brad

jt76

looks like esp guts, hard to tell for certain but it looks correct from what I can see. My best guess is its a parts guitar made from what every was sitting around, possibly somewhere like the 48th street shop. nav neck with esp body, im thinking worth closer to $600. Probably a much better guitar than that but wouldn't get much more for it because it seems to be a bit of a partscaster.

Brad L.

Jt76

Once again thank you!

Brad

abbazappaplant

Hi all... sorry to necro thread, but this ugly hunk a junk just found its way to my door 

Anyhooooo, this bridge is definitely weird and sits directly on the wood of the trem cavity so it's really just a "dive-only" trem at the moment. I might replace it with a nicer bridge in the future, but for now, it works. 

The thought above that this is assembled in the nyc 48th street shop is probably 100% correct as there are no markings or serial indicators anywhere on it and appears to have spent its entire life in NYC. The paint is nitro which lends me to believe it was a custom order and the Navigator neck (even with a small gouge on the back at the 2nd fret) is as good as any I have ever played from Fender's custom shop. Action is super low with no buzzing and the frets are all completely level and have little to no wear on them.

I'm assuming this is from the ESPARTO days in the 80's as the body is mahogany and extremely heavy. Between the neck and the body is no shim and the joint is perfect. I'm guessing the pickups are ESP single coils, but i have absolutely no way of telling. They sound good, however as, lets face it, there isn't a lot of ingenuity in a single coil pickup and any company of the quality of ESP should be able to get a single coil right. 

Overall, it's a pretty fantastic guitar even if it's a bit beat up and i'll be holding onto this one for a long time to come.

Brad L.

Ha how funny.

Enjoy! Curious what you paid for it?

B

abbazappaplant

a few hundred.

This mutt is going to be disassembled. The mahogany body and maple neck is a weird combo. The neck is fantastic and now on an avri 59 sonic blue strat body.

I'm going to get a custom 22 fret neck to go with the body, haven't decided on materials yet (leaning towards rosewood neck with an ebony board) but a mahogany strat body needs a humbucker in the bridge (imo) so i'll get that routed and get the neck heel carved so it has that little extra upper fret access. The body is crazy resonant so i'm really looking forward to these two pieces making two great guitars. The neck on the fender body sounds incredibly good... very pleased with how this turned out.

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