E-II, honest opinions?

Updated
luke b.

yo guys,

 

Honestly im struggling to see why ESP made this line, im sure they play great etc but why on earth would anyone spend £1000+ on a guitar that doesnt say ESP on the headstock? 

 

literally its the only thing putting me off owning one.

 

Opinions?

Matt W.

I changed strings today, it took a long time because of the locking tuners. I don't need or want locking tuners on a Single Cut. But after I got the strings off. The fretwork on the guitar is amazing for a guitar in this price range. If you know anything about guitars, this is very important. It's very time consuming to do. I'm going to buy a few more ESP's EII's, I'd like the Mystique next please.

Rikki Tikki Tavi

What's the score with the rattling pots?  I'm in UK, does it mean E-II Eclipse guitars intended for UK market have this issue?

Been thinking of buying one of these for months, nearly there, should be ordering in a month or two....

PRS Cust24 player at the moment, nice, but really fancy one of these, good to hear you guys like yours - any chance of some photos?

Rich.

Matt W.

These guitars are amazing for the money. I can't put mine down.

Rikki Tikki Tavi

Noticed folks talking about rattling volume/tone pots on E-II guitars.  I have a PRS Cust 24 (had it from new for about 5 years) and the pots on that have a bit of give in them e.g. they move slightly when 'waggled' but don't rattle when the guitar is played.

 

Anyone had this issue with E-II Eclipse?

 

 

regis101proof

No difference other than the headstock logo my esp e2 eclipse plays the same as my old eclipse ctm 1 

Its all gear snobbery it plays the same as the exact same esp counter part 

Matt W.

They more I play this guitar the more I love it.

Vladimir P.

I was gonna buy ESP Eclipse VB right after they renamed it to E-II, and I didnt know that yet. I had an LTD EX-400 guitar before and it sounded great. I am pretty sure noone could ever distinguish it from standard ESP in blind test. They are made of the same exact components and materials. And many people have compared them countless amount of times. So, OK, I decided to pay extra ~$1000 just for the brand. And now it's gone. Now they have two second grade brands. Cool. I hope the man made this marketing decision will be rewarded appropriately.

Matt W.

The rattling pots are very simple. They use split shaft USA CTS pots. They put a screw on knob, on a split shaft, of course it moves. I bought a scratch and dent for 1099, I took off the screw knobs, pushed on the proper speed knob. Better looking, pot problem fixed, saved $400.00. ANS has a S&D Honeybusrt for $1099.00, unless you love EMGs, the extra money between the EC1000, or the 401, is not that much. For a much better guitar.  

Rikki Tikki Tavi

Sorry if this sounds obvious but I've recently compared specs between E-II Eclipse and ESP Original (price difference of £2000, ish)

1)  Original has maple neck, E-II has mahogany

2)  Original has ebony fingerboard, E-II has rosewood

3)  Origianl has graphite nut , E-II has bone nut

Oh yeah, and the E-II says 'E-II' on the headstock rather than 'ESP'.

E-II sounds like a damn good guitar for the money to me.  Am I missing something?   

Jeremy D.

MOST of us know it doesnt matter what the logo is on the headstock to make a guitar great. WE GET THAT. The reason everyone is upset over the E-II series is alot of us dreamed for years about owning an ESP guitar. And when you dream of something for years and years antything short of that is gonna be a bit of a disapointment. So yeah I plan on buying an EII horizon III because I think its a kick ass guitar but on the other hand I'm still disapointed I couldnt get something that had ESP on the headstock because thats what I grew up dreaming about. And look I know we can all get ESP guitars still but they are just too damn expensive for me and alot of people now so thats why alot of us are bummed.

derek d.

i bought eii in reindeer blue for £1316 and its fantastic i saved a long time to have a high end guitar, i agree would have prefered ESP on the head stock though.

Robert F.

Headtsock logos don't make a guitar sound good. Chrome don't get ya home. 

I have guitars with Jackson and Gibson on the headstocks. My new Horizon III FR//FM does almost everything better than those guitars, and I payed less for it.

If you're into logo's buy a handbag. If you like tone buy a great guitar.

Rikki Tikki Tavi

Im not fussed about some of the negativity, mine's on order; E-II Eclipse.

Agree with the 'handbag' comment above. 

Here's something else.  Why would ESP or any other manufacturer charge the same money for something with the same logo?  If they make 3 or 4 different lines at different price brackets aimed at different markets then the logos or labelling will reflect this.

Maybe I'm wrong but not so long ago an ESP standard had the same logo as a higher end ESP, but with a big price difference, or is that not correct? 

I hope mine plays (I'm sure it will) as good as the LTD EC1000 I've tried, great for the money!  And I'm currently playing a PRS Cu24.

Dave P.

I get why ESP did the change E-II and agree it is a good move for them - BUT... they did it wrong!

If it weren't for various existing logo styles, they could have used lowercase (esp) and uppercase (ESP) to distinguish the higher end from the standard. This ship is sailed as it would be unclear now with the existing styles.

Use of ESP2 (smaller font on 2 as sub/superscript), esp2, ESP-II or ESPii would have kept the ESP name in play and more clearly identify the brand's origin and legacy - rather than introduce new and unknown E-II that those new to ESP will have to Google for (which may be the point).

ESP may be trying to get attention from other non-metal players where ESP is more known for metal and stigma of this may eliminate consideration by some - but E-II is new and these artists may try them and see they are more than just metal weapons???

Those worried of loss of ESP logo, get over it, it is an ESP - only when selling will it impact your resale from the half that don't know what it is - but most LTD ads list ESP to increase attention so E-II sellers will too.

The direction also boosts resale value for the old standards that have the ESP logo; if E-II sticks, in time the old standards may get blurred in with what is only top end instruments in the used market.

If E-II does not last (they switch to esp2 or back to ESP or ESPs... would the E-IIs value not go up as being rare from a short-lived period of ESP history?

To me, it would have been more clear if they kept ESP and marketed well so we all knew what the Standards are and that they all NOW have "Standard" written on them, where Originals would all have "Original" written on them, and Custom Shop... etc...

Marius M.

I've one of the few ST-1's that came with the original LTD Deluxe logo, not a fan of that but the guitar is a fantastic instrument, as good as anything I've played and better than many instruments that are a lot more expensive, it's become my number one super strat now, love it. Unless you're a total brand snob and care about resale and all that I wouldn't mind it.

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