The ESP Guitar Company

Surprisingly, we still talk to many people who aren’t aware that each year, the NAMM organization hosts not one but two shows. Pretty much everyone who’s ever picked up a guitar is aware of the well-known NAMM Show, which happens each winter in Southern California. But each summer, NAMM heads to the city with the appropriate nickname — Music City, USA — where the Summer NAMM Show is held in Nashville, Tennessee.

It’s a smaller show than its winter counterpart, but there’s something cool about that; it lets us spend more time with each visitor to the ESP booth. At least it does in a typical year. This Summer NAMM, held from July 9-11, 2015, was the most well attended summer show in seven years. Also, for our ESP dealers in the eastern half of the country, attending Summer NAMM is a shorter trip for them than the winter show, and we ended up being pretty constantly crowded and busy in our booth.

Hot New Models
Perhaps the biggest draw to our booth, beyond our sparkling personalities, was the introduction of several new lines of instruments that seemed to grab everyone’s attention. The LTD SN Series, available in several finish and pickup combinations in both Floyd Rose and Wilkinson tremolo versions, was a surprise hit of the show. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they are based on the popular ESP Snapper guitar which had previously only been available in the Japan market. We also had the new Koa wood-topped versions of the LTD EC-1000 and M-1000, beautiful guitars that are classy but still rock. On the bass side of things, we also had two more additions to the Bunny Brunel Signature Series, as well as the new LTD TL-4Z “thinline” chambered bass with a zebrawood top, and the LTD EC-314, and Eclipse bass in a cool-looking charcoal satin finish. You can get some info on the new models here, and we’ll be adding more details soon.

Acoustic Coolness with Takamine
Most people know by now that ESP took over distribution of Takamine guitars in the USA last March. We set up our booth along with our Takamine partners, and it was great to see all the love for the Takamine brand there in Nashville, where Takamine guitars are a huge part of the country music and songwriter world. In addition to Takamine’s great existing lineup, we showed the new EF340S TT and EF360S TT, two guitars made in Sakashita, Japan by Takamine’s Pro Series master craftsmen.

Happy People
One thing that’s always great for us when we go to a show like Summer NAMM: we are constantly reminded by people who visit our booth that ESP, LTD, and Takamine guitars are truly respected in the industry. Many people thank us for their successful endeavors in their live and recorded music. We certainly can’t accept the credit there; we’re constantly in awe of the amazing skills of the people who play our guitars and basses and make them sound great. Still, it’s great to be in a place like the Summer NAMM Show where we can be face to face with our dealers and customers who use our instruments. One thing you can count on for sure… we’ll be back in Nashville again next summer!