The ESP Guitar Company

Gitarist Magazine is one of Europe's most highly-respected magazines for guitar players. Based in the Netherlands, the magazine offers everything you'd expect, including lessons, feature articles, and, perhaps most importantly, reviews. In the June 2019 issue, Gitarist Magazine got some hands-on experience with one of the finest guitars we make: the ESP USA TE-II Hardtail that we build here in Southern California. If you're fluent in Dutch, you could read the entire review, which is glowing from start to finish. However, we're going to go ahead and assume you are not able to read this language as well as you'd like to, so below is a translated snippet.

"The first thing you notice when you take the guitar out from the case is its weight. It is super light, 2.5 kilograms. Hit your first chord unamplified, and you will feel and hear the resonance of the TE II - a good sign. You also immediately hear the clear character of the guitar, mainly due to the combination of the maple neck with ebony fingerboard. In addition, the stainless steel frets also add to an extra clear sparkle. The nickel alloy that is traditionally used for fret wire usually sounds a bit warmer.

"When you connect the guitar, you hear this character immediately. A warm but tight low end with a clear top high edge. Played clean, there is a wide variety of tones to extract from the guitar, thanks to the coil split. The neck pickup has a warm, full tone, great for jazz or subtle chord work. The bridge pickup is brighter, and when switched to the single coil position, you can get a few convincing country licks from it. 

"The guitar can handle distortion and will sound fierce and aggressive, especially on the bridge pickup, with the advantage is that it will always punch through the mix. What is most striking about this guitar is its super articulated sounds. With heavy distortion in chords, you hear the individual note definition. Solos stand out. The response is very good and the guitar sounds evenly across the entire neck. Wherever you are on the neck, all notes have the same clear, speaking character. Furthermore, the guitar almost plays itself. It is not a very thin neck, but the action is super low. The heel is also slightly rounded so that it's easier to get to the high positions. You want to keep playing such a guitar.

Conclusion
"Even though the guitar looks at first look pretty sober, you notice that this is a quality instrument. It's in the details, the lightweight wood, the neck and finish. Someone has taken care of this creation. The chosen hardware contributes to the ease of use and the vintage-like pickups let the guitar really speak. With its stainless steel frets, it will take quite a few years to need a re-fret.

"It is not cheap, but this is possibly going to be a guitar you can use for your whole life. Also, since you can order the guitar with custom aspects with the online configurator, it makes every single guitar unique and personal."