The ESP Guitar Company

just jumping in for a rant - don't read this if you don't want a
bunch of opinionated nosense, (also my grammer is shit and I know it so don't bother giving me crap about it )

some of yall gonna hate me over this but

Wtf - ltd is damn good,
ltd elite is probably damn good,
I bet eII is damn good - but havnt tried one.
Im sure eIII and eIV, grass roots super special
and edwards exta plus ( assumtion of possible future branding products)
will be damn good.
Esp SS is good
ESp Custom is good
-- thats why we are all here .... I think

just bought a made in vietnam vintage black 256, its a bunch of crappy wood glued together, it has cheap hardware, and just generally looks cheap. cheap pots bad electonics and gb pickups. But the neck and frets are up there with my real esp's. I put duncan custom 5's in it. It sounds awsome, in my processor, my fender, my mesa ....It now one of my favorites. I like it better than my esp eclipse.
yes I just said that. Sorry if that angers you.

Here is my take, I own or have owned all kinda stuff from dirt cheap to custom shop. I truly belive all you are paying for in a high end instument
is the craftmanship. a beautiful instument, where every attention to detail is considered. not always the sound or playability. a good nut, bridge, and pickups can make any guitar sound good enough, especially at stage volume in the mix. and many cheap guitars can play well with a decent set up. I love guitars that are perfect, for home personal use. But going crazy on stage with a peice of art just doesn't work for me. give me a couple hundred dollar beater with some decent pickups in it, that I don't have to worry if I dent it, break it, or if it gets stolen, and
I can play a lot better, because I am not worried protecting the guitar.

from my experience ranked in order of quality

ltd - china - some good, some crap - play a 100 and 10 will be good and 1 will be outstanding for the price - I almost bought an f10 ( I think that was the model ) it was a killer guitar and I think $150 or so new.
I have played other made in china that I would burn.

ltd - indonesia - medeocer acoss the board but good for the price
-- ive not ever bought one

ltd - vietnam - amazing fret work and a great value, but bad hardware and bad detail wise, not well wired, don't like the shopworn that they have been doing until this year, but I own 3 of them anyway.
at $200- $300 used market they are really really hard to beat.

ltd - korea - really good but whish they had better hardware

ltd elite - is made in japan - mass production.
( I have not played one of these)

early ltd - ( japan or early korea ) -in my opinon these are close or better than some of the standard series they are making now ( the later ones started getting duncan designs and cheap hardware but are still really nice with some easy upgrades, the early ones had esp pickups - the good ones they were putting in esp's at the time and shaller, gotoh,or sperzel hardware ). by the way when I say better than the standard series I mean in playablity ( not overal quality)

esp SS current - is made in japan - made by esp with care and up to their standards, just not in the custom shop, beatiful guitars with awesome attention to detail even if I don't find them more functional than the early ltds

90's or earlier esp - I just like the necks and fret work and material selection better than whats
coming out now.

esp cutsom - is the shit period. a totally different guitar. I own one,
I love it, I would own more If I had an unlimited cash supply


wood and configuration -

maybe there is something wrong with my ears but emgs, sound the
almost same to me no matter what the wood or setup type is ( neck thru, tom, floyd ect.) , and that is what almost everybody seems to use. so wtf.
Now after saying that - let me contradict myself
if I have to choose wood for emg's I like light wood like a basswood with a fender style hard tail,
because keeps things bright and seems to get real crunchy. If I was going for tone I would use passives.

with humbucker passives I like ash and mahogany - floyd or tom
with single coils - alder or ash with a tele or strat bridge

I don't understand the rebranding, or why they have different insturments available in different markets. and I hate the new logos.
also I am severly pissed that they are limiting the already limited selection
of standard series.

I wish they could just get passed all the branding and focus on making
bad ass guitars.

In general i can usually tell in a minute or two if I like a guitar and if it feels right to me I don't care who's name is on it,
where it was made or what it cost. For me 90% of the time they say either esp or ltd.

I don't know who made my guitars, or where the wood came from
but they sound good and feel awsome so I don't care

by the way I have been ranting so long I don't even remeber the post I was initially responding to,

GG2, even though you own the only left-handed Snakebytes ever built, your guitars are shit because they have African mahogany and not the Honduran kind.

The only ones ever built? Incorrect, but carry on

GG2, even though you own the only left-handed Snakebytes ever built, your guitars are shit because they have African mahogany and not the Honduran kind.

are you drunk?? :rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin:rollin

My LTD Elite M-II is as nice as any ESP I've owned. Granted the older stuff is a lot better than any of the new ESP's, the attention to detail, fretwork, and overall build on the Elite is awesome. If it didn't have the LTD designation on the hs, you'd never know. Most of the World-built high end LTD's always have something up with them, be it crappy fret dress, minor finish flaws, etc, but the Elite does not have any issues.

Thats good to know. I have a Horizon III in the blue on order but if it lives up to my expectations I will definitely be following it up with the MII as well. Which one did you spring for the burst or the trans black? I have my eye on the burst.