The ESP Guitar Company

It's been a long since I'd like to share with you guys my custom Kirk's guitars, some of you know them more than others, in details or not, so, here they are :

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ESP KH-2 - 'THE MUMMY'

It's a 2003 KH-2 Neck-Thru from the Custom Shop (K0332502), that I picked-up in Holland, with the decal already applied by a professionnal, I picked-up this one 'cause it was one of the most accurate in the market (at this time I didn't know that I would began a monster movie collection ...)

I decided to bring it to the best luthier I use to know, and ask him to make me the real inlays that I draw in Photoshop (it tooks me maybe 3 weeks to get them proper...) and vectorized them. It tooks 10 months to the luthier to get the work done on the guitar, but the result is pretty insane and for sure unique on a "non-Kirk-Hammett-guy" guitar .

As you can see, I pushed the detail to his best, EXCEPT -> The number of knobs, I know since the beginning that the real one has 2 knobs, and mine is a KH-2 so .... It's a great guitar, it's neck-thru ... It sounds great, with 3 or 2 knobs.

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ESP KH-2 - 'WHITE ZOMBIE'

My first KH-2 ever, a Custom Shop Bolt-On from 2004 (K-23652). This is my first personnal custom, and the first try with my painter. I work hard to give him details from the Kirk's one and not form the ugly LTD (Sorry ESP for that ... but colors are washed and pickups unpainted).

Final inlays (Bat and spiders) are drawn, and ready to cut, but not done on the fretboard yet ...

This guitar sound terrific, it is close to my '05 KH-2 Vintage CS, and close to the Ouija's from the 90s'. 

The result was brilliant so I decided to bring him the next one ... 

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ESP M-II - 'The BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN'

This is an ESP M-II Neck-Thru from 2007. I added a slot for the 3-way switch and put the Tone knob on the old switch hole. I double-checked the placement of the knobs and they are ok, compared to the graphic too.

The painting process took nearly ten months, details and texts were hard to get genuine, and the covering of the pickups was REALLY tricky, but he took his time and the result is here. The main background colour (this freeking blue/green  ) was a difficulty, so we looked at it under different type of lights on pictures of live shows (Cold and warm lights ...) and we finally get it ! So we can clearly say that this guitar has 2 different colours depending on the ambiant light.

Final inlays (Bride's hair) are drawn, and ready to cut, but not done on the fretboard yet ...

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ESP M-II - 'DRACULA'

This is the same model as the BRIDE, an ESP M-II, I added the slot for the switch too (not a big deal for me now ). Kirk has 3 models of this type, A 2 and 3 knobs version of this graphic, and a "Dracula Big" version with 3 knobs if I remember ...., I chose the 2 knobs one.

We tried to get the texts properly done, with this "not so white" color, and all the backgroung fadings at the edges.

Final inlays ('Symetric' Bat and Crosses) are drawn, and ready to cut, but not done on the fretboard yet ...

This guitar has its personnal sound that I really like, nothing compare to the BRIDE, More bright and sharp. The BRIDE is rich and loud, with lot of mids.

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So I hope you will enjoy guys, do not hesitate to ask me for details, or question. You got more pictures of them on my profile, go check them if you want.

Cheers,

G.