Man to wolf.

Updated
Man to wolf.

Hi.

Does anyone know about the Man to wolf is in the Esp museum in Tokyo? 

EXPcustom

I believe it is Hetfield's old one that is on loan to ESP. I remember it was at NAMM 2017 then I saw pics of it in Japan at some festivals during the summer. Two screw truss rod cover and beat up headstock is how you can tell.

Pushead

That's correct. Kirk's Spider should be there as well.

Henrik S.

Yes I have seen some close up prix of the guitar, it seems to be pretty beaten up.

Tondog

All I've seen is the headstock. Were there more pics of it somewhere?

 

Sephiroth

Yeah, a member linked to a gallery of his pics that he took at NAMM when it was on display.

https://www.espguitars.com/forums/1963224/posts/2166876-esp-mx-250-man-to-wolf-explorer-images

 

Tondog

Wow that's really neat! What's really neat to see is that it is not a "perfect specimen" by any means, and you can really see the wood through the paint etc. Stuff we would all pout about not being perfect ends up being one of the iconic Metallica guitars. Obviously I mean the stuff on the body that has nothing to do with the beating it took on the road. I also wonder what James thought of that one because I know I saw it quite a bit in the early 90's, but later saw it only in the tuning and practice rooms, then never to be seen again until now. I wonder if they "loosen up" when subjected to the touring like they do and just become kind of "numb" sounding from sitting over the years? The EET FUK seems to make the recordings, and jam sessions to this day but quite a few don't. I'd like to sift through all of them to see if these still hold their own, or if they all eventually become wall pieces.

Pushead

I remember reading an interview that James mentioned that it was a cool looking guitar, but he had others that sounded better. I don't remember where or when the interview was from.

I suspect it's like that with a lot of his touring guitars. He has new guitars he wants to play. Happened with the Elk Skull, the snake inlay MX, the rusty copper Gibson... The KL guitars are the longest lasting staples of his live rig.

Tondog

Yeah those KL's REALLY make me wonder if they're that much better built, or if Ken sprinkles majic pixie dust on them every couple of years to bring new life into them?! I actually think Het's are some of the LEAST attractive of the KL's I've seen but I sure see them played a lot on stage. One would think he would have had a few now. 

The rusty copper Gibson was one of my faves too but hasn't been seen in 10 years at least.

EXPcustom
Pushead wrote:

I remember reading an interview that James mentioned that it was a cool looking guitar, but he had others that sounded better. I don't remember where or when the interview was from.

I suspect it's like that with a lot of his touring guitars. He has new guitars he wants to play. Happened with the Elk Skull, the snake inlay MX, the rusty copper Gibson... The KL guitars are the longest lasting staples of his live rig.

That was from So What magazine. I con't remember which issue. Said "looks good but his other guitars sound better" or something to that effect.

EXPcustom
Tondog wrote:

Wow that's really neat! What's really neat to see is that it is not a "perfect specimen" by any means, and you can really see the wood through the paint etc. Stuff we would all pout about not being perfect ends up being one of the iconic Metallica guitars. Obviously I mean the stuff on the body that has nothing to do with the beating it took on the road. I also wonder what James thought of that one because I know I saw it quite a bit in the early 90's, but later saw it only in the tuning and practice rooms, then never to be seen again until now. I wonder if they "loosen up" when subjected to the touring like they do and just become kind of "numb" sounding from sitting over the years? The EET FUK seems to make the recordings, and jam sessions to this day but quite a few don't. I'd like to sift through all of them to see if these still hold their own, or if they all eventually become wall pieces.

Regarding "wood through the paint" those early 90's MX250s just sounded good because they had a really thin coat of paint that allowed the wood to resonate. I remember I was selling one on Ebay a few years ago and this guy started messaging me saying that he's reporting me for selling a fraudulent Chinese made MX250 and he can tell because he can see the wood through the paint, he claimed he was an expert because he owned a real MX250 made in 2004 and a Chinese copy. I explained to him early 90's explorers were like this and in the late 90's early 2000's they went to a thick poly finish and sent him a link to my photobucket showing I've owned over 25 MX250s from every year and MX220s in a few colors as well. Nope the guy would not back down and kept calling me a fraud. Guitar sold a few hours later.

ESPBear

I always wondered about that myself. I have an LTD EXP-200 in Midnight Purple that I bought in 1998 or '99. Looking at the body, the paint is thin enough that you can see the horizontal grain from the left side of the body, in several spots, all the way to the neck's edge. Always found that odd. Reading this though, that's good to know now.

Henrik S.

I did not know that the early models had a thin coat.

I think that the Man to wolf is one of the coolest guitars ever made, I remember I saw it for the first time back at the Monsters of rock tour in Denmark 10th august 1991, I was standing in the front row, it was an awesome show. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VX885klDsN0

Guiguitarz

Nice video, [humor] we can see Kirk playing a KH-2, for some big fans over there who thought that Kirk never did  [/humor]

ESP 348

That's awesome you were in the front row there man! What an awesome show that was!

NRudy

@Henrik do you still have that flying V in your Avitar what guitar is the V ? how many of those GCDL custom orders  basically JH-1 1 offs with a similar jh-2 chrome black body (not like the gray/silver  chrome i think used around the st anger tours ) or any other custom esp jh-1 /2 1 offs of the original JH1 and JH-2 were made ? I was lucky to play the JH-2 mx chrome that james owns this tour as well as some really cool of the bands gear through the enhanced experiences were made and do you know of others of the esp flying V black chrome one off of the JH-1?  I have one that plays very well.

Henrik S.

@NRudy yes I still have the guitar, a little info on the guitar. Its an old Hohner flying V devil from 1987 that I bought from a friend back in 1990. It was replaced by a B.c Rich Warlock in 1993 because it would never stay in tune. I screw of the neck and found out that the trussrod was damaged so it went into the case for many years. Back in 2011 I got a Man to wolf neck custom built, so I put the old ESP EXP neck on the flying V and also cut out a diamond plate and glued it on to the body. That the story about a guitar that was dead, but brought back to life again, and I love this guitar.

ArmyVeteran

I saw this gem in Branson Missouri

ArmyVeteran

ArmyVeteran

Apparently it was given to the guitarist for Rob zombie and was used to record the black album

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