New Kirk Hammett LTD Purple Sparkle Ouija
New Kirk Hammett LTD Purple Sparkle Ouija
Just saw this over in reddit. Seems like someone over at Guitar Centre got ahead of themselves.
Finally something from LTD line appears visually more alike with the ESP versions (I.e. Unpainted neck, no model number on 24th fret)
For not collectible, I am referring to the soul of the guitars that are completely different. The pick ups are not painted, the base color are too dark and the decal is also too dark.
It makes you feel that you have been screwed by ESP and this is probably the main reason of my unhappiness.
Of course that they will retain their value. But why the black ones look like the ESP and not the natural and the sparkling ones.
back in the day, my 2nd guitar i bought was the kh-602 NTB early model with the original floyd..
played like a dream.. i would instantly buy both ltd's if pickups were painted aswell.. I don't care fingerboard radius ain't the same (almost no diff. between 12 (esp) and 14 (ltd).) And tuners you can replace if you want, scalloped > doesn't matter, i just like the looks of it. And the ltd fails to deliver bc of the pickups..
And if I could i'd buy the ESP version in a second like most people who are into these sign. guitars of their favourite artist/band..
In regards to the unpainted pickups. It comes down to production line logistics and order of operation during assembly I think.
In order for the pickup to match the finish on the guitar body they would need to be installed before the painting phase. Having sprayed metalic and flake finishes I know it is a pain in the rear and every motion has to be precise. If you are not careful when spraying the flake or metalics in the finish will lay diffrently and completely change how the paint looks. It can come out blotchy or dull looking very easily. As an example, lets say the pickups were painter laying flat and the guitar was painted vertically the colour could look completely diffrent even from the same mix batch. The smaller number of ESP's and being a custom shop build, would probably afford them the time and costs to pay attention to this small detail.
Thank you James for your input. It makes understand why they were probably not painted.
They were painted in 2009 for the black and it was probably because it was cheap to replicate. Not cover in 2017 for the natural and not painted in 2019 for the sparkle for economical reasons.
That raise the question of how much was the premium and how much the customer would have agree to pay?
I have no problem for the uncovered pick up of the natural since the LTD still feel as the real ESP. Unfortunately, it does feel that way for the sparkles. Probably again the same economical reason as described by James. That’s bring again the same question.
It would be nice to have the official position from ESP.
Philippe S. wrote:Would it be a better business model for limited run to have a few guitars signed by Kirk at sky rocket price and more guitars unsigned at a more affordable price?
Friend, I get that you're all worked up about all of this. But ultimately, ESP is going to do what they've already decided. They decided A) the custom shop has room in the production schedule to make 60 guitars and B) they will find buyers for 60 guitars for the $12000 MSRP.
Adding more guitars to their CS production schedule may affect their ability to produce other guitars (for Kirk and others.) There are only so many people and so many hours in the day.
I suspect (and I have nothing to base this on other than hearsay) that few people are actually paying the full $12000 for the guitar. Perhaps some shops are going all out for the asking price (which is why Drum City Guitar Land had a natural Ouija in stock until two weeks ago), but I suspect some people are getting pretty good deals on them.
This is the world of specialty release artist guitars. These guitars were never intended for the likes of you or me. Be glad that they aren't offering 10 of each color specially signed by Kirk for $20,000 and 20 of each unsigned for $12000. Be glad that they aren't only offering 10 of each finish at $25000 MSRP. The LTD versions are there to appease "the fans" who can't afford to drop the price of a nice used car on a guitar.
If you're that upset that ESP is doing it wrong, buy the LTD version and have it refinished. Or buy a regular neck-through M-II and have the inlays put in and then refinished. Show them that it could have been done better and for cheaper. That's what I did 12 or so years ago when the original runs of the Iron Cross came out at $10000. I built a replica out of a used Gibson LPC and did it for 30% of the MSRP of the ESP.
I sure showed them. 
I agree that LTD should be available for the higher numbers and therefore it is important to lower the cost as much as possible.
For the ESP, it is not just a question of cost, since they are mainly due to American and Japanese markets. Switzerland dealer will have none and French & Germain dealers have placed orders and received no order confirmation. Maybe they did and reserved them for their most important customer and that is totally acceptable.
We have ESP for the collectors and LTD for the fans. I forgot that there is an in between brand E-II and why not make the Ouija also available in that brand. It makes sense I my opinion to please the full range of fans and makes the painted pick-ups available more broadly.
Philippe S. wrote:I forgot that there is an in between brand E-II and why not make the Ouija also available in that brand.
Because it would take away from the market for both the LTD and CS versions of the guitar. Some of the people who will drop around $10k on the CS version may be swayed enough by a "correct finish" version E-II version to instead buy both finishes for around $4-5k. But I don't think people considering the CS version would bother with a not quite right LTD.
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I'm curious why you think the LTD's are not collectable? The Black LTD Ouija is certainly a collectible and becoming hard to come by. The natural has only been around for about 2 years so you can still find them easily but to say LTD's are not collectible? I don't get it.