Original series vs. Order made

Updated July 10, 2014 02:39

Hello everybody. After saving for what seems about an eternity, I'm getting closer to my first ESP and I'm wondering about the rates of the Tokyo custom shop. I planned to get myself a Forest-GT. The guitar sells for about 3,000 euros (~4.2k$!) here in Germany, which is a lot compared to the 300,000 yen and less it costs in Japan. So instead, I could probably save for an order made Forest guitar if it is not a lot more expensive.. Don't they hand-build the original Japanese series in their custom shop anyway? So my actual question is: How much would that custom guitar cost me if I ordered right from their custom shop? I don't want to bother them with a quote yet. 90% Forest-GT in see-thru-white .. Instead of the humbucker: 2 wood-mounted single coils (SD Hot-Rails & Lace Sensor Burgundy); push-pull-pot switches between those 2; no pickup ring Instead of the Hot-Rails in neck-position: slanted Lace Sensor Gold Fretboard reaches up to the neck-pickup, giving me 24-26 frets Everything else should be just like the Forest-GT (yes, I love that guitar <3) PS: I'll post my mockup ^^

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guitarsatbmusic wrote August 11, 2009 14:15

It will cost more, you will have to get a quote from your distributor.

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jaymz097 wrote September 26, 2009 02:00

Get one and mod it yourself. hotrails? lace sensors? I want to see the mockup of yours.

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Llexileon wrote September 26, 2009 08:34

It would likely cost a bit more, but if you're going to be paying original series prices in Europe anyway, the difference is probably not that large, and well worth it.

They make Original Series models in batches of 5-10 or so at a time, having a bunch on the go at once keeps the prices lower than individual custom orders, even though they're still hand made etc.

Obviously more time/attention to detail/planning has to go into the custom order, since it's not a specification the luthiers are already trained to do. They need to study it/plan it carefully to get it right!

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younasu wrote October 02, 2009 06:58

Thanks for your replies. :rollin

Luckily I was able to obtain a used Forest GT from a nice guy located in HK. Made a good deal on it considering it's just like new. I'm going to try my choice of pickups on it some time in the future. Then I'll decide on that custom order.
What I already can say is that the guitar's single-coil sound is just awesome and I'm quiet sure the lace sensors would complement it well. Not to sure about the Hot-Rails though...

Now that I think about it - I would probably die waiting for the guitar to be finished if I did not have the off-the-shelf-model here in my hands :)

I posted my mockup here.

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