The ESP Guitar Company

When NAMM comes around and ESP starts posting photos of the model lineup, I always get a bit excited. I especially like looking at the guitars they put together for their "Exhibition Series," the guitars that show what exactly they're capable of. In 2017 there were three guitars from that collection that really spoke to me; this flamed koa topped Eclipse being, in my estimation, the one to have.

I watched when it sold, rather quickly, new from a shop on Reverb at a price that I could never bring myself to spend. Around a year later, I saw it reappear as someone decided to move on to something new. And just recently, it appeared for a third time. I finally decided to pull the trigger.

When it got to my place, I was sort of surprised. Even though I have more Eclipses than the inner rings of the solar system, after looking at the close-up and detailed photos of the guitar, somehow I was expecting it to be bigger. As you would expect, it's the same size as the others. It's a bit heavier than average, as far as my others go. The neck size is pretty similar, though it might be a tad flatter as it gets to the 12th fret. The frets are smaller. I'd be curious to know if they're stainless. It'd be my first experience with stainless. It's also the first Eclipse I own with the rounded neck joint as opposed to the Les Paul style.

It showed up with smaller strings than I'm used to, and since the majority of my playing lately has been down-tuned, (we're recording new music, ATM) it's a bit difficult to get a full read on how it sounds. Certainly full sounding, though there wasn't a huge amount of low end. I'm not sure what the pickups are. It was never included in a listing for the guitar. Similar guitars from the 2017 show had a SD 59 set, so it wouldn't surprise me if that is what's here as well.

I'm not exactly sure what the second switch really does. In one position, it sounds like it's full humbucking and the other two it sounds like single coils. I'm usually not shy about pulling guitars apart, but I'm having a difficult time bringing myself to go at this thing with a screw driver. I'm sure it will happen eventually, but for now, the mystery isn't that great to me.

And yet again, I get screwed out of the strap-side strap locks when buying used. I must have 20 spare strap buttons floating around that go to waste because I have to buy a full set so I can have the strap-side locks. That's smart on Schaller's part.

I know people say this all the time, and I usually just roll my eyes, but the photos don't do the guitar justice. These photos are not my best work, but unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time for photo shoots.