The ESP Guitar Company

Hi guys!

I found this modified -to-look-like a Mirage M-II (ergo the shitty painting, specially on the bridge zone) . It's supposed the be a regular 2004 black H-H M-II with a single coil and a white painting...and its feels and plays amazing like a proper ESP...but I dunno I started to doubt, there's some details specially on the headstock.

What do you think? let me know please.

Thanks in advance!

Great thread by the way.

Well, the neck is correct and legit for 2004. I'm not sure what the deal is on the body. Is it an older body that had a top mounted Floyd originally?

It's not the body that came with the neck. I forget exactly what ESP calls that neck joint, something like star cut. But here's how the neck joint should look:



I don't know if it should have the carve out in the lower cut-away.

My thought is it may be an 80s ESP body that originally had their Sinclair trem, which was ESPs licensed Floyd Rose. The shape is slightly different, which means it needed to be routed a bit to fit an OFR.

Thanks Pushead ! You are the man. No wonder why Metallica chose your artwork haha. I’m pretty sure now that’s a scam, so I’m trying to get the guy. Thanks for the help was of tremendous worth. Cheers.

hello guys,

what do you think about this one.

https://www.sahibinden.com/ilan/ikinci-el-ve-sifir-alisveris-muzik-muzik-aletleri-esp-siyah-exp-explorer-custom-658299339/detay

It's legit. I responded to your thread in the other forum.

thanks a lot 

I bought this guitar about 15 years ago. I can't remember who I bought it from and I don't remember how it was described or what we talked about regarding it. From the moment I saw it I thought it was super cool. The headstock, the paint. I believe I thought it was a Lynch model when I bought it but I can't really remember. I got the guitar and it seriously rocked. I love the guitar, serious player. So I never really thought about it until I was talking with someone and they mentioned there were a lot of fakes out there. The person said the fakes were more recent though and I bought this in 2002-2004. I did some searching on the internet and found a picture of Lynch models on a site from a guy named Ed Roman. He has a guitar shop. A guitar like this was on that site in that picture. I wonder if they made several of these or if this is that guitar. This one never had a serial number and I believe I thought it was a proto when I bought it but again I don't remember. I have asked a few people who know ESPs and they are stumped. Anyway, just for my piece of mind I wanted to get an opinion of an expert. Thanks for any help.

Hi all, what do you think about this 2002 kamikaze? Looks good, strange that there's no made in Japan label or esp logo on the back of the headstock...thanks in advance.

The guitar looks reasonably well made, but I don't believe it's an actual ESP. It's definitely modeled after a Lynch, but it misses on some of the finer details (truss rod cover, cavity covers, over rounded body edges, Floyd nut shelf...)

Compared to many of the fakes I've seen, this actually looks like a fairly well built guitar. It would not shock me to find out it was made from Roman's "shop".



This Lynch (on the other hand) is legit. It's fairly common for guitars built for the Japanese domestic market to not have the logos on the back of the head stock. Looks like it's in good shape. Congrats!

Hey y'all. I'm trying to see if this guitar is real or fake. I've never seen a viper with three tuning pegs on top, and four on the bottom. This one is flipped, so there's three on top, and four on the bottom. And is the serial number fishy?? Just don't want to spend the money on a fake axe. 

It's a legit 2008 model. You can see it in the catalog at:

https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_files/esp/downloads/000/000/092/ESP-2008-Catalog.pdf?1392144689

Here's one I'm not sure about. The only thing that throws me off is I'm not sure this color was available in 2006, as per the ESP catalog, unless this is what "see thru black cherry" or "amber cherry sunburst" looked like back then. Also, If I look at the pic of the back of the headstock, I think there's two pieces of wood (you can see on the right side), unless that's a shadow or something. I was told ESP standard series uses just a single piece to make up the headstock, is this correct? For all I know its all good. Just curious what you guys think.

The Eclipse is legit from 2006. This is see-through black cherry. The darker part on the back of the head stock (and the corresponding light spot on the left side of the head stock) are the "wings" that are glued on to the main neck wood to make the head stock wide enough for the tuners. It saves wood. Otherwise you need to start with a neck blank that's as wide as the head stock. It's a very common practice in the industry.

Here's a Gibson from the late 50s doing the same thing.

I was hoping that was the case. It makes sense, just me being paranoid, lol.  Thanks Pushead!