The ESP Guitar Company

I bought this guitar in May. I’m satisfied with the guitar. 

Playability:4/5

The neck isn’t the thinnest I’ve had but by no means is it unmanageable or uncomfortable to play. The guitar’s body is contoured to comfortably play. The knob and blade switch placement should facilitate easy manipulation when needed. I don’t find this guitar to cause fatigue from its weight distribution or design. 

Hardware: 3/5

My guitar’s blade switch didn’t work in the neck position upon its delivery. After researching online extensively I’ve come across many claims this model has issues with the blade switch not working at all when set to the neck pickup. As for the pickups I’ve noticed that you have to give active pickups a bit more fine tuning on your amp or in your VST to get a quality tone in comparison to instruments that I have with “hot” passive pickups. The fretboard is beautiful, put some fretboard oil on it and boom, gorgeous. The nut will need filed for larger gauge strings, otherwise no issues. The locking tuners are great as they secure the strings very tightly with a good bite. 

Sexiness: 4/5

It’s a far more gorgeous guitar in person than in pictures, even these awesome pictures ESP has. I’m giving it a 4/5 because imo the white font on the headstock is too much of a contrast to the other colors on the guitar. Black font for the logo would’ve have been far more fitting.

Would I buy it again: Yes.  

Just one left handed model 25.5 scale 7 string 

Which case would be recommended for this guitar? CMHFF or the XL version?

I bought one of these from Sweetwater and really dig it. Looks and playability are fantastic. I can't get into the pickups too much, so I'll probably try some swapping them for some others, but otherwise I cannot put this guitar down. I'd love to see a Floyd version of this guitar at some point, but the Hipshot makes it nice/easy to go between standard and drop A. 

Three questions. Are these made in Korea or Indonesia? Online I found some that say Korea on the back of the head stock and others that are blank on the back of the head stock and are advertised as made in Indonesia. If both then which one will I get if ordered through ESP. Also, when will they be available? Thanks!