ESP Solid Body Electric Guitars

The ESP Horizon series usually comes with alder wings. However, for the USA guitars, they released a Horizon with mahogany wings, and I really think it improves the overall tone of the guitar. The guitar features mahogany wings with a figured maple top, maple neck-thru construction with an ebony fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, side square inlays with a 12th fret name inlay, an original floyd rose, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The guitar is pretty much flawless in its construction. The frets themselves are perfectly level, and I was able to get some scary low action with this thing without it fretting out, even with big bends. The fret ends were nice and round, so they don't cut your hand while moving up and down the neck. The binding was top notch, and you can't even really see where it starts and stops. The guitar has an original floyd rose, so you have one of the best floyds out there on the market. About the only thing I could complain about is that it has a battery box, which means they carved out some of the wood for ease of battery changing. SOUNDS The guitar sounds absolutely huge. The EMG 81 in the bridge is perfect for this guitar. While neck-thru guitars can be really bright, the mahogany wings help mellow everything out and add some fatness to this. The EMG 81 in the bridge allows the guitar to cut, and the mahogany is there to keep everything from going haywire in the treble. The EMG 85 in the neck is super fat, and you can get some sick legato going on with this thing. The guitar isn't that great for classic rock or anything with low gain, but for high gain, this thing absolutely rips. OVERALL OPINION If you can find one of these at a good price, jump on it. It's one of my favorite guitars. It sounds great, feels awesome and has a perfect weight to it overall. The fretwork on the standard series is ridiculous enough to where the custom shop models almost don't even feel worth the coin...almost.

I remember when this guitar came out Dave said it was like his weapon for going into battle or something. This guitar sure is something with its strange shape. It didnt last long because not long after Dave was off to Dean guitars. This guitar was made to celebrate Megadeths 20th anniversary. The guitar has a mahogany body with a mahogany neck and a neck through design. The fretboard is rosewood with X X inlays. It has 24 jumbo frets on its rosewood fretboard. It has a set of Seymour Duncan pickups with a Jazz in the neck and a JB in the bridge. It has locking tuners and a locking bridge like most good ESP guitars. It also has straplocks. The controls are 2 volume and 1 tone control with a 3 way switch. UTILIZATION Sometimes the craziest looking guitars have the best balance. The balance on this guitar is pretty good. One thing I do not like is the control placement. With the top horn and lower horn the controls end up being like a mile apart. I would have placed the pickup selector down by the rest of the controls. The locking tuners keep you in tune and the locking bridge prevents the bridge from falling out during string changes and messing up your intonation. Straplocks are nice and flush mounted straplocks are even better on a guitar like this where the strap is on the back of the guitar. With flush mounted straplocks you dont have the locking mechanism poking you while you play. SOUNDS This guitar came out before Dave Mustaines signature active pickups came out. This is the set Dave used for many years before getting his own pickups. This is probably the 2nd most popular set of Seymour Duncan pickups. The JB and the Jazz is a good set if you are playing heavier music. The JB is a great bridge pickup when combined with the right wood guitar. In a mahogany guitar like this it is perfect. The low end is tight but not djent tight. It has a nice about of sag to it. It has good midrange and high end to it. It cuts really well and does not get muddy. The Jazz in the neck is clear and tight. The Jazz is like a more modern sounding 59 pickup. It is as smooth as the 59 but it has a bit more top end so it so it does not get as muddy as the 59 when you are playing with high gain. OVERALL OPINION I do not think these ugitars sold very well. The shape is just too unusual. This is one of the problems with signature guitars. Sometimes the artists wants something so unique there is really no point in selling it to the public. Only die hard Mustaine fans are going to be interested in a guitar like this. Other than the shape it is a pretty typical guitar with a mahogany body and Seymour Duncan pickups. That stuff makes it good but there are other good guitars out there with that hardware that dont come in a super crazy shape like this.

Kirk Hammett had been playing ESP guitars for a lot longer than Hetfield. I guess ESP decided to put out two Metallica signature guitars together with very similar features on each. Even though Kirk had been playing ESP guitars this was his first signature model. Both are Flying V designs with bolt on necks. This is the Kirk model and it has more of a lead guitar oriented feel. The guitar has a mahogany V body with a neck through maple neck. The neck has a rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo frets. The inlays are supposed to be devils but they look like dancing monkeys to me. It has a locking nut and an original floyd rose. The pickup is a single EMG 81 with a single volume control. UTILIZATION This guitar is as simple as it gets really. They sold some versions of this guitar with a bolt on neck which is pretty baffling. The neck through construction means you have no neck heel to get in the way and playing all the way at the 22th fret is very easy. The locking nut and floyd rose let you go crazy on the whammy without going out of tune. The single knob is as simple as it gets. The inlays are pretty funny. I think they look like monkeys and this is a bit distracting when you play. SOUNDS With a guitar this simple there is not much to say about the sound of this guitar. All it has is the 81 in the bridge position. The 81 is a classic bridge pickup when it comes to metal. Its active preamp design gives it tons of output with relatively weak magnets. The sound comes raw and ready from this pickup. It has a great high end grind to the sound. It is not thin but has a lot of top end. It has enough body to fill out the sound but the top end is predominant. This top end means all your riffs will come out crystal clear. You will really hear every note you play. Harmonics pop out like crazy. If you are a decent player EMGS will make you sound like a great player. They seem to read your mind and everything you want to play comes out clearly. A neck pickup would have made this guitar much more versatile though. OVERALL OPINION I would recommend the neck through version of this guitar over the bolt on but overall I probably wouldnt recommend this guitar to anyone. If you want a guitar like this you can easily build one for a lot cheaper than what these guitars go for nowadays. In the early days Hammett played a Fernandes Gibson Copy which looked just like this so even he was making his own guitars. A flying V with a Custom pickguard is pretty much all you need and a competent luthier to install the tremolo. If you are some kind of crazy Metallica fanatic and you have to have every piece of gear associated with Metallica I guess this is a guitar for you but if you are just a player or working musician I would recommend something else.

This is the guitar Hetfield played in the Whiskey in the Jar video. It is one of the earliest Hetfield signature guitars from ESP. You do not see these much and the production was very limited. It was a pretty basic guitar as well. It is a Flying V design with a mahogany body. It has a bolt on maple neck with a 22 fret rosewood fretboard. I found it odd that they made it a bolt on instead of a set neck or neck through. The headstock has a spear head shape which is pretty cool. The electronics are typical Hetfield with a set of active EMG pickups. It has an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck. The controls are simple too with just a master volume and master tone control. The pickups are switched with a 3 way toggle. What really makes this guitar standout is the cool hot rod flames paintjob. UTILIZATION Its pretty weird that ESP made this and the KH-1 bolt on necks. The guitars Metallica were playing at the time were not bolt on's so I guess they were being cheap with their first signature models. The guitar has jumbo frets on the rosewood fretboard so you can get a nice easy action. It has locking tuners up top which help you stay in tune. The bolt on neck joint is pretty smooth for a bolt on but it still gets in the way a bit. Even with the bolt on construction they finished the back of the neck so it is a bit sticky like the body. Its like they were trying to hide the fact that it is a bolt on. The guitar neck also does not have any binding. This tends to lead to sharp fret ends if the guitar changes temperatures a lot. SOUNDS Hetfield is a pretty traditional guy. I guess ESP didnt know what he wanted at this point because this is the only Hetfield signature guitar to come with Kirks pickup setup. Its like they made the JH-1 and KH-1 both for Kirk but just put some flames on one and gave it to James. It has dual EMG 81 pickups which is what Kirk uses. I am not a big fan of this setup, well I am not a fan of half of this setup. The 81 in the bridge is very traditional and great. It has a nice top end grind that makes your riffs crazy tight. It has a great distortion sound too as you would expect. In the neck position it is too bright and trebly to be a good neck pickup for me. I like smooth neck pickups. The 81 is not very smooth at all. In the neck I would prefer a 60 or an 85. Every other Hetfield model has a 60 in the neck. This is the only one without it. I guess James learned from his mistake. OVERALL OPINION These guitars are pretty much collectors items now. I can see why Hetfield doesnt play them anymore. They are not that good guitar wise. They may be a good investment for someone or wall hanger but to play out and gig I wouldnt recommend it. The pickup choice is odd and the bold on neck is just cheap on a guitar of this caliber. If you want to look like Hetfield for your Metallica tribute band get an Explorer.

This is one of the few variants ESP got to make of Dave Mustaines signature guitar before he left to go to Dean. A lot of people were switching guitar makers back then. Mustaine went from Jackson to ESP to Dean all in a couple years. It seems now that he is sticking with Dean. I liked his ESP models better than the current Dean models. The Dean models are just copies of these with some strange cutaways on them. This guitar is basically a Jackson King V with an ESP tag on it. It has a mahogany body with a neck through mahogany neck. The neck has an ebony fretboard with 24 jumbo frets. It has dot inlays apart from the large 8 ball inlay on the first fret. The later ESP signature models and the current Dean models feature Daves Signature Livewire Seymour Duncan pickups but this is an early model with a set of passive Duncans in it. It has a JB in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck which is a classic combination. The pickups are controlled by a set of volume controls with a master tone and a 3 way switch. It has locking tuners up top and a locking bridge at the bottom. The SE stands for special edition and it has a cool finish. Its like a sunburst mixed with a quilt top its pretty cool. UTILIZATION These guitars play pretty well. They have a old school sort of Jackson Charvel neck shape to them which is cool. The V design lends it self to pretty decent upper fret access. Even with the wide body on this guitar you can get at the upper frets pretty well. The ebony fretboard with jumbo frets is great and lets you get a really easy action. This helps since the guitar has a Gibson scale lenght neck so the upper frets can get a bit crowded. SOUNDS The pickups in this set give this guitar ultimate versatility. The guitar really has a Gibson like tone with the shorter scale and the classic Duncan pickups. The Jazz in the neck is like a slightly brighter Duncan 59. The 59 is a classic neck pickup with a super smooth open sound. The Jazz just adds a little high end to that sound for a little more clarity for fast solos. The JB in the bridge is a real rock and roll pickup. It can do just about anything. It has a tight low and but a pretty smooth top end. You can do chugging riffs to classic rock with this pickup and it wont miss a beat. I have never played Daves Livewire pickup set. It is one of the early active Duncan sets and no one made a big deal about them back in the day. If they are anything like the Duncan Blackouts they will sound similar to EMG's but with a ton more low end. OVERALL OPINION Being the Special Edition version of the Mustaine signature you get more cool points for having one of these. This is up there with the old custom shop Jackson King V's in terms of quality. You get great tone from the Duncans and great playability from the ESP build and setup. When Dave left for Dean ESP took his name off these guitars and just made it a normal model. This shows how good the model was and how popular it was. If you are looking for a nice ESP V and the normal version isnt bling bling enough for you the Special Edition has the special finish which im sure some people think make the guitar sound better.

A few years ago it seemed like all the famous Jackson players seemed to jump ship and go to ESP guitars. I guess they didnt like the fact that Fender had purchased Jackson. This is Daves first ESP signature guitar. It is pretty much an ESP copy of his old Jackson King V. It features a mahogany body in the familiar shape. It has neck through construction that features a 3 piece mahogany neck. The neck has an ebony fretboard with 24 jumbo frets. The neck and headstock are fully bound. The inlays are dot inlays but on the first fret there is a large 8 ball inlay. Early versions came with passive Seymour Duncans but later ones came with Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaing Signature Livewires. This model I am testing is an earlier one. This model has JB and Jazz pickups installed. The controls are two volume controls and 1 tone control. Up top it has Sperzel locking tuners and a tonepros locking bridge. UTILIZATION These guitars have Daves custom neck profile which feels a lot different than most ESP's. I guess coming from Jackson he liked those necks and wanted that on his ESP's. It feels like an old Jackson Charvel which is kinda cool. V's tend to have good upper fret access but this guitar has such a broad shape the upper frets are pretty deep into the body. It does not get in the way much. These guitars also have a Gibson neck scale so the upper frets can get a bit crowded. The locking tuners and locking bridge are great. Even non tremolo guitars should come with locking tuners. The locking bridge on the tune-o-matic is great as well because it keeps your bridge from falling off when you are changing strings. SOUNDS With the mahogany body and 24.75 scale this guitar has a very Gibson like tone, and the classic Seymour Duncan set helps amplify this. The Jazz in the neck is a great all around neck pickup for modern neck pickup use. It is like the 59 but with a bit more bite and highend. The 59 is so smooth it can get muddy at times but the Jazz is almost as smooth as the 59 but with more high end to give you more clarity on your shredding leads. The JB in the bridge is like a hot rodded PAf pickup. It is way hotter than an old paf but it retains the openness and tight low end that you want in a bridge pickup. The JB can do anything from classic rock to metal. It is one of the best designs Seymour Duncan has ever put out. I do not know much about the Livewire pickups some later models have. If they are similar to the Duncan Blackouts their other active pickups they will have a ton of low and with a high end grind to them. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is a pretty good alternative to a Jackson King V. It is a good signature guitar because it doesnt have Daves name all over the place. It is pretty subtle which is pretty nice when it comes to a signature guitar. I think when Dave left ESP they just made it a normal model which is good because it is a great simple guitar. If you are looking for a Flying V shaped guitar with great ESP quality and Duncan pickups. This is your one stop shopping.

Alexi Laiho switched from his beloved Jackson guitars to ESP when his Jacksons were stolen and they couldnt make him replacements in time for his touring duties. ESP was able to make a similar guitar in a quick time so now he plays ESP's. These guitars are very similar to what his Jacksons were like but there are a few differences. When they first came out they were pretty basic and pretty much just copies of his old guitars in different colors. This guitar has an Alder body in the offset V RR shape. It has neck through construction with a maple neck and an ebony fretboard with 24 jumbo frets. The inlays are reverse saw tooth inlays that look a lot like Jackson reverse sharkfin inlays. This guitar is white with the large solid stripes on it similar to what the Jackson had. It has an original Floyd Rose like the old Jackson had also. The electronics are the same with a passive EMG H4 pickup with a single volume control. UTILIZATION I think the old Jacksons played slightly better than these newer ESP versions. The Jacksons had a slightly better shape and a compound radius fretboard. The shape on these ESP's is a bit too wide so it is a bit hard to reach the upper frets. The playability otherwise is pretty good. The neck is unfinished like a bolt on neck but since it is neck through you dont have a big block with bolts on it to get in your way. The fretboard is ebony which is great and it has jumbo frets which are also great. The locking nut and floyd rose keep everything in tune when you are going crazy as well. SOUNDS This guitar has a very 80s tone. It is a throwback to the days when guys had huge racks and needed a super bright over the top guitar tone for any part of the guitar sound to make it through all the effects. The Alexi signature has a bright tone like this. I guess he hates having a muddy sound. Well this guitar is not muddy at all it is super bright and there is no neck pickup to be found for smooth leads. This guitar with its maple neck and alder body really sig and when it say it sings it sings like a siren trying to blow your ears out. The passive EMG are pretty poor pickups. I wouldnt recommend anyone buy a guitar with these pickups in it and this is a full label ESP custom shop guitar and it has them. Alexi is one crazy guy if he likes a sound like this. I think he may be drinking too much. OVERALL OPINION If you get your guitar you are limiting yourself because there are better options out there. The ESP SV is pretty much this guitar with active pickups and a neck pickup. So that guitar has a better sound and is more usable with the neck pickup. You also can get the Jackson RR24 if you are looking at this guitar because you are an Alexi fan. The RR24 is pretty much exactly like what Alexi played before switching to ESP. Plus it has an active 81 and a compound radius fretboard so it plays really well. I can only recommend this guitar if you are a die hard Alexi fan and have to have what he is playing right now.

ESP has been making a lot of signature models for Alexi Laiho recently. I guess he has been a good seller for them. Alexi is the frontman for the popular metal band Children of Bodom. He was more known for his custom Jacksons but when they were stolen he switched to ESP because they were able to get guitars to him faster. This is the variant with cool Sawtooth inlays which from a distance look like reverse Jackson sharkfins. Other than the cool inlays it is a typical Alexi model. It has an alder body in the offset V shape. IT has a neck through maple neck with an ebony fretboard. The fretboard has 24 jumbo frets with the aformentioned saw tooth inlays. It has a locking nut up top with an original Floyd Rose down at the bottom. The pickup is a single passive EMG H4 with a single volume control. UTILIZATION These guitars are pretty comfortable even with their radical shape. The upper fret access is not as good as it looks. Even with the extra cutaway bit the angle of the shape is too broad so the upper frets are pretty deep into the body. The Floyd Rose is great and stays in tune very well. The back of the neck is unifinished so you get a smooth fast feel of the back of the neck. The top of the neck has an ebony fretboard with jumbo frets so you can get a nice smooth action when you play. SOUNDS These guitars to not sound good to my ears. The alder body and maple neck combined with the passive EMG pickups produce a sound too harsh for me to find useable. The Passive EMG is like a passive copy of the EMG 81. It has a lot of high end like the 81 but without the full bottom end thickness of the active version. So the pickup just adds to the natural brightness of the sound. Alexi has a ton of treble in his sound so he likes this but for most people they may not like it. If This was my personal guitar I would drop an 85 in it. An 85 would thicken the sound of this guitar right up. but with the stock setup I do not find the tone very good at all. OVERALL OPINION Now that Jackson is making the RR24 I find it hard to recommend these ESP guitars to people. Unless you are a newer Bodom fan when you think of Alexi Laiho you imagine him playing a Jackson and the RR24 is pretty much the exact guitar he played. Its a shame it took Jackson so long to capitalize on this because they would have sold like crazy 10 years ago. The RR24 is better than this guitar as well since it has a compound radius fretboard it plays very well and the EMG 81 is fully active unlike this guitar. If you are an ESP can and can play anything else this is the guitar for you. If you are a Bodom fan you have choices. It is a good day to be a guitar player.

Alexi Laiho is a well known guitarist nowadays. He is the frontman of the popular band Children of Bodom. Back in the day before the band was huge he was known for playing his custom Jacksons. After those guitars were stolen he switched to ESP guitars because they said they could replace his stolen guitars very quickly. So now there are ESP guitars with a similar design to his old Jackson. Since they are ESP's the shape is slightly different. This guitar is the closest ESP made to what his old Jackson looked like. It is the ESP Alexi Laiho Arrowhead. It has a black finish with Alexis Signature Yellow stripes which his Jackson had. This guitar is a super simple guitar. It has an alder body in the offset V shape. It has neck through construction with a maple neck and an ebony fretboard. The fretboard has 24 jumbo frets with the new arrowhead inlays. The Electronics are typical to what Alexi uses but they are by no means normal. Alexi uses passive EMG's. The model he prefers is a single EMG Hz-H4 with a single volume control. It has a locking nut up top and an original Floyd Rose down at the bottom to finish it off. UTILIZATION The offset V shape is a pretty comfortable shaple and it balances well. The fret access is not that great even with the extra cutaway bit on this guitar. The body angle is not great for upper fret access. On these full ESP models the back of the neck is unfinished which is great. It is like a bolt on guitar but with the heel less feel of a neckthrough which it is. The Original Floyd Rose is one of the best tremolo systems around and stays in tune. The jumbo frets and ebony fretboard give a smooth feel and let you get a nice smooth action. SOUNDS I am not the biggest fan of Alexis tone and this primarly comes from his choice of pickups. The passive EMG's are super weak. This is a passive copy of the EMG 81. It has all the high end of the 81 without the fullness of the active version. So these pickups are pretty harsh sounding. This is even worse if you get this model with the gain boost. I dont know why someone would run a passive EMG with an active gain boost. If you are going to do that just run active EMG's and be done with it. The gain boost is like having a tube screamer or something built in to your guitar and this matched up with these pickups can produce some pretty ear splitting tones. Some people like this though. If you can get this guitar to sound muddy you have accomplished quite a feat. OVERALL OPINION Its a shame Alexi had to switch to ESP. His Jackson guitars were iconic and super popular. Now you can get a model just like what Alexi use to play from Jackson but he doesnt seem to be switching anytime soon. If you are a big Alexi fan you now have choices. If you are a newer fan you probably know him more for his ESP but old school fans that love the Jackson can now get it in the form of the Jackson RR24. So depending on your tastes you can either get this or that both are good guitars but I would give the edge to the Jackson since it has a compound radius fretboard and a fully active EMG 81 instead of a passive 81 copy like the ESP has.

This is the early version of the EC of Eclipse guitar. It has a more Les Paul like shape which is one of the reasons it is out of production. This was the cool finish they had at the time. Hetfield use to play these guitars alot. The DPS in the name stands for Deep Purple Stain. Its like a satin finish but dark like a poly finish. It also has yellowish binding to break it up. This is a full label ESP so it is made in Japan with essentially custom shop level quality. The guitar has a mahogany body with a maple top. It has a set neck mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard. The fretboard has 22 jumbo frets with ESP's flag inlays. The neck is nice and thin. The body and neck are fully bound with the yellowish gold binding. It has Gotoh locking tuners up top and a Gotoh tune-o-matic bridge. It has EMG pickups in it in a classic setup of an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck. The controls are standard Les Paul style with a volume and tone for each pickup. UTILIZATION The satin finish on this guitar is very smooth and helps making playing very easy and fast. The neck is a bit thinner than that of a Gibson and the fretboard is flatter so this lets you get a nice easy action on the strings. The large frets also help this. The ebony fretboard is super smooth and feels good under your fingers. Locking tuners are something every guitar should have. Even without a tremolo locking tuners help you stay in tune better than normal tuners. Since this guitar has active EMG's you will need a 9v battery to operate them. ESP was smart and added a quick access battery compartment so you can change the battery without having to open up your main control cavity. SOUNDS This guitar has a classic metal tone with the EMG active pickups in it. the 81 and 60 set is a classic set that James Hetfield has used for decades up until very recently when his signature pickup set came out. This set provides you a great overall tone for both dirty and clean. The 81 in the bridge gives you a ripping metal tone. It has a high end grind that prevents your riffs from sounding muddy. If you down tune these pickups are great as well. This high end grind lets your notes cut through no matter how much distortion you have. The 60 in the neck compliments the 81 nicely. It is not a hot pickup like the 81 it is more of a clean bluesy pickup. Since the 81 does not clean up very well the 60 is there for your clean tones. If you want a neck pickup that is good for dirty stuff I recommend the 85. It is smoother than the 81 so it works well for the neck position. OVERALL OPINION If you can find one of these guitars they are a great deal. I think they go for around 1500 used. The newer Eclipse models have a different shape and control layout to them. ESP went away from the more traditional shape that this guitar has. The new models are good as well but if you want the more traditional shape this is the way to go. If you want a good metal Les Paul type guitar that can rip right out of the box ESP has some good offerings.

ESP is one of the most popular guitar makers from Japan. Most ESP guitars people see are really LTD's their budget line. It is easy to confuse the two brands because they are built to exactly the same specs just in different places. ESP branded ESP guitars are built to custom shop quality in Japan. This guitar is the ESP MII with EMG's and a maple fretboard. This model has bolt on neck construction and features a maple neck with a maple fretboard. The fretboard has 24 jumbo frets. The body is alder and is in your standard super strat MII shape. It has a Floyd Rose locking tremolo at the back with a set of EMG 81 pickups in the middle. The controls are super simple with just a volume knob and a 3 way switch. UTILIZATION This guitar was designed to play fast. The bolt on construction lets you have a fast raw neck that is free of finish. The heel is angled to give you good access to the upper frets. The neck is super thin and smooth so you can really speed up and down. The fretboard is nice and flat and the jumbo frets let you get a low action and really dig in. I would have preferred an ebony fretboard on a guitar this expensive but rosewood is ok with jumbo frets. The Original Floyd Rose is the original and still the best. Once setup this thing is locked down and will never go out of tune. The simple controls mean you will never hit the wrong switch or knob because there is only one of each. Since the pickups are active you will need a battery to operate them but ESP provides a easy access battery compartment. SOUNDS EMG pickups are a perfect fit for this guitar. They provide super output and clarity thanks to their active design. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup. It has a high end crunch and distortion that gives it clarity no matter how much gain you are using or how low you tune. The 81 in the neck is not as common. I am not a fan of the 81 in the neck especially in this guitar. With the alder body and maple neck and fretboard this guitar is pretty bright and the 81 in the neck is too bright. When I switch to a neck pickup I want it to sound like a neck pickup. An 85 in the neck would have been a better choice. I would have preferred an 85 in the neck. The 85 would have been good in the bridge also to thicken up the naturally bright tones of the guitar. Good thing EMG's come with a quick connect setup so it is very easy to swap out pickups among EMG's you can easily see what combination you like best. OVERALL OPINION There arent many high end shred guitars that come with maple fretboards nowadays. They are coming back in popularity. This guitar is a good solid design and is a stable in the ESP line up. This guitar is the definition of shred guitar. It has no frills its just black and ready to play. If you are looking for a no frills shred guitar with a maple neck this guitar is a beast.

The Eclipse has been ESP's standby single cut guitar for many years. This is a full ESP branded ESP so it is made in Japan with top construction and top specs. This guitar is pretty simple when it comes to specs. It is a classic design. This guitar has a mahogany body and mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard and 22 jumbo frets. It has ESP's traditional flag inlays. It has the Earvana compensated nut up top and a tune-o-matic bridge at the bottom. There are two EMG pickups in this guitar. There is an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck. This is the pickup set that James Hetfield used for most of his career. The guitar has the traditional Les Paul control layout with a volume and tone knob for each pickup and a 3 way switch on the upper horn. UTILIZATION The playability and build qualify on ESP guitars are top notch. These guitars are made in Japan right next to whatever ESP Custom Shop guitars you see. This guitar is a dream to play. The Ebony fretboard is super smooth and your fingers just glide over it. The frets are big and the radius is pretty flat so you can really bend notes without fretting out. The neck is thin too so this helps playability. The body is thinner than a normal Les Paul so it is more comfortable and lighter so you can play it longer. The Earvana compensated nut helps intonation all across the neck so you sound even more in tune. SOUNDS With the thinner body and EMG pickups this guitar sounds slightly brighter than a normal Les Paul. The 81 and 60 combination of EMG's is a classic set and gives you the best of both worlds. The 81 gives you great metal tones while the 60 can do great clean tones. EMG's are some of the best active high output pickups you can get for metal. Since they are active they need a 9v battery to work. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup for metal. The 81 gives you great high end crunch and clarity even in the lowest of tunings. With the 81 harmonics pop right out and you get a nice searing high end tone. This high end is what keeps the sound nice and clear. The 60 in the neck is a pretty much neck only pickup. It is not super high output and is best used for clean tones. In the neck position I personally prefer an 85. The 85 has about the same output as the 81 and I think it is better for dirty solos in the neck position than the 60 is. With EMG's quick connect system swapping out their pickups takes secconds because there is no soldering involved. OVERALL OPINION These guitars have long been discontinued and are getting harder and harder to find. People who have them want to keep on to them because they are so good and so well made. With the Gotoh hardward and the EMG pickups this guitar came ready to rock from the factory. You dont really have to upgrade anything. If you are looking for a good single cut ESP guitar that comes with EMG pickups and has top of the line build quality this was one of the best they ever put out.