ESP M-II Rosewood w/Duncans

The M-II is one of ESP's classic super strat designs. Many of ESP's signature models are based off of this guitar. For a long time they did not sell these outside of Japan. For the longest time the closest you could get to an M-II was the Kirk Hammett signature guitar. This is the passive version but it still has all the time of the active version. It has an alder body with a bolt on maple neck with reverse headstock. The back of the neck is raw which is something you dont find on many neck through guitars. This gives the feel of a bolt on guitar. The fretboard is rosewood and it has 24 extra jumbo frets. It features an Original Floyd Rose locking tremolo system. The pickups are a classic set of Seymour Duncans. The neck pickup is a 59 while the bridge pickup is a JB. The controls are a volume knob and a 3 way switch.

UTILIZATION

This guitar plays super fast as that is what it was made to do. This passive model has the bolt on neck. The neck bolt heel is angled so it does not get in the way as much as a Strat or Charvel style bolt design. The back of the neck is raw and super fast. The rosewood is good quality and smooth. The frets are huge so you can really dig in and get a low action. 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. These guitars are made in Japan in the real ESP factory so they have essentially custom shop level fit and finish.

SOUNDS

The JB/59 set is one of the best passive pickup sets out on the market. They are the benchmark on how passive pickups should sound. The 59 is a great modern day PAF pickup. And the PAF qualities is what people want in the neck position of their guitars. The pickup features four conductor wiring like most every modern pickup and an alnico 5 magnet. With this vintage design you get super smooth lead tones when used in the neck position on a high gain setup. The low end on the pickup is super smooth and the high end is clear but not harsh. It has some high end spank and crispness but it does not overpower the strong mid and lows that this pickup puts out. This really gives the pickup the ideal tone for neck position lead playing. The JB in the bridge position is great as well. This pickup is more eq'd on the high end for clarity. Because of this these pickups work best in guitars with darker woods. The output is about 16k so this pickup will drive just about any amp. You see these pickups in a lot of Les Paul style guitars because they can add some crispness to the naturally dark sound of those guitars. Seymour Duncan even goes as far as to say mahogany guitars with rosewood fretboards. You can get a really crisp tone. You can do classic rock to some kinds of metal with it. If it is not heavy enough for you get the EMG model.

OVERALL OPINION

The SD M-II combined modern playability with classic passive tone. You dont have to have a modern super searing active tone with your shred guitar. This guitar plays as well as any other guitar and sounds great with the Seymour Duncans. If you are looking for a shred guitar that still has some classic passive tone the ESP M-II SD is a great choice.