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Hatsubai « The original Hetfield Explorer »
Published on 05/31/11 at 19:52This is the ESP that everyone drools over, all thanks to James Hetfield. The guitar features a mahogany body, set mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 extra jumbo frets, a hardtail TOM bridge, two pickups, one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
This guitar easily rivals any Gibson you throw at it. First of all, I should mention that there are various versions of this guitar. The one I'm playing is one of the older models that cost quite a bit, all thanks to Metallica fanboys driving up the price. The fretwork is hard to comment on as there was some wear thanks to this instrument being fairly old, but the edges were nice and round. The finish was a bit scuffed up, so I also can't comment on that. However, from what I saw, the guitar seemed put together fairly well.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds absolutely massive, and it has this aggression that normal Les Pauls don't usually get. The guitar had an EMG 81 and an EMG 60 combo, but I'm not sure if that's stock or not. The EMG 81 in the bridge sounded huge with the mahogany. It's like they were a match made in heaven. You could get crazy aggressive tones without it ever sounding thin or piercing. The EMG 60 in the neck is great for cleans, and the lead tones can give this neat single coil tone. However, I'm not a huge fan of the 60; I tend to prefer the 85 in the neck.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars aren't cheap, and that's all thanks to Metallica fanboys driving up the price like crazy and Gibson suing ESP due to copyright infringement. If you have the cash to shell out for one of these, I honestly believe they're better than most Gibson equivalents due to Gibson's QC going downhill lately. However, if you find a nicely built Gibson, it might be worth considering over this simply due to the price.
UTILIZATION
This guitar easily rivals any Gibson you throw at it. First of all, I should mention that there are various versions of this guitar. The one I'm playing is one of the older models that cost quite a bit, all thanks to Metallica fanboys driving up the price. The fretwork is hard to comment on as there was some wear thanks to this instrument being fairly old, but the edges were nice and round. The finish was a bit scuffed up, so I also can't comment on that. However, from what I saw, the guitar seemed put together fairly well.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds absolutely massive, and it has this aggression that normal Les Pauls don't usually get. The guitar had an EMG 81 and an EMG 60 combo, but I'm not sure if that's stock or not. The EMG 81 in the bridge sounded huge with the mahogany. It's like they were a match made in heaven. You could get crazy aggressive tones without it ever sounding thin or piercing. The EMG 60 in the neck is great for cleans, and the lead tones can give this neat single coil tone. However, I'm not a huge fan of the 60; I tend to prefer the 85 in the neck.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars aren't cheap, and that's all thanks to Metallica fanboys driving up the price like crazy and Gibson suing ESP due to copyright infringement. If you have the cash to shell out for one of these, I honestly believe they're better than most Gibson equivalents due to Gibson's QC going downhill lately. However, if you find a nicely built Gibson, it might be worth considering over this simply due to the price.