ESP AC-200E

This is the newly released ESP acoustic range. This is a thin-boy guitar with cutaway and quilted maple top, sides and back. It comes with a ESP Piezo pickup and an ESP AE-4 4-band active preamp. Rosewood bridge and fretboard, mahogany neck, mother of pearl dot inlays with the model number (AC-200E) at the 12th fret. The neck has 20 frets and sadly came with only one strap button. The guitar guy had to install another strap button at the front. The bindings of the neck and headstock are white and this baby is made in the USA. Apparently ESP is releasing a hardcase for the guitar only now, so I had to purchase a standard classical hardcase from my guitar shop.

I play mainly acoustic rock, punk rock and Christian gospel music. This guitar suits my style perfectly. I play for my church on stage, and I plug it in directly to the sound stage without any amps, and it sounds GREAT! The brightness is definitely there! You can hear the *chink chink* whenever you strum on the guitar. I'm currently using D'Addario XL strings so the richness and fullness is not quite there... I'll be changing to custom light strings once my current set is due for changing. I find the base slightly lacking, but that is easily fixed by the preamp. This guitar is definitely made for the stage performer! I give this guitar a 9 if not for the lack of a more bassy kick to it as compared to the Washburn EA-18 (which I was comparing it with when I was buying this guitar).

The factory set up was OK. Not bad, not too good, but just OK. I had the repairman at the shop tweak the action down just a LITTLE bit and it plays like a dream now. Intonation is good (I'm not too sure coz I've only been playing for a while now). The only problem I had was with a buzzing in the battery compartment. Initially I didn't know what the problem was and I assumed my truss rod was too tight and so I loosened it myself and the buzz was still there. By now I freaked out and went back to the shop where the guitarman was just as dumbfounded as I was. We later realised that it was the battery compartment was vibrating! However this only happened when you play the A string on the 9th fret. He offered to let me change the guitar for a brand new one, but I didn't because I've already attached an extra strap button to it. Did I fix the buzz? Sure as hell I did! Just a bit of tissue paper stuffed into the battery compartment made sure it was nice and snug and the buzz was gone! I would have given the guitar a 10 if not for the buzzing, but I'll give it an 8. I reckon other ESP's wouldn't have this problem.

I've done Gospel praise & worship once live on stage already, and it was magnificent. This guitar is solid stuff! It's so dependable now that I've sold off my backup guitar (Yamaha APX-4A) too! Although I'm not so sure about the gold machine heads... I'm just thinking that the gold might just fade off in time to come. Might just change tuners then.

Haven't had any dealings with ESP as yet. Darn I forgot to ask the guitar shop how long was the warranty.

Please note the the RRP of this guitar is AUD$1199. So that means I got a steal!! I think it's really a bargain considering how it looks. I was a bit skeptical of it being quilted all over, but it turns out to be really eye-catching. I only with ESP released the hardcase at the same time so I can have the full set.