ESP EC Custom

2003, Japan made custom shop ESP eclipse. 25.5 scale, with sperzel tuners, stoptail bridge, neck-thru body with 2 humbuckers and coil tap pull knob for neck pup. 24 fret, beautiful silver sparkle star over black finish. 1 volume 1 tone. EMG 89 in neck, Duncan live wire heavy metal in bridge ( I play in a cover band that does everyhing from elvis to limp bizkit and the live wire metal can do pretty much everything, it does more than metal and sounds tighter and thicker than an EMG). Neck style is thin flat, which on this guitar is similar to a PRS wide thin, there is another option which is thin extra flat which I suppose is similar to a Jackson, or Ibanez wizard neck. Normal frets, not jumbo because it is easier to adjust action without dealing with fret buzz, and on this guitar the normal frets are plenty high.

My main rig is using this guitar through a boogie single rectifier (which I will be replacing with a framus cobra very soon), and a carvin Legacy with vintage 30's. The sounds that I can get out of the bridge pup are the best when the are very over driven, the guitar retains clarity and gives a very gringing sound but is still smooth which is hard to believe through a rectifier. I have to use the amps vintage channel on distortion because with the modern channel it was way to bright and bitey even with the presence, mids, and treble rolled back. Very tight over drive with tons of harmonics, and the capability of generating very rich controlable feedback, and sustain lasts all day. I have only had the guitar for about 2 weeks and fans of the band who would other wise not know the difference in sound have supprisingly been comenting on how good it sounds. The neck pup in humbucker mode is very clean and warm, I have been having a little bit of difficulty in getting a good presence out of it but i think that is because of the boogie. I am going to try to switch it to pushed mode on the clean channel to help boost the presence some. Guitar is very quite even though the amp may be slightly noisy. all in all i love the sound of the guitar and can't wait to here it through a nice amp.

When it arrived from the factory it was like a dream. Everything was set up perfect. I had asked them to set it up for half step down with 11 guage strings and they did everything perfect. The finish was exactly the same as the art work I had faxed to them for the body, and the custom fretboard inlays. The playability was perfect, it was the first time i ever understood what people meant by "It plays itself" frets were not hanging off edge of nech at all, everything on this guitar flows together. This is easily understood because it was handmade in Japan, and attention to detail is obviously a forte. I could not have asked for a better job on this guitar.

Can't judge because i have not had it long enough. But so far i have had no problems and i have been playing 5 nights a week with it since i have had it. I would not gig without a backup ever just because shit happens, and it seems to happen to me a lot so it's more of a safety thing.

Tough to get a hold of people who actually knew what was going on with my guitar since it was across the world, but after it came back to the states ESP was very helpful.

Been palying guitar for about 5 years this is by far the best guitar I own. The other guitar player in my band is playing a PRS custom 22 and a custom shop Brubaker (awesome guitar), through a triple rectifier, and is extremely jealous of my tone, and the actual look and feel of my ESP. Other instuments I own are a Custom shop Carvin, and a fernandes Monterey elite which is great for heavy stuff and the sustainer is cool the mess with. If this guitar were stolen I would get another without a doubt, im planning on ordering another one this year anyway, there great guitars and they make a great tax write off. If you ever want to experience a guitar that is more than just an instrument that everybody else in the business is playing ESP is the best there is, the LTD stuff is no representation of what they can do.