ESP Eclipse

See through wine red laminated Les Paul style body. Unless close-up or in good light, you can't see the wood grain. Don't know if it is American made ir Japanese. It's not an LTD. Chrome (nickel) hardware. Pearl tuners say Made in Japan. 24 frets neck with binding. Tune o matic stop tailpiece. 2 EMG 81's. 3 knobs: 1 volume and 2 tone.

I like to play metal, and the guitar sounds terrific. Not as amazing clean as distorted. No noise or hum at all. Only downside for me is that they sound so good, so tight that I sometimes miss the rawer sound of coil pickups.

I LOVE the way it plays. Some guitars just fit. I play this one better than any others I've owned. Had to raise the action a bit to get rid of fret buzz around the 5th fret. That was only on the low E though. Was originally set REALLY low. Still low, with fast easy playing. I love the look of it. No problems I can see. The binding on neck and headstock (not on body) looks sharp. The white ESP logo and pearl tuners set it off well.

The finish is thick and aint goin anywhere without some serious sanding or chemicals. IF I was a gigger (I just play for the love of it at home, like I have for the last 15 years) I would trust this guitar more than any other I've owned. Could be that it's just because its the only one I've owned that doesn't have a tremolo to put the strings out of whack, but it's solid. Drop down to D, back to E - no problems.

Never dealt with them. Strange, since I have 3 ESPs. I guess thats a testament to the company in itself.

Been playing for 16 years or so. I have a Yamaha accoustic. ESP M2 I took apart repainted and upgraded (Duncan Hotrails and Bill Lawrence L500). An LTD I put together with different eBay purchases (Duncan 59 and BL L500 - the Nuno setup - sounds GREAT). A Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet. Used to have a Kramer Focus 1000. Looking to get a Les Paul Standard. If I lost it (and that would be hard since it never leaves the house.... I do though) I would definitly look to replace it with another Eclipse or even their Viper which seems to be all the same, but with a killer looking SG-type body. I am a player who likes a fat distortion sound, and is not a speedster on the fretboard. I.E.-no more tremolos for me. I try add spice to the playing with bending and vibrato. When I play my other guitars I never use the bar anyway, so why not use something that keeps its tune better, and not deal with allen wrenches. The best part about it is that I got it off eBay, and to buy a guitar you've never touched that turns out to be just right was a stroke of good luck.

Born In 2000. Made in Japan. 22 frets, controls LP 2 vol, 2 tone and 3 way switch h/h passive humbuckers. beautiful mahogany body bolt maple neck bound rosewood fret board with medium frets. Tune o matic bridge. 24 3/4" neck scale slim taper kind of feel. Gotoh tuners.

This guitar when I first bought it kida pissed me off. Let me just say the esp pickupsreally were terrible. They were muddy in the bottom and harsh in the highs. I replaced the picups 6 diffrent times till I found somthing that worked. EMG's( I hated emg's but hey they worked)After that it totally kicked ass. Tight low end punchy mids cutting highs. This guitar loves high gain situations and sustains like a violin. I play it through A triaxis and 2:90. Clean tones in the bridge position are honky and percussive, the neck sounds hollow almost jazzy. I totally recomend emgs because one set of emgs sounds like another, duncans and dimarzios even if they are the same model can sound dramatically diffrent. This guitar sounded weak when I first bought but after the pickup swap it slayed ass and has become my main guitar.

The factory set up was good almost too low no buzz or dead spots. It was set up with 9's which is cool if you tune to e. I use 10-52's so I had it set up and intonated to play in c. Fret work was great required no finishing or filing. It came with a see through green finish on its 2 pc. mahogany body, great looking wood no ugly spots and quite heavy.it has a beefytune o mattic bridge which i replaced the stock saddles with the graphite ones, no more busted a strings!

I ve toured and beat this guitar to hell,it loves it. This guitar stays in tune and is not really climate sensitive, cold hot humid no problems.(did i mention I hate gibsons for this fact).I put dunlop sraplocks on it because I like to catch air off the drum riser and launch off monitors when I play live.They havent sripped out the body yet. I always have backup guitars,( black esp eclipse, and dark cherry esp viper) but rarley have technical diffuclties.change your damn strings!!

Esp sucks as far as customer support goes. Need a part.Fogeddaboudit!! I tred to get a new set of esp tuners because I broke one off at a show(damn side fill!!) I could not get anybody to sell them to me..I put some grovers on it and actuallyliked them better than the gotohs...

I've been playing for 14 years and own5 ESP's Gibson 91 LP standard and a 76 sg. If The above esp was stolen Id be screwed because they dont make them anymore, I'd be on ebay looking for a replacement. I love this guitar because IT STAYS IN TUNE!! Even when you throw a beatin on it.. Ive been a esp nut because all my favorite players were playing them and they had bad ass tone. I ordered this guitar from my buddy at mars because I wanted an esp wthout a floyd.At the time I had an MII delux and a horizon both had floyds. I eventually bought another eclipse and a viper the offset sg body. Its a real shame they do not make theses guitars anymore they totally kick ass and didnt cost 2 grand. LTD esp's are not real esp's, the same company that makes schecter diamond series makes Ltd's...Damn you Sammick!You can get real esp's through the custom shop but at around $3,500 you better have some KY handy..

This is the original "The Eclipse" Telecaster style body, not todays Les Paul style Eclipse.

1980's I believe, made in Japan back when ESP was great. 24 fret one peice killing machine. Carved top Tele body with 2 emg 81's, 1 volume, 1 tone, ESP Floyd Rose Trem. Rosewood fretboard, Jumbo frets.

This is my only guitar with EMG's, the 81's are very nice and well rounded, makes me play better since mistakes are more noticable. Very bright, I play through a Mesa Boogie DC-5 head and Genz Benz G-flex 2x12

Beautiful guitar, Lowest action I've ever seen or played and no buzzing

Guitar is over 10 years old and still great to mint condition

ESP sucks, no help, no info, especially on the older model guitars

I own alot, these early ESP from 80's are jackpots, half the price of guitars today and far, far better.

This is a beautiful 97' made in japan Esp eclipse standard.
It came with 2 esp humbuckers. The neck one was a coil tap.
I replaced them with an emg 89 in the neck and 81 in the bridge (no i'm not a metallica fan).
It has maple neck with a rosewood fretboard
mahogany body, see-thru purple finish
mother of pearl tuners, inlay, and esp logo
24 jumbo frets
2 volume and 1 tone contol
this guitars versatility is amazing

I love this guitar. If it got stolen i'd cry for weeks and then buy another one. I've never played a guitar that i like more than this.
The stock pickups are great, but they don't do the guitar justice.
The stock bridge humbucker is a little too mellow for me so i put an emg 81 in it. It sounds absolutly amazing now. I play alot of swedish metal ala in flames (old and new), dark tranquillity, etc. and alot of older american and euro thrash like old slayer, old metallica, old anthrax, accept, death, possessd, destruction, etc. This guitar can posses the heaviest metal tone, but then switch to the neck pup and you got a fat les paul sound suitable for rock/blues stuff. The stock neck pick up is great. when you pull the coil tap and make it a single coil, you can get the greatest clean tones. bright, crisp, clear cleans. Turn down the tone knob a bit, and you get a nice dark, fat jazzy tone. Then i put and emg 89 in, and it made the same tones, but better!
all and all, this guitar is extremely versital and can be used for any style you want.

Absolutly amazing playability.
When ever i strap mine on, its like the guitar was built for me. It had to have been! the serial number is my birthdate!
the body is contoured so nicly. It makes the guitar so comfortable to play.
Its like the feeling you get when you haven't seen your girlfriend in like a week, and you finally see her and give her a big hug and feel so happy that shes back in your arms. IT FEELS THAT GOOD EVERYTIME YOU PICK IT UP!!!

it takes a pretty hard whack on something to scratch most esp finishes. This one is no exception. Rock solid.

i've never tried contacting esp for anything.

This is the best guitar ever IMO.

`99 ESP MIJ Eclipse in wonderful see-thru-purple. I always wanted a real ESP since I can think - dammit, f**king Jaymz! this is not a crappy LTD version - and since ESP builds only LTD by now (and overrated Custom Shop ESP), this honey should be somewhen rare.
Has everything a guitar should have. No f***ing floyd rose trem, it sux anyway. Stop tailpiece. Killer tone. Wonderful action. nice weight, compared to Gibson LP's. Bound neck (rulez!) & head, chrome hardware. gotoh tunerz, suit perfectly. simply: a perfect guitar.

killer. period.

action on this "axe" ist the best I have ever played, or seen. It suits my style perfectly. Even the E-string tuned down to C makes absolutely no trouble, even with .10's! No joke!
PU's are awesome - the only problem is the chrome cover, which _always_ makes trouble nat higain & volume, no matter what guitar (who invented that s**t anyway?). so, I think of taking them down or maybe change to schaller golden '50 - the very best pickup (for the money).
finish is more than awesome. I think the body is made of mahogany (one piece! or perfectly matched two, but it's indistinguishable anyway), since the f**zfrom ESP have taken all information an Standard models from their website.

there is no guitar build to withstand live playing without any problems. I play for 10 years now, and as far as I can tell, you should _never_ gig without a backup. maybe it's only a string that breakes, and everybody knows that winding up a new string is quite awkward on a stage - not to mention the time you spend on that. also, never use the normal strap buttons, if you intend to jump on the stage or do some other "performance". believe me, strap locks are worth every buck you spend on them.
However, this guitar _will_ withstand a lot - equipped with strap locks, of course. countless (light) drops - the finish doesn't have not one dent! the head is similar to gibsons (i.e. bent slightly to the back), so don't be surprised if the head breaks off someday after dropping the guitar down.

well. it's a guitar. why should I expect support from a guitar maker from US or even Japan if I live in Germany?
Anyways, what for? "Excuse me, sir, my guitar neck broke. what should I do? Do I still have some warranty?" - this is stupid. You buy a guitar for playing. You play it. And no guitar is perfectly set up when bought. Either you know how to setup your guitar or you die (or you pay hell-lot-a-money for a guitar technician).

well made website - but the LTD guitars, which are only presented, suck-a-lot. the forum sux 2, thousands of pop-ups are annoying. I get the feeling ESP/LTD guitars are only used by some nu-metal suckerz (except ron wood, ok), who endorse LTD guitars. that's ridiculous.

If one comes across you way, stay away! It's mine! It's my killer!

OK, me stupido. I own a bunch of other guitars & amps, I play a lot of styles. This one suits rock. nothing else to say.

this is a 22 fret guitar with bolt on neck and transparent red finish. At first sight, I thought the guitar to be a tad bit boring looking even though it has a snazy transparent finish. The finish itself is not super high gloss (I can see my pores from the other side of the room) type of finish and it's not the most impressive trans color I've seen. The tansparency is so subtle you have to look twice. the laquer coating is smooth, thick and clean. it will probably last a very long time. My first impression of the guitar reminded me of my first experience with a Gibson SG. The guitar has some weight to it, it's not a super light strat guitar. I'm thinking it's more along the lines of a studio instrument.. It has lots of smooth contours and curves and the metal plate on the back of the guitar which sets the neck is curved and angled to help your hands as you attempt to access the higher regions of the neck. Thats the first time i've seen this.. and it does help a lot. the freboard has binding on the edges which is rare these days for a guitar that it less than $1000. The mother of pearl inlays are perfect. there is none of that ugly filler around the edges which makes up for badly drilled holes. Overall, the guitar is very well designed and engineered and fits into the professional catagory. It came set up and ready to go right out of the box, which is a big plus. My only experince with a high quality instrument was the Ibanez JEM 555 that I purchased a few years back. I paid around $800 for it and it only came in white at the time and the price didn't include a case. With all the hype at the time, I was unhappy from day one. I paid only $300 (including case) for the ESP and got a hell of a deal. It's a professional instrument with a great feel and tone. I'm very happy with it overall.. my feeling is that I'll keep it for a long time. The guitar also came with a les paul style three way pick up selector and it has two humbuckers and a good quality tune-o-matic bridge.

I like everything from Pink Floyd to Rammstein and everything inbetween. I'll experiment with everything from electronica to blues. I find this guitar to lend itself to many styles. I'm not using the guitar live or for gigs.. instead it's being incoporated into my studio style of playing. I pump it through a Line 6 Pod and I'm able to get some very good professional tones. Some people complain that the pickups are not hot enough and don't drive the tone very well.. this may be true, but it's hard for me to say, since I've never really played any kind of thrash metal or grunge.. (though I kidna like it). This isn't really the guitar to do that kind of stuff anway.. I'd probably buy a cheap used strat style guitar full of dings and scratches and drop in some good pickups to do stuff like that. Grunge doesn't require much quality it seems, only talent. this guitar is quality and with the right talent, you can explore many avenues.

the action came from the factory set up very well. a little fret buzz on the upper E string, but it has a tune-o-matic bridge which works.. so it's no prob to raise it a little. The truss rod was set up correctly (right out of the box) and the intonation is fine. The bridge pickup was a little high, but it was easly lowered a little bit. The fretwire on the neck was all set right and correct. Intonation is really good all the way up the neck. the finish contained a couple of tiny little flaws which have not bothered me much. Overall, the instrument is very well made and is a worthwhile instrument. Over the years, I've come to realize that instruments either "have" it or they "dont". this is an instrument which has it. It's musical and you can feel creative with it. The guitar came with a free hardshell flight case which is really super nice. So nice, that I'd want to put it into a box before I took it on an airline. hehe. It's a nice contoured fit and one of the nicest cases I've ever owned. One thing about guitars that I require is proper spacing between the strings. I have small hands and some guitars are just too much for me to handle. I've tended to keep to dinky instruments to help my playing. This guitar is well suited to anyone who had small to medium sized hands. I'm very comfortable with my ability to move from place to place around the neck.

I think this guitar will survive. But I've only had it for about a month so it's hard to judge something like that. If it were a studio guitar only, then I'm sure it could be a life long instrument. I'd gig with it without a back up but I'd probably change the strap buttons.. their just those generic ones you find on a japan strat. The finish seems thick and smooth and solid. I'm sure the finish will last a long time.

no experience with customer support.

I've been playing for 15 years off an on. I've played all kinds of guitars and stopped playing electric for a long time to learn classical guitar. I developed a new love <lust.?> for grunge and alternative styles and wanted a versatile guitar that could handle many styles of playing. And also, i wanted a guitar that wasn't too expensive.. for the price, I got everything I wanted and more. It's an excellent piece of craftmanship. If it were stolen I'd like to have a new one. I'm very happy with it overall.

This guitar is a 98'. It is a les paul style guitar. Translucent blue, 24 frets, 2 ESP lh-200 humbuckers with nickel covers, chrome hardware, pearl dot inlays(ESP inlay on the 12th fret), neck and fretboard binding and 2 volume knobs and one tone knob. It is a non tremlo guitar with a 3 way pickup selector switch. The body of the guitar is made of mahogany,bolt-on quartersawn maple neck with rosewood fingerboard with jumbo frets and maple headstock. The tuners are ESP tuners I guess. They are very nice tuners. The wood finish is very easy to polish. Plus, everything else is easy to polish. ESP strap locks. The guitar came with a very very nice case. It was a hardshell case with a "ESP" logo on the front. Inside the case there was a key to lock it and a truss rod wrench. The case is like the nicest I have ever seen for coming with the guitar. I love the features on this guitar. I have only one minor complaint. The strap locks. They are nicely put in but, they are very small in height so when I play standing up it looks like they will let the strap loose. So I plan to put some dunlop strap locks in. Other than that this guitar is awesome! I give this guitar a 9 because it is not perfect but close for the price. oh ya it comes with a lifetime warranty.

The sound of this guitar is very nice. I use this with mesa amps and cabinets. Which give me a nice rich tone. This guitar sounds very nice clean. Neck and bridge give a variety of clean tones. The neck gives a nice bluesy tone and the bridge gives a bright clean sound. Now for the distortion part of the pickups. I was a little disappointed in them. The bridge was not as hot as I expected. Just average tone. I will probably replace the bridge with a Duncan or another hot pickup. The neck pickup was ok. I will probably not replace the neck pickup because I really don't use it that much. So it would be pointless. The guitar defiantly suits my style. I play hard rock. Not like Kiss or any bands like that. But, like metallica and ozzy stuff. I gave this category a 8 because of the pickups. They really disappointed me. Other than that this guitar can rock with the best of them.

This guitar came with nearly perfect settings. The action was the lowest it can be with out any fret buzzing which I love. The guitar was clean and polished nicely. Tuners were not loose or anything, frets were assembled right, the pickups were at the right height, the guitar contained no flaws at all. At first I was worried the action was too low cause the strings sounded a little weird but after playing it a while I figured out it was the new strings. It came with GHS strings( and I know this cause there was a little card that said it.) Everything was great. I give this section a 10 because these were the best factory settings I personally have had.

I can not really comment on this category. I have only had this about 3 weeks. So far everything is as perfect as I got it. The strap locks like i said before are a little small. But its not a big deal. For using this guitar without a back up, I would never use anything without a backup. But, I would probably end up using it the whole gig. Everything seems like it would last.

I can't give a rating for this one either. I have never dealt with them. The only thing is. I live in Pittsburgh. They are in CA. So it would be expensive to call and ask questions for a while. So wish on their webpage they had someone I could e-mail. But oh well. Their webpage is www.espguitars.com

I have been playing this guitar for about 3 weeks and like I said it is as good as it was 3 weeks ago. I own a ibanez rg, a fender strat and epi acoustic. So, this guitar is the best in my arsenal. I have not touched my other 2 electrics since I got this guitar. If this guitar was stolen, and I was going to spend the same amount of money. Yes I would get this again. But, if I was going to spend a couple hundred more. I would probably get a Paul Reed Smith or a Gibson Standard. What I love about this guitar the most is the true rock sound that it can get. There is not much left I don't like about it that I have not mentioned. I tried other guitars like Gibson Les Paul Studio. Thats a very nice guitar but it didn't have the craftsmanship like this one. I also tried out some washburn guitars. Nothing compared to this one. If you looking for a true metal guitar..this is not for you..if your looking for a country guitar..this is not for you..if your looking for a guitar that has a rich rock tone. This is for you. Finaly, for $875 this guitar was a great find and I glad I got it
P.S. feel free to write to me with any questions you have about this guitar.