ESP George Lynch M1 Tiger

I got this new in 2003. It has an all maple, 22 jumbo fret neck. Neck is similar to the old 80's Charvel necks. Very fast (very wide radius). 1-3/4 at the nut. As I said it is very fast. It is similar to a strat "C" neck. Similar, but with better response due to the flat crown. Tall frets great for speed and vibrato.
This is a true ESP made in Japan. The finish is emaculate. I also have an ESP Kamikaze I. Great finish there too. I is a solid maple (two piece) body strat style. Light guitar for maple but the body is thin. My Kamikaze is like carrying a cinder block around. It only has one seymor duncan screamin demon pickup in it. One volume knob only. no tone. It has the George Lynch tiger graphic which was nicely done. Origional Floyd Rose. Came with a nice ESP hardshell case.

This guitar was made to rock. It is very reminiscent of old 80's Charvels, HM strats, Jacksons, etc. It actually has a nice clean sound (I use a 50 watt marshall head with a JCM 900 4X12 bass cab and a reissue marshall VT1960 4X12 with greenbacks. I use a dod compressor/sustainer for clean with a dod delay). The neck and body match very well. It is a little brite, but the use of the 4X12 bass cabinet really fattens it up. It is great for legato runs, arpeggio's and other hot rod lead work. It has a suprisingly good rythm sound. The more the exotic the chords the better.
I play a variety of styles from fusion to hard rock to blues (I have been playing 26 yrs) and this guitar does well in all venues. I have been very pleasently suprised. This guitar (and the screamin deamin pickup) actually improve in sound quality the louder you get. I can't say this for every guitar I own (I have 13 electrics of various makes)

The factory did a good set up on this guitar. It played pretty much perfectly right out of the case. The only adjustment I made was to the trem system. The lower bolt was too far in so I raised it about a turn (the high E was fretting out) and it took care of everything. The pick is sets in springs unlike the Kamikaze which is bolted directly into the wood. The Kamikaze sustains much better than the M I. (the Kamikaze is also about an inch thicker body)

Both my ESP are tough as nails. I would put one of these guitars up against anything except a strat. The Floyd Rose is made of real metal and the Gotoh Keys should last forever. Gigging with a lock down guitar is always like Russian Rullet, but I have gig with old Charvels and lived through it. So yes, I'd gig with it.

I've never dealt with ESP.

I've been playing guitar constanly for 26 years. I have a lot of guitars (13 as stated above). I have Old Charvels, various fenders including a reisue jaguar and a couple of strats. I have a PRS single cut and a les paul standard, and a warmoth homemade job. My ESPs are second only to my 1981 Van Halen Charvel (see my review) and in some ways superior. I really enjoy lots of variety out of one guitar and I have found ways of getting that with most of the above guitars. If this guitar was stolen I would hunt the person down and inserted it into their lower oraface and add a little super glue, wait an hour or so, then forcefully remove it, restring it, and play it some more (in other words, don't get any ideas about taking my axe)

This guitar is one-piece maple with a maple neck and a maple fingerboard. The thing doesn't feel like maple. It's not very heavy. My Sunburst Tiger and Kamikaze... now *those* are maple. This feels like Alder or Ash... not quite as light as basswood, but not opressively heavy. Still, it says it's maple, so what do I know...

There is one pickup (Screamin' Demon) and one volume knob. Unlike the other Lynch models, the pickup uses a mounting ring and isn't direct-mounted to the body. It has an original Floyd Rose and black hardware. The neck is also different from the other Lynch models. It is more like a Strat neck and shape, but with a flat fingerboard.

This guitar actually isn't too bad and I may consider playing it out. The problem is there is only one pickup. I play progressive hard rock and use a 5150 head and cabinet with assorted Boss pedals. It sounds much fuller than my Sunburst Tiger or my Kamikaze for one reason or another... just doesn't make sense. It is still fairly bright, but has a fullness the other two are lacking. It's still no competition for my Wolfgangs or JPM, but much better than the other two ESP's I own. I wouldn't use it for clean sounds because of the single pickup.

This guitar was actually set up pretty well from the factory. I intonated it and made sure there was enough relief just to make sure. The finish was very well done. It looks exactly like my Sunburst Tiger, but obviously doesn't have the purple burst on the outside edges. The only issue I have is a small gap that was noticed right in front of the pickup mounting ring between it and the wood... like the mounting ring wasn't long enough. Truly out of place on a $1200 guitar. I deduct a point for that and another because you had to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod (same as the Kamikaze and the Sunburst Tiger). Otherwise, it wasn't bad.

This guitar stands up as well as my other ESP's in terms of build. My only reasons for not playing it live are the floating tremolo and the fact it only has one pickup. Other than those things, the guitar is actually built very well.

ESP's customer supports sucks donkey phalii. 'Nuff said... see my review on the Kamikaze.

I have been playing 13 years and have two other ESP's, four Wolfgangs, an Ibanez JPM and two Strats. I also have a Taylor acoustic... forgot about that one. If it were stolen, again I'd run out and clobber the guy with it because it cost so much money. I love the simplicity of the guitar, but I also hate it... you're limited with one pickup. It's a cool guitar... looks cool like my other two Lynch models, but not something that I'd die without. They don't sound particularly have my sound, but they look cool.

Maple body with 22 fret, bolt-on Maple Neck/Fingerboard. Recessed Original Floyd Rose with Duncan Screaming Demon. M1 Tiger graphic. Price included case.

Never had the chance to play it.

Absolutely Disgraceful!!! ESP should be ashamed. The neck was installed crooked and the base of the neck was very loose in the pocket. I have a hard time believing that there was ANY quality control in place to allow this guitar to be shipped. It was essentially unplayable. The dealer called ESP to complain and ESP made numerous excuses which is when I backed out of the deal.
There was also considerable overspray between the stripes and the yellow and white graphic.

Never found out.

Horrible. I was very suprised at how indignant ESP's response to the dealer was. They finally agreed to ship another M1 but could not commit as to when. They weren't sure as to "when they would receive the next shipment of bodies from Japan."

There are too many other quality guitar manufacturers out there to deal with these yahoos. When considering the price and limited features of this model, ESP should be able to deliver an amazingly built guitar. Instead they delivered junk.