ESP KH-2 Kirk Hammett Signature

rose wood fret board, maple bolt on neck, alder body. two emg 81,pickups, three way switch, two volumes and amaster tone. original floyd rose black.skull and cross bone inlays and nice case

this guitar comes intonated really nice,, the action is very low without buzz.
i use a bogner =UBERSCHALL FULL STACK, with a DBX-noise gate in the loop and a morley bad horsie-2 in front. that is it
the guitar is very tight in the bass, more so than i thought. but it lacked the super high presance ( bite ) that my sg or viper has with the same pickups.
the bass travel is really tight.
in light of this i removed the tone control and that opened the sound a little more, ( gave it more air ) but i still needed a little more edge.
so i got an =EMG-VMC= ( the ultamate -cut- boost- active tone control)
so i boost the high end of the-81- just a tad.
that works great, i should of bought this guitar years ago . it plays really fast and is so well putogether,, stays in tune great ,,, i always feared the floyed rose ,,, butr tis is not a problem,, with this ax.
i keep the pick up flat to the body on the neck pickup as i do with my other guitars with =EMG-81's) IN THE NECK,, FOR A CLEARER TONE AND TO AVOID PICK SCRAPES.
WITHE THE NECK PICKUP SET LOW AND USEING THE =emg-vmc= I CAN GET ALL KINDS OF SINGLE COIL COIND TO THE MOST NOZZLY HONK'N= HALF COCKED WAH SOUNDS,,
THE FLOYD REALLY STAYS IN TUNE WELL,, AND I AM NEW TO THE FLOYD. I ALLWAYS USED STANDARD BRIDGE'S OR KAHLERS.
THE ROSEWOOD FRET BOARD IS REALLY DARK ANDTHAT IS WHAT I WAS HOPEING FOR.
SUSTAIN IS FANTASTIC. THIER ARE NO BINDINGS AND I THINK THAT MAKES THE NECK FEAL EVEN FASTER AND SMOOTHER,, THE NECK IS THIN ,, VERY THIN, BUT NOT SILLY THIN LIKE SOME OTHER GUITARS.

THE PAINT JOB IS PERFECT, BUT IT IS SO PERFECT THAT YOU CAN'T TOUCH IT WITH SUPER CALISED FINGER TIPS LIK MINE WITHOUT GIVEING FINE SCRATCH'S... AND FINGER PRINTS,, I WISH IT HAD A RUBBER COATED BODY.

WELL I THING THIS IS THE BEST MADE GUITAR I HAVE OWNED, EVEN BETTER THAN MY =gibsons=... but i do not like that out of tune thing it does when it is subgected to tepatere change, but when tuned back up it is back in action.

esp == will is very cool...

if you are looking for a guitar that is going to give you great balenced tone, this is a great guitar, but beware floyd rose trems are tricky some times and if youdo not have have an ear for that micro note it could drive you nuts

I own a strange KH2 left handed with a shaller floyd rose tremolo and its serial number is 1099. I bought it from Germany in 1993. 2 EMG 81's.

It has a great overdrive tone but no clean tones at all.

Action is just perfect. the most comfortable guitar I have ever played. The alder wood body is top quality. nice sustain. The neck is really hard that you can set a really great low action.

This is the best guitar you can buy if you play heavy metal but it is not for every single style. forget clean tones....

My ESP KH-2 was made in February of 1998. Mine is signed by Kirk Hammett in silver paint pen on the back plate covering the trem cavity. I think it was made in the USA. It has a 24 fret maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. There are 2 volume knobs (one for each pickup), 1 tone knob, and a three way slotted toggle switch. The pickup config. is dual EMG 81's. The EMG 81's run off of a 9 volt battery and are active as you probably guessed. The body is alder and the neck is maple. The finish is gloss black. All out heavy metal. The body style is a jackson soloist shape. The bridge is an Original Floyd Rose Tremolo. The tuners are non-locking gotohs. The neck is a thin-flat shape. It came with the ESP case, Certificate, allen wrenches, and the trem bar.

I play strictly heavy metal ranging from Kill Em All Metallica to anything else you can think of. I use it with a Crate 1200GFX Head and a Mesa/Boogie 2x12 Cabinet and the sounds I can get are incredible. The guitar is very silent. The sounds are awesome for rhythm, lead, and clean tones. There is more than enough variety of sounds. This guitar is a shredders dream. I like everything about it.

The guitar was set up perfect. The action is incredible. Its very close to my Jackson USA RR1 if not better. The pickups are also incredible. The guitar has no flaws whatsoever, its in mint condition.

This fine piece of art would definitely withstand live playing. The hardware is rock solid. The finish is exceptional also. I will change the strap buttons to Schaller Strap Locks only because thats what all my guitars have on them. I wouldn't play a gig without a backup not because I'm insecure but because I use a few different tunings and wouldn't want the hassle of unlocking the nut and tuning down.

I've never had to deal with ESP yet but I heard that they're great with customer service.

I have been playing guitar for 4 and a half years and own 2 Ibanez RG's which are nothing compared to my Jackson and ESP and I own a 1985 Ibanez Acoustic-Electric. I have a vintage 1970 Yamaha combo and a variety of pedals. If it were stolen I'd have to save up the cash to definitely buy another one. I love everything, especially the EMG 81's. They are extremely incredible. This guitar has everything I want in a guitar. Feel free to email me with questions or comments.

When I got this guitar for my 15th birthday I was so stoked. Nothing beats it still. I've got another Gibson Les Paul Elegant (Firemist) with EMG-89's as well. I can't believe the distortions I've been able to hit with this. I can make any girl come with this puppy in my arms! I got it for aroung $1700 brand new because I sort of weasled the bastards down from a whopping $2150. I called up ESP an wasn't even put on hold. I was able to talk to very informative employees everytime I called, and once again: I wasn't even put on hold.

The REAL Floyd-Rose tremolo is one of the things that impressed me the most about this beast. I never would have seen this type of honestly flawless work from Ibanez or any of those nasty off-brand companies. The neck flys just like you'd dream of. Even if you're working up a sweat your hands will still be able to fly up and down the neck with ease. 24 frets are a nice bonus as well.

The active pickups have been blowing my ears away through a Marshall 4x12 slant powered by a Mesa Boogie dual-rec. You'll have to replace the battery about once in 3 months. Unplug the guitar when your done with each session or the battery will drain. ESP shipped it with very durable case padded with the nicest interior I've felt. The 3-way selector between the H/H EMG-81 pickup-setup operates flawless and doesn't feel loose or cheap like anything Ibanez.

The Gotoh tuners are excellent. Work nice and quickly.

Nothing beats one of these for hard-powerful metal. Throw your highs up, mids in the middle, and lows up high, with the pickup setting toggled to the humbucker closest to the neck and you'll have the illest punchy-distortion you've ever heard!

As with all guitars, ESP would have shipped this with 9's. But, since I called in, it was shipped with 10's and the bridge was set perfectly. I tinkered with the action for less than 10 minutes before I was perfectly satisfied.

Can you say: "SOLID" ?!! What a beast! It'll take any thrashing and the REAL Floyd-Rose with Gotoh tuners combo makes me tune it seriously less than once in two weeks even with the amount I play it and how hard it's played. Even when I do tune it I'll just have to tap the bridge tuning system and wham, back to normal.

I've already explain all this above. Perfect.

I'm set. I've played so many different Ibanez guitars and Jackson stuff. I'm over all of those, ESP is mine forever. I've still got an Ibanez RG-470 and I hate it, what a pile! I've got a PRS Singlecut as well, but that's on a different level than this KH-2. I told about my other Gibson Elegant with EMG-89's. I use that one for stuff that's not so heavy, but still distortion-related.

Standard KH-2

When I first got this guitar, used on ebay, I was very disapointed with the sound. Some of the fret positions rang out for no particular reason, and the neck pickup acted real wierd.

Then I discovered the thing has a battery in it!! I put a new battery in and whamo, now I sound just like JH himself (IMHO!).

fabulous

so far so good, just remember to change the battery (and note take it out of the smoke detector like I did!).

no idea

If you love matalica, sooner or later you will want one of these.

dunno what year, don't know anything except how it sounds, feels, plays, etc. and costs. damn thing's a ripoff. you could buy an M100 for 200 bucks, stick EMG-81's and a real floyd for another 200/300, and even at 500 it's much cheaper than the 1500 KH-2 and sounds just as good, you just won't have the inlays and kirk's spray-painted signature. three knobs, three-way pickup selector (which works fine), 24 frets, bolt-on piece of shit (although one of the better bolt-ons i've played), typical maple/alder combo. pretty cool inlays. the best thing about this guitar is the pickups. more on that below:

7 because for something that costs so much, it should be at least a neck-through

the sound. played it for an hour at sam ash (wonderful store, just go in and play and nobody bugs you, you don't even have to buy anything). the clean sound is...eh...heard better. on neck position, it's decent for clean sounds. on bridge, it gets some really raw crunchy chords, but it's in the middle position where this guitar really shines. really thick, really crunchy, great full tone. perfect for leads. however, not what i expected from all the hype about EMG-81's. maybe it was the noise in the music store, but they're not THAT much better than stock crap HZ's or duncan designeds. wonderful pickups, would probably sound even better with a third 81 in between the other two, but not as full or as smooth as i would have liked. worth buying after-market though, i'm getting 707's because of them. great for heavy rock leads, maybe metal too, but not a very scooped sound. they go very well with some mids. 9 because they're not as great as they claim to be sometimes. and what's really depressing is that my M207 with stock pickups gets more sustain than this thing with 81's, which are advertised on the ESP website as having "incredible sustain". not so. then again it could have just been the crap store guitar.

average finish, average action. can't really judge because it's been through countless people and a sam ash (read: somewhat abused) store. nothing really wrong with it, although i would have put the pickups a bit higher for more output.

never counted much on reliability, never had a guitar break and snapped a string only once in over a year of playing bass and guitar. seems fairly solid, not like fall-apart fender crap (they seem really flimsy), but nothing like a solid neck-through.

overall: overpriced and overhyped, as are the pickups, and i wouldn't buy one of these, i'd just get 81's (or 707's as i'm a 7-stringer) installed in a current guitar. the sound is great however, don't get me wrong, but not as great as some would like to think. considering the price, it gets a 2. not considering the price, it's pretty good.

2000 model, made in Japan, 24 frets, 2 volume knobs, 1 tone knob and 3 way pick-up selector. EMG 81 active pick-ups in the neck and bridge position. It comes with the original, always reliable Floyd Rose tremolo. Nice skull and crossbone inlays and super thin, fast neck. Black, black, black, I would've given this guitar a 10 in this category if I could've had another color choice and if it was equipped with different pick-ups for the neck and bridge position.

This is definitely a shredder's guitar, it seems to do very well with high end tones, but not enough low end for me. I attribute this to the fact that this guitar was designed for a lead guitarist. Also the fact that ESP featured the exact same pick-up in the neck and bridge position, this definitely limits the sound of this guitar. I will probably end up swapping the neck pick-up.

ESP did a hell of a job, The black finish is flawless and mirror-like. The inlays are inpressive and cleanly done. The action was perfect and was in tune right out of the box. Well Done!

All I can say is the original Floyd Rose is rules. I don't know how I can go back to one of those "licensed" ones. I have put this guitar through the paces and I can't throw it out of tune.

Never gig w/o a backup if you're axe is equipped with a Floyd Rose!

This axe is rock solid, and it will outlast me!

LIFETIME WARRANTY....enough said.

This is a great guitar, the quality is excellent. If it weren't for the pick-ups, I would've easily given this guitar a 10.

I play it mostly through a Peavey 5150 or a really cool Fender CyberTwin. In addition to this guitar, I've got an Ibanez JEM10, Ibanez JS10 and Peavey Wolfgang special....it's definitely in good company.

My guitar is a 2001 ESP KH-2 made in Japan. It has 24 frets, alder body, bolt on neck, dual EMG 81 pickups, and a Floyd Rose Original Tremlo. This guitar is the best. The Floyd Rose Original Tremlo Never Goes out of tune. I have had this guitar for 8 months and it never goes out of tune. It stays in perfect tune!

The EMG 81 Pickups are definatly the best pickups for distortion. With these pickups you can get a really thick distortion and they are great for playing leads. Also for clean they are great. Just for the neck pickup, roll down the volume a bit and you can acheive a very warm sound that is excellent.

Everything Came as Expected. No Flaws. No fingerprints, and was in perfect tune and stayed that way forever.

This guitar is one of the most durrable guitars. It Will Never Go Out Of Tune! I would definatly gig without a back up for this guitar. I will only bring a backup incase i pop a string. The finish is solid and is difficult to scratch.

The warranty is great and the guitar isbuilt strong and is well made. I heard good things about ESP.

I give it a 10! I like everything about it. It feels so smooth and plays faster than anything else. ALSO IT LOOKS GREAT! GET THIS GUITAR. IT IS THE BEST!

Made 2001 In Japan. 24 of the greatest frets I have ever played on. V-V-T control with 3 way switch. EMG-81's in the bridge and neck, blah, blah, it's all been covered. Came with a case, t-shirt, a boatload of catalogs, picks, strings, guitar strap, bumper stickers, Jason at Drumcityguitarland RULES!!! Thanks Jason!!! If you want one of these www.drumcityguitarland.com trust me.

I usually don't give 10's to anything....But:
I play mainly metal, the EMG-81's do just that, deliver mind bending, skull crushing metal tones, these things are awesome!!! Incredible sound through my AX2 set on rectified with customized eq settings, I FEEL THE EARTH SHAKE!!! Sounds good through a POD 2.0 as well. The clean sounds are pretty good too. Another thing, if I'm not playing, the guitar is SILENT! I've heard people bitch about having 2 81's instead of "other" configurations, I find this configuration still to be rocking. Are there other configurations that would suit rhythm playing better, sure, but this is Kirk's guitars, he leaves the meaty rhythm stuff to Jaymz. Go buy a Hetfield guitar for that.

Action was perfect, effortless to play this thing, wasn't in tune, but who cares, it went from Califorinia, to Colorado, to freaking 112 degrees in the spring Arizona, didn't expect it to be in tune. Pickups adjusted fine, no flaws (believe me I checked) this thing is CHERRY!!!!

Will it withstand live playing? I don't know, ask the 'tallica boys. It feels solid. First day of playing, I unplugged from my amp and the cord got away from me, hitting my guitar, I heard that heartstopping THWACK, ugh, my KH-2 is a few hours old and I dinged it!!!! I looked and looked and looked but couldn't find a mark (thank god) seems pretty solid to me. Strap buttons are small, gonna buy some straplocks though, problem solved.

HELLO!!! LIFETIME WARRANTY!!! I've had it for less than a day.

Have been playing for about 20 years, I have coveted this guitar since the first year they came out (I don't even know when that was, but it was quite a while ago) I finally got it! Worth every penny. On the downside, this guitar makes my $1100 Ibanez Prestige feel.....hmmmm, not so Prestige. I love the neck on this thing. If it were stolen or lost, I'd go postal, but definitely buy one again. I love everything about it, the neck is amazing, the sustain is amazing (even for a bolt-on) I really dig the skull 'n crossbone inlays, I have compared it to all the other guitars I have owned or played in the past 20 or so years, and this one is by far the best in my hands, this is my first, but definitely not last ESP, wish it had neck-thru, but the bolt on is completely fine as well. If anyone would like to e-mail me with questions, please feel free. You can buy it local if you can find one, or talk to Jason at drumcityguitarland. I can't plug these guys enough. Jason knows all about customer service. I bugged the crap out of him and he always returned e-mails and phone calls. Way cool dude! Thanks a million!!!

Made in Japan in 1999. Has 24 extra jumbo frets(very nice). 2 volume controls, 1 tone. 3 way switch. 2 active EMG 81 humbuckers. maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, and an alder body, i think. strat style body with a black finish. mirror image. i could shave with this guitar as mirror the finish is that good. the only down side to such a good finish is that it scratches easily and fingerprints show up really bad. i take super good care of this guitar and it still gets little nicks on it, and of course there isnt much you can do about pick scratchs. floyd rose tremolo, fucking brilliant little invention. i beat the crap out of the whammy, dumping it and wrenching it back and the tuning of the mother doesnt vary at all. good 'ol double locking.
comes with a black vinyl hard case, with an ESP logo riveted on. very nice case. mine also came with a bunch of other stuff. i got heaps of free guitar picks, catalogues, magazines, and an ESP t shirt. its got the ESP logo with the head of this guitar over it but with James hetfields orange flame artwork on it. it looks awesome

i play metal and a bit of softer stuff. in the metal department i play anything from metallica(kill em all right through to s&m), to tool to pantera to fear factory to meshuggah. in the softer stuff department i play eric clapton, pearl jam, led zepplin etc. well for starters, these pickups were made for metal, period. they absolute shit all over my old guitars pickups(jackson stock pickups, wow). i play through a marshall 100W valvestate, with a boss metalzone, acoustic simulator (very cool pedal), super chorus, shure wireless, and a morley bad horsie wah. im planning on upgrading my amp very soon. im sick of the solidstate pedal distortion. i want an amp distortion preferably tube. probably a mesa dual rectifier or triaxis, and i wanted to try a randall warhead, but everyone seems to hate em, but ill try it anyway. i can get just about any distortion metallica use, probably because it is kirk's guitar. how ironic. with my chorus i can get this thing to sound just like the nothing else matters sound. i can get as heavy as pantera, but not quite as heavy as fear factory and meshuggah, but that is because they use 7 strings. i can get damn good clean sounds too. thats one thing which i really like about this guitar. a lot of amps and guitars only specialize in one sound. fender strats are the clean, peavey 5150 the distortion, etc. this guitar can do both. the neck pickup probably couldve been something else though. i dont see the point in 2 pickups being the same. of course you do get a different tone when you change, but still, a different pickup would be nice. i would like to give it about a 9.5 because of the same pickups, but it was either 9 or 10, and it isnt perfect, not much is.

set up perfectly from the factory. ESP are one reliable company. my action was perfect. i opened the box, opened the case, stared in awe at it for a bit, picked it up and started playing. in perfect tune. EADGBE. and this is after it got airmailed from america to australia. hows that for good.

will this guitar withstand live playing? well, i think the lifetime warranty speaks for itself. i dont abuse my guitar, but i play it heaps, so it has had a good working, and the finish is tough. it isnt wearing off any time soon, if ever. i would gig with it without a backup, but you dont know if you're going to break a string. (which i havent done yet on this guitar, ive just replaced them because they were deteriorating. i live on a lake, very moist air. its fucking annoying)

lifetime warranty. need i say more. i havent had to deal with them yet. i dont think ill ever need to, but ive heard they are very helpful. they seem to be the guitar equivalent of mesa/boogie in sound and service

ive been playing for about 5 years now. i made a big gamble buying this guitar. i wanted to buy a new guitar, and i wasnt going to spare any expense. i was looking around for about a year, checking out sites, trying out guitars in shops, thousands of reviews, blah blah blah. in the end, it all came back to this guitar. looks, sound, features, and the reputation of ESP had a big part in it too. the only catch was that at the time you couldnt get ESP guitars in australia. i took the gamble and got it, and boy was i glad i did. it was a very big gamble too. $2500 gamble. i highly recommend this guitar. i think i am 1 of only a few aussies with this guitar. everyone that sees it, literally stares in awe, and give of weird gasping sounds, followed by asking if they can play it. i brought it into a music shop to try out some amps. the guy that was helping me saw ESP on the case, and was just impressed by that. when he asked what it was, and when i told, he nearly fainted. you will probably gain respect from people if you own this guitar just for your taste. if you want to ask me anything about it, please do so, id love to answer your questions. GET IT NOW!!!