ESPs?

[ds23pallas]

Hi all

I'm looking to buy another guitar soon, and I'm getting quite tempted by some of the ESPs, particulary the MII or M-100s.

It seems to be down to either one of those or an Ibanez RG-450DX. Problem is no one around my way sells ESPs, so I can't try one. The plan is to buy online, then if it doesn't suit me I'll sell it on.

The only limit I can see with them so far is the lack of a middle single coil, which I use quite a bit on my current Ibanez. Having just said that I suppose I could just use the old Ibanez for that sound anyway!

I've played a couple of ESPs years ago, but I can't honestly remember too much about them now, has anyone any thoughts on how they compare with Ibanez?

Cheers
Andrew

[Tone Capone]

Ibanez Ltd H series guitars are great . I've owned an H-100 before and loved it so much I sold it, made a profit then bought a H-202 which is even better. Great, solid, mucho sustain, and even pretty good pickups on the H-202. Has good binded neck and flame maple top. Real Flame maple on a great piece of mahogany. Look around you can find one for couple hundred bucks. I got mine for $240 Necks are very different from Ibanez necks, they are rounder and thicker. You will not find an Ibanez of that quality anywhere near the price you can get one of those Esp H series guitars. I get real smooth deep clean tones from this baby.
I actually been playing it the most lately.

[greg]

When he said Ibanez H series at the start of his post, he meant the ESP H series (in case you were confused). I own a ltd H302, and it sounds absolutely great. To tell the truth, I am absolutely fine with two pickups (and as you said, if you are keeping your ibanez, you could use that for the single coil). Mail order an ESP, and like you said, you could always sell it on, but I sincerely hope you don't, because they are pretty cool.

[dex]

I've got 2 ESP guitars, 1989 ESP Mirage Deluxe and a 1992 ESP M-II Deluxe.
ESP's (NOT LTD) are mighty fine instruments but they do not represent good value for money if you compare them to Ibanez and Jackson.
Brand new MII will set you back around £1200.

LTD's on the other hand are even worse value for money than ESP.
You can get a much better Japanese Ibanez (RG1550) with case for slightly more than a Korean LTD M-100.


ilia

[Wempukkah]

Seriously all LTD series suck for the price, and the "real" ESPs cost thousands of euros. I tried several ESPs and Ibanez, and I can seriously say that the RG170dx is better to play than an 500 euro ESP LTD which is 350 euros more expensive.

+, the EMG pickups suck.

[Skyscraper]

I was thinking about getting an M-II as well - I had looked at the Kirk Hammett guitars (the guitars, not whether or not he is any good before anyone says anything!), but while they seem to have a decent setup in place they look like they've been horribly drawn on with that finish and juvenile skull and crossbones fretboard inlay. I checked out the M-II and it really doesn't seem very different so I looked on guitarbargains.com, went for the UK option and found they had them for about just under £900 all in all with shipping and things. I've not played one though so I'm reluctant to get one.

The reason I haven't gone for an RG yet is purely because of the finish and thru-neck factor. The only finish I like is the sunburst RGT3020 one, but I'm reluctant to get a thru-neck guitar in case it gets damaged if I travel or something. Replacing a neck for a bolt-on guitar would be annoying, but writing off the whole guitar would be more annoying especially when thru-necks are more expensive. The catch 22 is that with the bolt-on guitars they're not so expensive so much so that if you damaged the neck you might as well just buy another whole new guitar anyway! I'd also want different pickups to the RG ones so that would mean buying separate Seymour Duncans/EMGs/DiMarzios, whichever I fancied, then paying to have them installed. The M-II though has a cool finish, decent pickups and similar neck dimensions to the JEM/RG series, but I haven't played one and don't know much about them. Can anyone recommend them or is an RG the only way to go?

[Wempukkah]

Personally I don't like the M-II neck, it's quite blocky, not so round as the Super Wizard neck. Although I admit that it's easier to gain lower string upper fret access with the M-II, I still think the RG neck is much faster and more trustable.