About ESP Guitars
ESP Guitars have become favorites among hard-rock and heavy metal players. Having designed guitars for high-profile players such as James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett from Metallica; Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, the company has become a serious competitor to the "big two" of Fender and Gibson.
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Origins
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Hisatake Shibuya founded the company in Japan in 1975 when he opened Electric Sound Products, a store that sold guitar replacement parts. The company began building guitars the next year, but they were not sold in the United States until the mid-1980s.
American Breakthrough
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In the early 1980s, Shibuya's replacement parts began popping up the United States market. But ESP's guitars made their first splash in the middle of the decade, when they found their way into the hands of Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, Vernon Reid of Living Colour and Bruce Kulick, who at the time was playing guitar for KISS.
ESP suddenly found itself in the heat of competition with Jackson, another brand heavily favored by guitarists in the hard rock/heavy metal era of the mid- to late-1980s. -
Signature Models
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ESP has become known for designing custom guitars for famous players. The first was George Lynch, the oft-imitated guitarist for Dokken. His Kamikaze was the first custom guitar ESP built; they followed up with custom models for other influential players, most notably Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
Lawsuit
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ESP produced a guitar called the EXP, which was strikingly similar in sound and design to Gibson's Explorer. The guitar was a favorite of Metallica's James Hetfield as the band was rising to fame. While many Japanese guitar companies were producing near-exact replicas of Gibson models, not all were sued; ESP was, and changed its designs accordingly. Guitars produced in this era are commonly referred to as "Lawsuit" models.
LTD
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In 1996, ESP followed a business model popularized by Fender and Gibson: Creating "value brands." Fender has Squire, Gibson has Epiphone and ESP has LTD. These guitars are comparable in quality to the more expensive versions, but are produced with cheaper materials. Thus, many guitarists begin their careers playing Squires, Epiphones or LTDs.
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