The Story Behind Esp Guitars

Electric Sound Products, known as ESP, started in Tokyo Japan in 1975 as a company that supplied custom substitute pieces for guitars. Nonetheless, the first ESP guitar wasn't created until 1976. ESP Guitars and replacement components continued to be offered solely in Japan for nearly 10 years before moving into the United States marketplace. In 1983 their replacement parts ended up being made available in the U.S.. Finally, in 1984 their guitars made their American arrival. In 1984 - 1985 ESP Guitars have been alluring some notice from great players such as Bruce Kulick (Kiss), Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones) and Vernon Reid (Living Colour). The next significant name to come across ESP Guitars was George Lynch of Dokken, while shopping for electric guitar parts as he was on tour in Japan. As soon as George discovered that ESP made custom guitars, the model "Kamikaze" was built for him. The Kamikaze was the first signature model to be crafted. Soon after, more players started to take notice of ESP and began playing their electric guitars in the late 1980's. Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica were 2 of the superior names. In fact, speakin of James Hetfield, an ESP electric guitar which he used when Metallica originally started to turn into popular, got the ESP Corporation into some legal trouble. The electric guitar he used, called the EXP, was a reproduction of the Gibson Explorer. Even though guitar companies were producing reproductions of their electric guitars for many years, Gibson chose to sue ESP Guitars. The craftsmanship of the EXP guitar was so fine that people had been buying them like crazy and this was allegedly cutting into the gross sales of Gibson's guitars. In the end, ESP lost the lawsuit and altered their design to the currently known 'EX' design. In mid 2002, ESP gross sales started to produce at a quick rate making them one of many fastest rising companies at that time. This growth in gross sales was directly linked to Fender Guitars buying out Jackson Guitars. Jackson was the company that ESP Guitars had competed with in the 1980's and 90's the buyout of Jackson Guitars, most of the high profile musicians jumped ship and went over to ESP. Guitarists like Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, found it a simple transition to move over to ESP Guitars because of the top quality and related thrash-metal aggresive designs. ESP guitars are still very popular today. At the 2008 Winter NAMM show, ESP launched over fifty new guitar and bass models. In addition they have an amazing choice of big profile guitar players on their roster including Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica, Wayne Static of Static-X, Alexi Laiho Children of Bodom, Will Adler of Lamb of God, Ron Wood, George Lynch, and the latest member, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. With the great high quality that ESP Guitars create, its a no-brainer to realize they will be around for several more years to come.