What a beaut!!!! Pics first of the actual guitar from the seller in Japan:
Stock pictures from a Japanese shop:
1999 ESP/Edwards E-LP-90LTC '68 Les Paul Custom Reissue lawsuit, pre serial number, made in Japan naturally, and in EXCELLENT condition! Not intended for the North American market... you probably know why. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Came with the thickly-padded ESP gig bag. Looking forward to shopping for a Les Paul hardshell case this weekend!
Some specs from the ESP Japan website:
http://www.espguitars.co.jp/edwards/...-LP-90LTC.html
Bridge Duncan JB reminds me very much of my Jackson KE3's bridge Duncan Designed HB-102 JB, which was a fantastic sound to hear once again since my KE3 was my best sounding guitar before this LP. Raunchy, fat, clear, defined full chords and searing lead tone. Neck Duncan '59 is incredible and much thicker-sounding than I anticipated. It is sweet and round and perfect for smooth legato. I don't think I'll be putting my APCs into this guitar just yet... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
The guitar is rather light, only a little bit heavier than my Soloist and lighter than my KE3, so it's comfortable to wear. I don't normally talk about sustain, but holy crap, it's juicy and almost redundant! Add a little vibrato to the notes and you can shake the crap out of it forever, even at low volume.
Apparently, the neck construction is like the old Gibson Les Pauls with the long neck tenon, but I haven't ripped out the neck pickup to check it yet. There's definitely a very vintage, comfortable, "feels like an old friend" vibe to the guitar. Even my mom said it looked "old fashioned". [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
The neck is only a little bit thicker than my Soloist, so I adapted quickly. The nut width is the same, 1 11/16 inches, so that was very comfortable as well.
The frets are low and wide, but not fretless wonder frets. Still, there's enough clearance above the SUPER BLACK ebony fretboard to get some REALLY wide vibrato. Not quite sure of the fretboard radius, but it was comfortable and yet offered blistering speed... perhaps a conical/compound board?
2-piece solid bookmatched maple top, and you can slightly see the bookmatch seam down the middle of the top of the guitar. 1-piece mahogany body and neck. Ebony board as already mentioned. White/black/white/black/white aged binding, so it looks yellowish and very cool! Satin black body, gloss black neck. Nitro top coat finish, I am told. The weight is 8.8 pounds.
The "Les Paul Custom" truss rod cover is a special touch from the seller. I liked it, so I left it on there. The guitar came with the original blank truss rod cover in the gig bag.
I got my free Gibson speed knobs from Rhmsc8 today, but I didn't know how to remove the stock tophat knobs to put on the speed knobs! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Anyone wanna help me out? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Alright, the only real issues I have with this guitar are the TINY strap pins... I nearly dropped this guitar when I bent over to adjust the settings on my GT-6! [img]/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] Anyone know of larger strap pins I can buy, preferably in GOLD? The ones on my Soloist hold my leather strap fantastically. And, the other issue is the Gotoh tuners... they are smooth, but I prefer the high gear ratio of my Taylor K14c's 18:1 Grover tuners for fine tuning. Anyone know if I can perhaps replace these Gotohs with Grovers? Or, perhaps with locking Sperzels?
The guitar slips slightly out of tune after a little while, which is an issue to me, a dedicated Floyd Rose abuser who does a LOT of heavy string bends and aggressive picking-hand technique. Any hints, besides graphite in the nut slots?
Also, the fretboard inlays are synthetic MOP. Oh well. I think the headstock logo/diamond inlays are also synthetic. Oh well. Still a beautiful guitar though. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
But damn, this guitar plays and sounds awesome and didn't even need a setup when it arrived today from Japan. The high frets aren't even too hard to reach as I originally feared... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] And the solder joints are CLEAN! [img]/images/graemlins/drool2.gif[/img]
Any questions? Comments? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I'll take my own pics later when I've put on the Gibson speed knobs and after I've removed the pickguard... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I was also going to remove the gold pickup covers but I may leave them since I don't know if they can even be removed... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Thanks for looking! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Stock pictures from a Japanese shop:
1999 ESP/Edwards E-LP-90LTC '68 Les Paul Custom Reissue lawsuit, pre serial number, made in Japan naturally, and in EXCELLENT condition! Not intended for the North American market... you probably know why. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Came with the thickly-padded ESP gig bag. Looking forward to shopping for a Les Paul hardshell case this weekend!
Some specs from the ESP Japan website:
http://www.espguitars.co.jp/edwards/...-LP-90LTC.html
Bridge Duncan JB reminds me very much of my Jackson KE3's bridge Duncan Designed HB-102 JB, which was a fantastic sound to hear once again since my KE3 was my best sounding guitar before this LP. Raunchy, fat, clear, defined full chords and searing lead tone. Neck Duncan '59 is incredible and much thicker-sounding than I anticipated. It is sweet and round and perfect for smooth legato. I don't think I'll be putting my APCs into this guitar just yet... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
The guitar is rather light, only a little bit heavier than my Soloist and lighter than my KE3, so it's comfortable to wear. I don't normally talk about sustain, but holy crap, it's juicy and almost redundant! Add a little vibrato to the notes and you can shake the crap out of it forever, even at low volume.
Apparently, the neck construction is like the old Gibson Les Pauls with the long neck tenon, but I haven't ripped out the neck pickup to check it yet. There's definitely a very vintage, comfortable, "feels like an old friend" vibe to the guitar. Even my mom said it looked "old fashioned". [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
The neck is only a little bit thicker than my Soloist, so I adapted quickly. The nut width is the same, 1 11/16 inches, so that was very comfortable as well.
The frets are low and wide, but not fretless wonder frets. Still, there's enough clearance above the SUPER BLACK ebony fretboard to get some REALLY wide vibrato. Not quite sure of the fretboard radius, but it was comfortable and yet offered blistering speed... perhaps a conical/compound board?
2-piece solid bookmatched maple top, and you can slightly see the bookmatch seam down the middle of the top of the guitar. 1-piece mahogany body and neck. Ebony board as already mentioned. White/black/white/black/white aged binding, so it looks yellowish and very cool! Satin black body, gloss black neck. Nitro top coat finish, I am told. The weight is 8.8 pounds.
The "Les Paul Custom" truss rod cover is a special touch from the seller. I liked it, so I left it on there. The guitar came with the original blank truss rod cover in the gig bag.
I got my free Gibson speed knobs from Rhmsc8 today, but I didn't know how to remove the stock tophat knobs to put on the speed knobs! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Anyone wanna help me out? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Alright, the only real issues I have with this guitar are the TINY strap pins... I nearly dropped this guitar when I bent over to adjust the settings on my GT-6! [img]/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] Anyone know of larger strap pins I can buy, preferably in GOLD? The ones on my Soloist hold my leather strap fantastically. And, the other issue is the Gotoh tuners... they are smooth, but I prefer the high gear ratio of my Taylor K14c's 18:1 Grover tuners for fine tuning. Anyone know if I can perhaps replace these Gotohs with Grovers? Or, perhaps with locking Sperzels?
The guitar slips slightly out of tune after a little while, which is an issue to me, a dedicated Floyd Rose abuser who does a LOT of heavy string bends and aggressive picking-hand technique. Any hints, besides graphite in the nut slots?
Also, the fretboard inlays are synthetic MOP. Oh well. I think the headstock logo/diamond inlays are also synthetic. Oh well. Still a beautiful guitar though. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
But damn, this guitar plays and sounds awesome and didn't even need a setup when it arrived today from Japan. The high frets aren't even too hard to reach as I originally feared... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] And the solder joints are CLEAN! [img]/images/graemlins/drool2.gif[/img]
Any questions? Comments? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I'll take my own pics later when I've put on the Gibson speed knobs and after I've removed the pickguard... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I was also going to remove the gold pickup covers but I may leave them since I don't know if they can even be removed... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Thanks for looking! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
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