Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

[pro-fusion]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

It's entirely possible that the heads at FMIC don't believe that paying a whole bunch of endorsers will increase Jackson's market share enough to warrant the cost.

I'm not sure I agree with that assessment, but I suppose one would have to look at the flipside: ESP gets decent visibility from its endorsers, but is their share of the metal guitar market really increasing as a result? We can only speculate...

In my opinion, ESP's biggest problem in the USA is that they are not sold at Guitar Center. These companies probably make most of their money selling the craptacular $300 starter guitars that they can pump out of Korea/China/India, not on the fancy custom shop stuff. And I'm guessing that GC is very important to that market, since Mom/Dad are more likely to take Junior to GC for his first guitar, than they are to buy something online.

Perhaps FMIC believes that the mere presence of Jacksons in every GC in the country, and most other stores that carry Fenders, to boot, is sufficient to generate the sales they are looking for. Increased endorsement costs = higher instrument prices, and perhaps FMIC believes that Junior is going to be attracted by the pointy Jackson at GC (he won't see anything else that scary at GC except the BC Richs) regardless of who plays J/Cs, and Mom/Dad are more likely to buy him a guitar at a low price.

Just a thought...

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

[ QUOTE ]
...that being said, they may wind up killing, or hurting, the Jackson name, but that would be due to bad decisions not some sort of vendetta.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah Matt....I didn't see it as a vendetta, moreso than a likely scenario of how Fender may do the company in due to bad marketing descisions (like cutting the player roster)
It's merely speculation....but I can definitely see that happening in the future.

[bmusic]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

Those who call ESP a 'knock off' company who only copies are truly ignorant. Vidit the Japanese site, you may not like many of the models, but there are plenty of unique ones. So let's examine this. You don't like their unique shapes? Well, you and likely the vast majority of US consumers. What's the point of even offering them to you? ESP have been ding fine for 30 years in Japan with their own shapes, I think they'll continue to do so whether their original designs are available in the US, or whether GC stocks ESP or not.

[SARJ]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

My thing about ESPee is the fact that none of their guitars are even remotely exciting. Even the maple fretboarded M II is a let down due to that funky arm cut at the top rear of the body. If I'm not mistaken, their affordable stuff in the LTD line is made mostly of agathis. What the hell is agathis? I have owned one ESP/LTD GL500K Kami-copy. The bridge was the biggest turn off due to it not staying in tune.

As far as stars leaving Jackson.......it is a shame that Jackson won't hook these guys up. I bet they can afford it. One day Jackson may have to resort to paying endorsers to stay in business. You never know. It would be one hell of a role reversal to hear ESP guys complaining about Jackson like we complain about them.

It just goes to show, Jackson is in business because they make great guitars. ESP is in business because famous people play their crappy guitars.

[Badseed]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

Jackson used to give endorsers free guitars and money.Now they get one free guitar and no money.Thats the way Fender does it.When Dave Mustaine left, he was owed a bunch of money.Something like 6 figures.

ESP on the other hand knows that kids emulate thier heroes and if thier hero uses ESP, so will the kids. I like esp, my number one ax is a jake e lee custom.I love charvies too, My jake is modeled after his charvel, down to the neck profile, skunk stripe, comfort bevel, ect..

The reason guys are leaving jackson? One word:

Economics.

[pro-fusion]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

[ QUOTE ]
ESP is in business because famous people play their crappy guitars.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't agree with that, now that I actually own a Japanese ESP. It's equal to a USA Jackson, from my experience, and certainly not a "crappy" guitar. Now as to the LTD stuff, that's different...but those are aimed at kids, anyway

Bottom line: FMIC obviously doesn't think they need Jackson endorsers anymore. Whether that's wise or not should be apparent very soon. I don't think that has anything to do with the quality of ESP guitars, or even necessarily why people buy them.

[Matt Crooks]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

[ QUOTE ]
Jackson used to give endorsers free guitars and money.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
When Dave Mustaine left, he was owed a bunch of money.Something like 6 figures.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have a source for this information?

[Inearthed]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

Good news for Pat. I wonder if he's gonna get a sig. series or he's just going to play the vipers. He's not popular enough for a singature series or is he?

[ QUOTE ]
Where ESP really falls down is in the terrible quality of the Korean LTD guitars. For whatever reason, they don't seem as good as some of the other brands, especially Schecter, that are produced by the Samick plant. My H-307 had very little playwear when I bought it, but the fretwork was so bad that it was unplayable with low action--I had to spend nearly $200 on fret dressing just to get it where it should have been from day one.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know a guy who owns two of the 307's and they are always screwing up. One week its this and next week its that. Jeff Loomis from Nevermore used to play the H-307's a lot, but every time I saw them play, he was always switching guitars because of a broken string, or something screwing up on the guitar. Now he's with Scetcher (or whatever the name of the company is) and the 2 times I've seen them and the live videos I've seen he's using the same one the whole way through.

To further comment on the LTD series... One of my bandmates has an ESP LTD DV8 and (no exaggeration) he practically has to retune every song. I come in with my Jackson RR1T, plug in, check my tuning (usually its just fine tuning to get it just right) and it stays that way the entire practice. Additionally, when he first recieved it, the frets needed to be leveled off properly. He would do a run around the 12th fret, and it would sound so funny because some of the frets were considerably higher than others so his sound would jump all over the place.

[VitaminG]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

[ QUOTE ]
I know a guy who owns two of the 307's and they are always screwing up. One week its this and next week its that. Jeff Loomis from Nevermore used to play the H-307's a lot, but every time I saw them play, he was always switching guitars because of a broken string, or something screwing up on the guitar. Now he's with Scetcher (or whatever the name of the company is) and the 2 times I've seen them and the live videos I've seen he's using the same one the whole way through.

[/ QUOTE ]

Skechers:



Jeff's Schecter:



[img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

LMAO!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[pro-fusion]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

[ QUOTE ]
To further comment on the LTD series... One of my bandmates has an ESP LTD DV8 and (no exaggeration) he practically has to retune every song. I come in with my Jackson RR1T, plug in, check my tuning (usually its just fine tuning to get it just right) and it stays that way the entire practice. Additionally, when he first recieved it, the frets needed to be leveled off properly. He would do a run around the 12th fret, and it would sound so funny because some of the frets were considerably higher than others so his sound would jump all over the place.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, that's pretty much what was up with my H-307 when I got it. Frankly, I don't think the fret dressing I got was 'all that'--there are still some spots that don't seem as level as they should be--of course, I like insanely low action, so I'm picky.

However, getting low action on the H-307 is nearly impossible, regardless of the fret dressing. Get this: the fretboard radius on the H-307 is quite a bit 'rounder' than the saddle radius on its Tuneomatic bridge--so the low B and high E strings are ALWAYS going to be way off the fretboard, unless you want the middle strings sitting on the frets. And since it's a Tuneomatic, you can't adjust the saddle height, so there is no easy fix. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

What knucklehead at ESP/Samick decided to make the fretboard radius not match the bridge radius??? [img]/images/graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

I would have to have someone with knowhow cut deeper grooves in the outer saddles to fix this problem. But I don't think I'm going to bother--mainly because the H-307 just doesn't have the tone I was hoping for.

My Mirage Custom explodes with life through the speakers--and makes the H-307 seem like a tonedead lump, in comparison. I guess my standards are higher now. I'm thinking about getting another Mirage Custom and tuning it down to B, rather than trying to find another 7-string that does what I want. Since I only do recording, I might be happier with a good 'baritone' 6, rather than a crappy 7. And since I'm not into Carvins or Ibanez at the moment and don't care for Schecter's current offerings, I don't have a lot of options in the 7-string area without spending custom shop $$$$ that I don't have.

[SARJ]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

Honestly pro-fusion, your right. I can count on one hand how many actual Japaneese ESP's I've played and if I remember right I only got to plug one of them in. I realy can't make a comment when it comes to Japaneese ESP guitars. My opinion is based on what I've heard around here for the most part. The older ESP's are killer and the newer ones are a fifty fifty deal. I'd sure like to check out the maple boarded M II Deluxe in person. The only thing that would make that axe better is if it was minus the neck bucker and the 3 way toggle. I would have one NOW if that were the case.

[pro-fusion]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

I've played some M-II Deluxes in person, although never with a maple board, and they were nice guitars. I do prefer USA Jackson bolt-ons, however, to ESP bolt-ons, most due to the neck shape.

[Deneb]

Re: Pat Lachman now with ESP Guitars?

wtf is with loomis' face? Looks like he bit into a shit sandwich.