Older ESP's

[Firebird V]

I saw Vernon there once picking stuff out so....

[atomic charvel guy]

you could have them assemble everythng, or you could do it yourself. I remember if you wanted a weird kinda thin horned body or whatever, with or without a graphic, you could order it there, you just had to wait if it wasn't in stock. They had plenty of great bodies and necks to match up , and I went for the reverse pointy instead of a strathead cuz i loved the look of the dark black ebony with the sharkfins on the nice Jacksons that were too expensive for band dudes like me. I think I got out of there with my number one axe at the time for just over 1,000.00 after they put it together and set it up just perfectly, etc. Looked just like a Charvel bengal body, regular strat, no silly 47 fret thin horned superstrats for me, with a wide neck with huge frets and a super dark ebony bolt on reverse pointy giving it a hybrid look of Charvel and Jackson, floyd, one hum, no tone knobs, and the black and white bengal matched the neck perfectly. It got stolen out here back around '92 after I had been here about 2 and a half years. I always looked at it as a Charvel Jackson even though it wasn't at all. Hell it was over 1k less to get, which took me forever to save. There was no stopping me when I had that axe.

[ken]

Not much meat to that statement. And I'm not sure it's entirely accurate, either. I'm pretty sure I've read articles where Vernon, etc. stated that, early on, they had a custom guitar(s) built at 48th street.

I'm not making any claims for the veracity of the ESP statement. I just thought it added to the thread. It's certainly interesting if there's evidence that it's not completely honest.

ESP must have got a bunch of questions about 48th Street Customs, as there are only 4 or 5 threads in their official statement section and it's one of them! I think the other statements are interesting too, incidentally.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Vernon had a custom built guitar with 48th logo on headstock and that headstock of 48th street.
Probably that was built at 48th street.
48th street was a cool store when I visited in 93 but most of what they had were vintage Fender and Gibson.. lol
L.A. Sunset custom shop had many of 48th street guitars for sale back in very early 90's and I bought one of their 2tone sunburst strat there.

As for L.A.'s ESP shop, back in early 90's, I had them built me several custom guitars and they were all built there(except the paint job).
I believe most orders were sent to Japan to build.
I checked Schecter's latest catalog and L.A. store's sale guy back in early 90's is now a president of Schecter USA and I also found names of 2 Japanese builders from that store as well.
I am glad they are doing much better than what they used to do at L.A. shop.. lol

[hksb_alex]

all kids there on the ESP board.

[Firebird V]

Vernon had a custom built guitar with 48th logo on headstock and that headstock of 48th street.
Probably that was built at 48th street.
48th street was a cool store when I visited in 93 but most of what they had were vintage Fender and Gibson.. lol
L.A. Sunset custom shop had many of 48th street guitars for sale back in very early 90's and I bought one of their 2tone sunburst strat there.

As for L.A.'s ESP shop, back in early 90's, I had them built me several custom guitars and they were all built there(except the paint job).
I believe most orders were sent to Japan to build.
I checked Schecter's latest catalog and L.A. store's sale guy back in early 90's is now a president of Schecter USA and I also found names of 2 Japanese builders from that store as well.
I am glad they are doing much better than what they used to do at L.A. shop.. lol

Yeah the mid and late 80's were the heydays of 48th street. By the early 90's it was all over.

[4koa]

i had a custom 48th street custom in the 80's.. a friend of mine was Vito Bratta's guitar tech at the time and he got me the parts at discount due to Vito's endorsement and put it together for me

it had
ESP build Strat Body, H-S ,neon green
ESP all maple neck ,reverse banana head stock
with floyd rose and a EMG 81 and SA
no logo's

kinda similar to D Zappa's Charvel

[Rupe]

Not much meat to that statement. And I'm not sure it's entirely accurate, either. I'm pretty sure I've read articles where Vernon, etc. stated that, early on, they had a custom guitar(s) built at 48th street.

I agree. I used to frequent that store and I know that they did artist guitars there. Lynch has also mentioned getting some of his instruments from that location.

[evolutionised]

don't talk about 48th street. last time i was in nyc i went there and i did not find any jacksons, the nearest was at gc on 14th...

[BigDaddyD]

the upstairs was ESP like they said in that link, and many artists went there to have guitars worked on or built. I was in there and played one of Vernon Reid's guitars while there. the 48th st custom guitars were very good. The shop is now closed.

[pro-fusion]

don't talk about 48th street. last time i was in nyc i went there and i did not find any jacksons, the nearest was at gc on 14th...

Sam Ash had some Jacksons a few months ago when I was there. Including an exclusive import Archtop Soloist (which I didn't much care for).

[surfreak]

48th street a la ESP is a store that could be replicated again and run correctly with Charvel parts, and slap together whatever the fukk you want to. That's the way it should be. That store had rows and rows of nice juicy necks of all kinds.

Perhaps it's better not, 48th St Custom Guitars got bankrupted in 2001 I think...
I remember their last few years, their main line of new guitars was actually Schecter and they had a lot of vintage pieces. In 1996 I bought from them an all original 1955 Les Paul Gold Top for the then-high sum of $ 5,500.

Still got that guitar, the last offer I received for it was $ 50,000...

[atomic charvel guy]

that's cool, but we're talking about a 14-15 year difference until they went bankrupts. Nice score on the paul. It doesn't suck.