The ESP Guitar Company

Those of you who have been to the NAMM Show know what it’s all about. NAMM is a hectic environment that’s not really like anything else in the world. Everything to do with making music is on display there, from recording software to PA systems to flutes to sheet music to live sound mixers to snare drums to… well, you get the idea. It fills all five halls of the Anaheim (CA) convention center, including multiple stories of booths and demos rooms and more.

For the past six years, ESP’s area at NAMM has been on the second level in Room 213D, and while we’ve had the same cool spot there for a long time, we keep making little tweaks so that our visitors can have better experiences there. This year was particularly special: 2015 is ESP’s 40th anniversary, so we had the challenge of two different goals:

1. Display more guitars and basses than ever before.
2. Host live performances by ESP artists every day of the show.

Sometimes, it seemed impossible to meet both of these challenges at the same time. Still, somehow, everyone who visited the ESP booth seemed to leave with a smile on their face, so we must have done something right at what may have been ESP’s best NAMM Show ever.

Guitars and Basses and Guitars and Basses…
It was a little bit like guitar and bass heaven in the ESP booth at NAMM. We displayed more instruments than we’d ever done at NAMM or any event in our history. In addition to the entire lineup of ESP Original, ESP USA, ESP E-II, LTD, and Tombstone guitars (more on that in a moment), we also had another 80+ “Exhibition Limited” guitars from our custom shop in Japan. These are one-of-a-kind guitars that show the incredible craftsmanship of our expert luthiers, and were pretty much the talk of the show. There was never a single moment over the four days of NAMM that a crowd of people didn’t gather in front of these supremely amazing instruments, taking pictures and marveling over the special inlays, woods, and components on each hand-crafted guitar and bass.

Throughout the show, our special "Exhibition Limited" models were the talk of NAMM.

These special guitars and basses were created for ESP's 40th anniversary by the top luthiers in our Custom Shop.

The reaction to our new models was extremely positive. In particular, we had a lot of people checking out our new baritone and 7- and 8-string guitars in the LTD Series. The newly-available Arrow shape (in both LTD and ESP E-II versions) was definitely a hit, as was the new LTD M-1000SE and FRX models. Another highlight was the amount of attention people paid to our brand new Tombstone acoustic guitars, which were making their debut at NAMM. Also, our new and updated artist Signature Series guitars and basses from players like Gary Holt (Exodus/Slayer), Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders/Mestis), Frank Bello (Anthrax), and many more got some great attention.

High Performance
At every other NAMM Show previous to 2015, most of our artist-related activities had to do with signing sessions. Look, there’s nothing wrong with waiting in line for an hour and then spend a few seconds meeting and greeting with your favorite ESP artists, but we felt it was time to step up the experience for our NAMM booth visitors. After all, what would you rather do than hear some of the world’s best guitarists play live a few feet in front of you? That’s why this year, we stuck to a series of live performances throughout the entire show.

Thursday January 22 and Friday January 23, we had some heavy hitters. Our lineup on those days included the legendary George Lynch (KXM), Alex Skolnick (Testament), Frank Bello (Anthrax) and renowned Japanese shredder Syu (Galneryus). All were amazing in their own way. We pretty much allow ur artists to do whatever they want in their time slot, and different people take different approaches. Alex turned his time on the ESP stage to being an actual lesson in performance and composition techniques, which was fascinating. Frank, perhaps the world’s most happy man in front of a crowd of people, told hilarious stories, played various well-known bass lines from Anthrax and others, and even invited members of the crowd to come up and try out his signature basses. George and Syu took a more traditional approach: they just blew everyone’s collective heads off with their incredible playing.

Japanese ESP artist Syu (Galneryus) amazes the NAMM crowd with his serious shredding.

Seriously, Syu just killed at NAMM.

Alex Skolnick entertains and teaches at the same time.

The always friendly Frank Bello of Anthrax next to his signature basses.

The crowd enjoys Frank's show.

The mighty George Lynch warms up backstage before going out to kick ass in front of the crowd at our NAMM booth.

There's nothing like seeing a master perform three feet in front of you. George slays the NAMM crowd.

Some of the lucky people who saw the ESP performances at NAMM live and in person.

On Saturday, we had a fresh batch of musicians, including Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders), Gary Holt (Exodus/Slater), Marco Mendoza (The Dead Daisies), and then a special treat with country artist Jason Charles Miller with a full live band. If there was a person in the room who didn’t understand Javier’s new LTD 8-string guitars, they certainly got the point after Javier did his incredibly innovative performance right in front of them. Gary then took the stage and did his performance interview-style, responding to questions from ESP’s Chris Cannella as well as audience members, and playing some riffs and lead lines that left no doubt as to his role as the creator of thrash metal. Marco is a beast of a performer who can play, sing his ass off, and be incredible engaging with a crowd, using both stories and songs to make his performance unforgettable. Before the day ended, Jason Charles Miller — a guy who once fronted the industrial metal band Godhead — brought up another guitar player and a bassist (and of whom were using our new Tombstone and LTD Thinline models) as well as a fiddle player, and gave the crowd a nice change of pace with an hour-long set of country songs.

Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders) gets ready to go out and play at the ESP booth.

If you've never heard Javier play, all we can say is that if you appreciate innovative guitar technique, this is your man.

Gary Holt (Exodus/Slayer) and ESP's Chris Cannella in front of a packed house.

Gary leaves no doubt as to his unofficial title of "Godfather of Thrash Metal".

Marco Mendoza (The Dead Daisies) is one of the most entertaining musicians to ever grace our stage at NAMM.

Jason Charles Miller rehearses with his band in our miniature backstage lounge.

Jason and his band give us a change of pace with a set of country tunes.

Sunday is a slightly more mellow day at NAMM, but the ESP booth was still rocking hard. It started with a performance by Italian ESP endorsee Francesco Fareri, a great shred player with some very tasty chops. That afternoon, popular YouTube sensation Eric Calderone (aka Erock) did his fun show that combined all kinds of musical sources from TV themes to video gams and more. We ended our NAMM performances with the first-ever NAMM appearance of Luís Kalil, a 15-year-old from Brazil who has been endorsing ESP since he was merely 13. Luís played very well to an appreciative crowd, and we wrapped up NAMM on a high note.

Italian ESP player Francesco Fareri opens our Sunday performances, playing with his usual level of virtuosity.

Young Luís Kalil definitely made some new fans at his NAMM Show debut.

We wish we were as good as Luís when we were 15 years old, as he is now.

Thanks to YOU
It may seem like the 2015 NAMM Show went so well for ESP because of our unbeatable combination of great instruments and cool artists, and those certainly helped. But the reality is that ESP had a super successful NAMM for another reason: the thousands and thousands of visitors to our booth, along with the music media, friends, and ESP supporters around the world. We may be done with NAMM, but we’re just getting started in our 40th anniversary year. Let it be known: there’s more ESP excitement to come in 2015!

Monte Pittman, a hired gun currently playing with Madonna and Ministry, loves the FRX guitars.

These guys should rock together. Imagine Alex Skolnick, Gary Holt, and Frank Bello doing some tunes!

You never know who's going to be at an ESP party. Here are Bruce Kulick and Marco Mendoza trading stories and laughs.