The ESP Guitar Company

This model is not up to typical ESP standards or the quality craftsmanship of my other ESP guitars.  It’s manufactured in Indonesia vs my others are Korean made.  The fact that it’s a deluxe series really frustrates me.   I ordered two of these(1 replaced the other from retailer).

The first one had a beautiful maple top but the fretboard was very mismatched and was two very different colors. The white binding had three cracked spots where it met the fret wires at the 3rd,4th, and 5th fret.  Also there are two spots were the finish appears flaked or not sealed on the headstock (ironically flawed right where it says Deluxe!) obviously shouldn’t have passed inspection at the factory or the retailer  I returned it and the second one arrived…

The maple top has flawed grain and 2 glossier looking spots on it  the fretboard was a match and looks great!  The backside of the body had distinct blemishes on it the headstock had the same flaky looking spot in the finish or sealant. The tremolo was way higher on the low string side compared to the other, was tilted backwards, and there was noticeable fret buzz. The truss needs some relief and I had to make several adjustments to the tremolo to get it to play decent.  Again it shouldn’t have passed inspection at the factory or the retailer and it’s a B grade overall and should have been sold as that or rejected.    For a $1,400 deluxe series this is a total piece of , ya know!  

what happened to quality and craftsmanship that esp is known for?  My MH series and EC series are far superior to this one.   The one thing I was unsure about when buying were the Fishman pickups, and they too greatly disappoint me.  No bite or clarity and sound muddy and lack tonal definition for harmonics and leads.  EMG’s sound much crispier Ann’s have much better definition and mid/high bite to them. The push pull on the bridge pickup lets you choose between dull/muddy or dull/muddy with a bit more gain.  

ESP, please get back to your old ways instead of sending customers like me to other manufacturers for a good high quality instrument.  And please don’t put the LTD Deluxe name on this guitar or anything like it because it’s not even close to living up to the name. 

I've had one, purchased thru a retailer in 2020. Fantastic, but for one minor issue; there is a noticeable "crack" when I do a dive on the tremolo, like the neck is bending; fortunately, only noticeable unplugged - if this is due to the lack of reinforcement, this is the only real construction issue with this guitar as far as I can tell. When plugged in, this is fantastic - it has a Floyd Rose with most of the important upgrades for longevity, stays in tune once it's set up right, and it's honestly the thinnest neck of all of my guitars. It gets a rating of A- from me - adding something like carbon or titanium rods in the neck to further stabilize it would make this near-perfect.

I recently purchased one of these and waiting for it to get to ZZounds.com warehouse... I was supposed to have gotten it March 15 2021... now they’re saying after April 10th.. 

Do these guitars come with stainless steel frets? Could not find that info. Thank you! 

This guitar's tuning a standart A or B ?