The ESP Guitar Company

The good: a beautiful Guitar, with spectacular resonance from its neck-through design. I appreciate such high-end features, such as mahogany body and neck, ebony fingerboard, and stainless steel frets. The firebird style body, with standout satin finish, is also unique. The extended scale length, with thin U fret board is nice. Of course, the Evertune bridge and Fishman Fluence humbucker pickups are central to this guitar’s appeal. This combination of features, is not offered by any other guitar manufacture, at least that I am aware of. The mid-range price was also a huge incentive.

There were a few downsides, that I have taken steps to correct, with the goal of making this a truly unique guitar. The plastic nut is totally out of place with the other higher quality features that this guitar offers, so I immediately replace it with a TUSQ nut. The assumption that with an Evertune bridge, that locking tuners are not needed is misplace, so I replaced the original Grovers with matching Grover locking tuners, all the better for stability and to allow quick string changes. Perhaps the most disappointing was the OEM Fishman Fluence pickups, that are not capable of the coil split 3rd voice. I had assumed that I would be able to add this split by wiring into a replacement volume push-pull pot, but was unaware that ESP had chosen dated OEM pickups, with 2-voice only (discovered this after an extensive internet search).  Obviously, a ploy by ESP to save money, although one wonders just how much more a newer Fishman Fluence modern humbucker set with coil split capacity would have really cost them. I replace these stock Fishman pickups, at considerable expense, with a new set of moderns, capable of the 3rd voice, with a new volume push-pull switch. With the addition of a new hard case (not included with the guitar), this brought the cost of this guitar up considerably. I guess I believed that it would all be worth it, and hope I'm correct (needs more vetting).

Initially, these upgrades have made a vast improvement, but one wonder if ESP could have made these obvious improvements with minimal cost.

I love my Phoenix 401...after getting her Plek'd she feels like a $2000 guitar - it's my #1

I am not comfortable with how much I want this guitar. My god it's gorgeous