I owned a few esp made in the custom shop, alot of my esp guitars have been sig models made in the custom shop and they was very nice quality and i liked the tone of most of them.
i think i had 20 or 25 esp that i owned in the last 10 years and i still own 6. the esp custom shop can build great stuff but the prices have become insane in the last 3 years. its gotten to the point that i dont know if i will be buying very many esp anymore, after playing the higher end esp stuff i dont really like the standard series stuff as much, sure they are nice but my custom eclipse was a whole lot nicer feeling and sounding. most of my guitars over the years came from the kiso shop and takada shop.
heres a few pics
custom shop eclipse, neckthru with maple cap and scraped natural binding, not the veneer like the standard series.
bought this from a friend who was a esp dealer and ordered this for himself. dv8 custom with a floyd and alexi laiho neck, fallout shelter logo inlays and a few other changes.
custom kirk hammett 20th anni kh-20 #5 of 40
and kh-20 #9 of 40
custom shop kh-4 with middle finger inlays
custom shop kh-2 relic #17, not the vintage model.
custom shop-japan version alexi laiho al-398 with glow in the dark bevels. the body shape on the usa version of the laiho is slightly different, i liked the japan shape better.
custom shop stephen carpenter
custom shop dv8
i have more pics but this is enough, the main thing when ordering with esp is that there has been many problems with them doing exactly whats on the order forms that come from the usa, there been atleast 10 people i know of who ordered custom guitars and was unhappy because they didnt do the exact guitar the people ordered, my friend who was a dealer had 4 that i know of that didnt turn out right and he made out the order forms and delt directly with matt at esp, do some research on the esp board and you will see what im talking about or ask the guys on the esp board the same questions your asking here and talk to others that have ordered, it wasnt because people made out the order forms wrong, the usa order forms are very different from the forms people get outside of the usa, our order forms are like 1 or 2 page long and overseas forms are 3 and 4 pages. problems such as using alder instead of mahogany, wrong style logo, adding a pick guard to a guitar that wasnt supposed to have one, warped neck, wrong color bindings and even wrong colored guitars.
theres also another dealer i know named nick at piney hills music that ordered a 6 run batch of white V's and they came with the wrong binding on them.
the wait time will indeed be over a year and if they make you a guitar there is a change some of the specs will be wrong, but if they do make it proper i think you will be very happy with the finished product.
