HISTORY OF ESP GUITARS
The ESP Guitar Company was started from humble beginnings in 1975 as a side project by a Japanese businessman named Hisatake Shibuya. Originally, he founded a chain of music/audio retail stores called Electric Sound Products (or ESP for short). However, in 1983 the stores started manufacturing replacement parts and accessories for guitars. In 1985, ESP expanded to building custom guitars for special customers. At this point the company was not in the market of mass produced guitars, just custom hand-built guitars for professional artists.
By 1986, ESP reputation had spread as a high-quality custom shop so a office was opened in New York City to build custom guitars for musicians in the USA. With the explosion of heavy metal in the late 80's, ESP guitarists rapidly became one of the top custom guitar manufacturers for that genre of music. Guitarists like Kirk Hammett of Metallica, and George Lynch of Dokken were going to ESP to get custom designed guitars built to their specifications.
ESP motto's has always been "If you can dream it, we can build it", and combined with their detailed-obsessed design and manufacturing process, ESP Guitars has attracted an impressive artist endorsee list. Many of the custom guitars they've build have gone on to become top-selling signature models. Signature model guitars include models from Kirk Hammet and James Hetfield (both of Metallica), George Lynch (Dokken/Lynch Mob), Ron Wood (Rolling Stones), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Jeff Hanneman (Slayer), Steven Carpenter (Deftones), and many more.
In 1996, ESP Guitars introduced the ESP LTD brand. These guitars were moderately priced guitars designed for wider distribution. They still wanted to maintain their status as a high-end custom shop guitar maker, but the LTD brand allowed them to manufacture a line of guitars that offered many of ESP's superb features using less expensive techniques that reached a broader range of musicians and were affordable to even first-time buyers.
In 2003, ESP Guitars debuted the ESP X-Tone Series which opened a door for an entire new group of guitar players These were semi-hollow body guitars that have been receiving excellent guitar reviews.
As of 2005, ESP Guitars has been in business 30 years. To mark this milestone, ESP is celebrating with a new 30th anniversary logo, special performances from the top artist endorsees, and special NAMM show festivities, plus much more.
