The ESP Guitar Company

Below, please find part of Guitar World Magazine's review of the ESP USA Eclipse as bonus content from their Holiday 2014 issue, written by editor Paul Riario. make sure to watch the video at the link on bottom for all the details! For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

While I own, play and love more than my fair share of imported guitars, I still prefer electric models made in the good ol’ U. S. of A.

After all, Americans invented the electric guitar, and we design and build them like no one else. So it deeply warmed my heart earlier this year when ESP announced its USA Series Eclipse, Horizon and M-III models, which are the company’s first guitars made at its brand-new factory in North Hollywood, California. 

We took a look at ESP’s classic-inspired single-cutaway Eclipse model.

The overall features of the Eclipse USA present a familiar formula—figured maple top, mahogany neck and chambered body, dual humbuckers, 24 3/4–inch scale, and so on—but several details make this model stand out from the usual classic clone. The “set-thru” neck joint is particularly impressive, featuring contours that smoothly and seamlessly bring the neck and body together as if they were one continuous piece of wood. 

The ebony fretboard, 22 extra jumbo frets, 12-inch radius and thin U-shape neck profile provide the fast action and silky playability today’s players demand. Hardware consists of Sperzel Trim-Lok locking tuners, TonePros locking bridge and stop tailpiece, Schaller Security Lock strap buttons and Seymour Duncan APH-1 passive humbuckers.

WATCH THE VIDEO REVIEW ON THE GUITAR WORLD SITE!