The ESP Guitar Company

Paradise Lost is unusual in the world of metal, or any kind of popular music for that matter. The core of the band — singer Nick Holmes, guitarists Greg Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, and bassist Steve Edmondson — have remained a stable unit since the band’s inception over 27 years ago in 1988. Highly influential in the Gothic / Doom Metal genres, the band hails from Halifax, England, and continues cranking out great albums and playing to sold-out venues.

Guitarist Aaron Aedy recently joined the ESP family, and we were as interested in getting to know him as you probably are.

How did you get hooked up with ESP?
I’ve got a lot of friends who are ESP endorsees. The first time I talked to Chris (Cannella, ESP artist relations manager), we chatted for 40 minutes about guitars in general. I knew that this was the right company to be attached to from that conversation.

Do you recall when you first became aware of ESP?
I first tried ESP in the shops many years ago. One of my biggest heroes, as a primarily rhythm guitar player, is James Hetfield of Metallica. After seeing him play ESP, I’ve been keen on them ever since.

And why the switch to ESP now?
About six years ago, we switched to 7-string guitars. Most 7 strings available were custom shop style or hand-crafted, so I went with a good custom company that our lead guitarist was endorsing at the time. Last year, I was doing a charity bicycle ride to the Download Festival (Castle Donington) with, amongst others, Andy Sneap, who is respected producer, musician and ESP endorser. We cycled 170 miles to get there over 2.5 days.  Andy, Gizz Butt (English Dogs) and I can talk about guitars all night, we are total gear and guitar nerds. We were discussing our love of V’s and I was talking about only using 7-strings with Paradise Lost these days over an ale or so and he asked me, “Have you tried ESPs?” He was just waxing lyrical about how good they are, and what a lovely company they were to deal with. I did six months of research, and everyone I know that endorse ESP gave me the same positive message Andy had.

My first outreach to ESP was for a video we were doing. Andy Sneap and Esa (Amorphis) helped me get in touch with ESP. The lovely Chris Canella was my first contact. He was ever so helpful and put me in touch with Kelly (Downes, product manager at ESP’s UK distributor), and was like “I’m doing a video in the next week or so (called “Beneath Broken Earth”). Do you have any black 7-strings I can get for it?” Kelly had the LTD EC-407 available, and sent it over. Right away, I was blown away. I’m not sure how you want to put this, but this was supposed to be your budget line, and I couldn’t believe how good of a guitar it was.

So then I got back in touch with Chris in the US, he said, “We’ll send you a couple of E-II’s out for touring.” I picked up the E-II Eclipse when it arrived, and went, “Good grief, this is great.” For a 7-string, with its neck profile, it’s very easily playable. It played like a dream.

What made you want to transition from 6-string to 7-string in the first place?
Well, you have to know the history. It’s been over 27 years and 14 albums in this band. When we started, we would tune our 6-strings down to B and C, then later D. It wasn’t easy back then to get heavier gauge strings. The string tension was so loose, but that chaotic looseness, it was part of the sound! Haha.

Moving ahead, we’ve changed tunings a number of times over the years. When we started trying to integrate the older tunes for more recent shows, I was tuning my 6-strings up and down sometimes between every song onstage. It takes the flow out of the show, and I’m not the kind of person to swap guitars all the time.

So 7-string guitars gave you the lower end extended range you needed.
Yes. When we found the 7-strings, we transposed the older songs. I am mainly the rhythm guy, so I want to be able to hit the strings and not go wawawawawawa (imitates floppy string sound), so the 12-68 Elixir string set I use are nice and taut at 25.5” scale length, and drastically reduce the oscillation of strings on impact, which is nice tuning-wise.

You already mentioned the neck being comfortable. How are the other aspects of the Eclipse’s feel?
I hadn’t played an Eclipse shape for a long time. I’ve had various other shapes over the years. The Eclipse is a thinner guitar, and the body cut outs… I’m quite a physical guitar player. It doesn’t get in the way or stick in my gut whilst performing. It’s so comfortable.

Feel is very important. It’s a palpable moment, when you open the case, just before you get the guitar in your hands for the first time. “Ah, it looks nice, but…”. When I first got the E-II Eclipse, I took it out of the case, and didn’t come out of the music room for ages! Now, I’m not someone who sits in a room playing for six hours at a time, six days a week. With the E-II, I’ve played more at home in the past month or so than I have in the last few years. It’s given me a really cool vibe.

Tell us what pickups you’re using in your Eclipse.
I’m a Bare Knuckle Pickups endorsee. They have a newish pickup called the Black Hawk. It’s a passive pickup with a similar feel to an active. It’s very dynamic. When I turn it down, it softens right up. I have to research everything to the Nth degree. I’ll watch 100 YouTube videos before trying something. I plugged those pickups into the EC-407 and subsequently the E-II, and I was like, “Wow.”

You know, one thing about the EC-407. I know the top-of-the-line LTDs are the 1000 Series, so I heard “400” and you think, “Hmm, it’s below half.” But it was actually very impressive. But then with the E-II Eclipse, I couldn’t put it down. It stays on a stand next to me, and I keep picking it up. It’s inspirational and more importantly, fun to play.

We have many young customers who are just getting into guitar playing, or trying to move up to the next level. Any advice for them?
If you can physically get a hold of a guitar, find the one that speaks to you. As a kid, I used to go into the shops and hold them and touch them… all the ones I couldn’t afford. I’m naturally a left-hander but lefty guitars were extortionately priced in comparison and much rarer in the early 80’s, so instead I bought a right-handed guitar off a friend at school for £10. It had action like an egg slicer. But right then and there, I was hooked. “This is it,” I thought. “This is what I want to do! This is now my job. I’m blessed.”

Another thing to keep in mind: when I was a kid, the starter guitars I could afford were quite awful. By today’s standards, the quality of even inexpensive guitars is better than the guitars that were mid-range back then. As an example, Andy, a luthier friend has a 100 Series Viper. He got it second-hand just to have a guitar he could mess around with and modify. But he was blown away. He said, “For the price, I can’t believe it.”

So, look for something you like the look of. Play the guitar you want to be playing. You can make a much more informed judgement today than ever before by watching videos online, reading interviews and blogs. Being able to hear and see the guitar in action, is one of the best things for budding musicians to be capable of doing these days. 

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