The ESP Guitar Company

March 8 is International Women's Day, a global holiday celebrated annually to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. ESP Guitars salutes the thousands of great guitar players around the world who choose ESP… and also happen to be women.

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Alex S.

Alex Schmeia is also called Ola Szmeja, but is better known to her more than 300,000 YouTube subscribers simply as Alex S. This ESP player from Poland has created hundreds of guitar-based videos that have been viewed by thousands and thousands of people over the past eight years.

More Info: Facebook

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Amanda Lepre (Andrew W.K.)

Joining Andrew W.K.’s band in 2016, Amanda Lepre hails from the southernmost point in Texas, and makes Austin her home. An excellent player in many styles, Amanda can smoothly transition between metal, progressive, and pop sounds, evidenced in both her work with Andrew W.K. and her own band, Descendants of Erdrick, who specialize in doing killer arrangements of video game music.

More info: Web

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Böse Fuchs

Hailing from Berlin, Germany, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Böse Fuchs always has an aggressive edge to her performances. This ESP artist entertains thousands of music lovers via YouTube and Patreon, using her wide range of guitars and basses that range from her ESP Richard ZK Signature series RZK-I to a number of E-II and LTD models.

More info: Web

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Diamond Rowe (Tetrarch)

Atlanta-born Diamond Rowe plays with a level of intensity and precision that anyone can respect. In 2017, Diamond shattered both gender and race barriers by being one of the only female and African-American metal guitarists featured in all three major US guitar publications. Unstable, the most recent album by her band Tetrarch, came out in 2021.

More info: Web

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Doris Yeh (Chthonic)

A member of Taiwanese metal band Chthonic for over 20 years, Doris has been part of the ESP artist family since 2010. Holding down the low end for Chthonic’s intense music, Doris has been the bassist on seven of the band’s eight studio albums as well as being a contributor to their songwriting and production. An exciting and dynamic bass player on stage, Doris continues to influence musicians around the world.

More info: Web

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Lena Böhme

Many rock musicians have been influenced by neoclassical riffs and lead lines, but Lena takes things a step further, doing metal-influenced covers of famous classical pieces by composers like Brahms, Bach, and Handel. This Leipzig, Germany-based rocker uses a 27-fret scalloped Horizon straight from the ESP Custom Shop, and is getting her PhD in musicology.

More info: YouTube

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Marta Gabriel (Crystal Viper)

Taking musical inspiration from the classic metal bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Marta is the founder, main songwriter, and rhythm guitarist for Poland-based metal band Crystal Viper. She’s plays her tight, well-executed riffs while somehow performing soaring vocals with seeming effortlessness. She released her first solo album, Metal Queens, in 2021.

More info: Web

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Melissa Evila (The B.A. Sisters)

A lifelong multi-instrumentalist and producer, Melissa Evila grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina and spent time working with various bands and as a session player before forming the appropriately-named B.A. Sisters with her sister Sabrina. Attacking multiple styles, Melissa blends heavy metal, ’80s pop, punk rock, and electronic music in her original music.

More info: Web

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Moriah Formica

Moriah Formica of Albany, NY gained national exposure in 2017 when, at age 15 as a contestant on NBC’s The Voice, she stunned audiences not only with her big rock-and-roll voice, but her ability to perform in true rock style, backing herself on rhythm guitar using her LTD Deluxe EC-1000. For the past couple of years, Moriah’s focus has been on her all-female rock/metal band Plush.

More info: Web

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Reba Meyers (Code Orange)

Exploding onto the scene with her ferociously powerful playing in the Pittsburgh-based metalcore/hardcore band Code Orange, Reba Meyers has since become the first female artist to have an ESP Signature Series guitar available worldwide. Having received a “Best Metal Performance” Grammy nominations in 2018 and 2021, Code Orange continues to stun audiences at every tour stop, due in no small part to Reba’s merciless performance style.

More info: Web

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Red Frandany

The world of progressive metal isn’t a common direction for many female guitar players, but once Chilean musician Red Frandany found the music of bands like Rush, Dream Theater, Periphery, Animals as Leaders, and Meshuggah, her musical path was crystal clear. Red is releasing music as a solo artist as well as having founded glam metal band Saykked, and plays in Rockfem as a session player.

More info: Facebook

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Stephanie Bradley

When a person uses the name @shredanie for their social media, they’d better have the chops to back it up. That’s not a problem for Nashville-based rocker Stephanie Bradley, who can play circles around most people, and only slowed down a little to give birth to her son Sammy in May 2021.

More info: Facebook

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Thalia Bellazecca

This 21-year-old Italo-Cuban metal guitarist is also a lefty, making her all the more unique in the world of rock guitar. Recently joining Italy-based folk metal band Aexylium, Thalia has been performing as a touring and recording guitarist since her mid-teens, and also showcases her talents on YouTube and Twitch.

More info: Instagram

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Yanan Zhang

Born in Linyi, Shandong Province, China in 1998, Yanan Zhang started on classical guitar at age 11. At age 15 she switched to electric, and almost immediately, her talent began to shine through. Passionate about power metal and progressive fusion, she founded the "Hello Guitar" Music Studio and has quickly become one of China’s foremost guitar talents, with online broadcasts that reach over a half million people. Yanan’s musical heroes include John 5 and Takayoshi Ohmura.