E-II ECLIPSE FULL THICKNESS
E-II ECLIPSE FULL THICKNESS
VINTAGE HONEY BURST
Formerly called “ESP Standard”, all ESP E-II instruments are created at our ESP factory in Tokyo, Japan, and are designed for professional players who accept no compromises in tone, feel, or reliability for their guitars and basses. The E-II Eclipse Full Thickness is exactly as the name implies… a body with traditionally thick design. This guitar offers set-thru construction, using a mahogany body with flamed maple top that has an outstanding Vintage Honey Burst finish, complemented by single ply crème binding. The E-II Eclipse Full Thickness also features a mahogany neck with bound ebony fingerboard that includes ESP flag inlays, and a satin finish on the back for super smooth playability. Premier components include Gotoh locking tuners, a Gotoh TOM bridge and tailpiece, a bone nut, ESP strap locks, and a set of Seymour Duncan '59 and JB Chrome pickups that offer push-pull controls to split each pickup. Includes an ESP hardshell form-fitting case.
This is the best sounding and playing LP style guitar I have ever owned.
Over the last 25 years or so, I have played a ton of great and much more expensive guitars. Fine instruments from the Gibson Custom Shop, PRS Wood Library, Collings, Tokai, Baker, McNaught,etc.. have passed through my hands. These all had various appointments such as vintage capacitors, cloth wiring, Brazilian rosewood fingerboards, period correct spec wound pickups... you get the picture. This damned guitar beat them all out somehow.
On a spec sheet, against any of the aforementioned guitars, one could easily overlook this model as being some kind of high quality shed machine, created by a company that specializes in such things. This could not be farther from the truth. The Eclipse II will deliver all the classic LP rock and blues tones that you've heard on recordings from the 60's,70's and 80's and beyond. I'm sure it will also do the high gain shed thing with ease. I would put this model against anything coming out of the competitors if you are looking for a high end LP style guitar that can get "that sound".
As far as the build quality goes, I would say that it is far superior than the Gibson custom shop at a fraction of the price. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief every time I pick this thing up and play it. This guitar defies all guitar marketing logic in a really good way. Highly recommended!
I just bought this guitar, overall I love it...
#1 negative = satin neck / prefer gloss.
With the pandemic I tend to wipe my guitars down to kill any germs etc.. etc.. So that's the reason for #1 negative I prefer gloss over satin for cleaning and disinfecting the guitar. This is just a "PERSONAL" preference.
#2 negative = While tuning the guitar I had my guitar neck sitting on a rolled up towel holding the neck like a typical neck rest tool to change strings and tune it. I had just plucked a string when I decided to use a single finger to move the neck slightly I heard the tuning completely change from the weight of the body and the neck when lifting with a single finger. This tells me that the neck needs more reinforcement. I felt it was going to be way too sensitive. I love the comfortable carve but I don't want to sacrifice tuning stability and strength of my neck.
Potential fix, I'm not sure if this is a 1 piece neck or not. I'd recommend a 5 to 7 piece wood neck with dual Carbon Fiber* truss rod like Kiesel does to stabilize the neck. As sensitive as it is I have a feeling the neck will over time continue to need truss rod adjustments. I'd prefer it to be more stable like Kiesel's necks which I own 2 of.
#3 Negative = Would like to see stainless steel frets as well as a standard on all EII's.
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