Is it worth it $$$$$? or too expensive: edwards lesP 2nd hand

[jeid]

Not Japanese, Chinese. The very first run of guitars were Japanese...but everything since has been Chinese.

As a guy who works in a music store that's an authorized Gibson repair station and having also owned dozens of Gibsons myself, an Edwards is in absolutely no way comparable to a Les Paul. If you're closing your eyes and thinking it's just as good...well I'm happy for you. At the same time though, I can't help but question your perception of quality.

My old '79 Gibson Les Paul Custom

My old Edwards.

No contest

The ESP Edwards brand guitars are products made solely for the Japanese market. The difference between Edwards and ESP is that Edwards' guitars are produced in different factories in Japan, and are generally considered to be of almost equal quality to the ESP Originals, but the fundamental difference being the hardware, especially in the case of tonewoods, for example FR-130GT uses a Maple neck and ash wings while the Original series Forest GT uses a mahogany neck and wings, but with a White ash top, however the hardware such as pickups, tuners, tremolo etc, are almost identical. In many cases, Edwards' guitars are built from more expensive materials than their Ltd counterparts and on a superior production line in Japan as opposed to LTD's Korea. Although these guitars are officially only available to the Japanese market, they are frequently seen on auction sites such as eBay. Edwards guitars are now licensed for distribution in Russia.
Since 2009 a wide range of Edwards' guitars are available for export[

Wiki isn't totally reliable, but the one I had was a Jap and it played really nice. Perception is a great thing and since the newer Gibsons are the best guitars ever, then it'd be an easy comparison to make.

 

[Nitrobattery]

The first runs of Edwards guitars were entirely made in Japan. These days the manufacturing (woodworking through painting) is done in an ESP factory just inside the Chinese border in the Northeast province of Heilongjiang. They're then sent to Japan for the rest of assembly.

I'm not saying Edwards guitars are bad guitars. In fact quite the contrary, they're pretty badass guitars. All I'm getting at is that they're SUPER over hyped. There's a huge buzz that they're on par with the ESP Standard Series and most Gibsons...and that simply isn't true. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Pot]

once again THX Nitro for your opinions......i´m not getting this now....maybe at some point in time

also DSS3 point made me wonder...i surely don´t want a guitar with no resonance yuck

 

[Nitrobattery]

once again THX Nitro for your opinions......i´m not getting this now....maybe at some point in time

also DSS3 point made me wonder...i surely don´t want a guitar with no resonance yuck

That's the thing with Edwards guitars. There are some awesome ones out there and there are some pretty 'meh' ones out there. Mine sounded incredible, but had a twist in the neck. Some play like butter and sound like butt. Then there are some that are just awesome all the way around. The one thing they do share with Gibson...is that their QC is terrible

 

[Metaltastic]

Haha, yeah...I don't really get too attached to things

At that point I was in a cover band that did a lot of 80's, 90's, and 2000's rock, hair metal, and some moderately heavy stuff. The Mark IV was my 'go to' rig for that band. I missed my old two channel recto though and a 3 channel Dual popped up for $800...so I snagged it. I tried to get into it...but I really hate 3 channel Rectos.

The rig looked cool though

Yeah dude, so that's the Mark IV in the rack then, badass - you ran both heads at the same time?

 

[Nitrobattery]

Yeah dude, so that's the Mark IV in the rack then, badass - you ran both heads at the same time?

I tried to, but it didn't work so well without a Bradshaw or GCX switching system...and this was before the Tonebone Headbone came out. So I ran them one at a time. We had a monster PA system so I can the Recto 4x12 in stereo as 2 2x12 cabs. I used a Whirlwind A/B/Y to switch between the heads, but when I tried running them together I always ran into a ton grounding problems (especially in clubs with tons of lights and bad wiring). So it was just one or the other. But like I said it was the Mark IV most of the time and soon after I ran just the Mark IV

Then I traded my Mark IV for a TriAxis/2:90 setup. That was an awesome rig. I'd definitely love to have that pair again.

After that came the Savage

The Savage was killer...and tracked better than any amp I've ever had, but ended up ditching it and went back to Mesa. Picked up a DC-5, an Ibanez RGT6EXFX, a LTD Eclipse, my 002

After that I had my brief stint with a Framus Cobra (picture taken when it showed up at The Guitar Clinic because I'm sneaky and had it sent there so I could rock at work)

and then finally found my way back to Mesa with the Roadster

 

[Metaltastic]

Hahahaha, the story thus far - you've sure gone through the gamut dude, but hey, at least now you have that many less (many fewer? I still feel like Yogi Berra saying "many" ) amps to wonder about! And yeah, ground loops are the bane of my fucking existence, but the little Ebtech Hum-X solved that! (though I suppose that wasn't out then either )

What's that silver thing with the two groups of three knobs in the rack, though? The flash obscures the writing in both pics

 

[Nitrobattery]

Hahahaha, the story thus far - you've sure gone through the gamut dude, but hey, at least now you have that many less (many fewer? I still feel like Yogi Berra saying "many" ) amps to wonder about! And yeah, ground loops are the bane of my fucking existence, but the little Ebtech Hum-X solved that! (though I suppose that wasn't out then either )

What's that silver thing with the two groups of three knobs in the rack, though? The flash obscures the writing in both pics

I'm sure there were plenty of ways around the grounding/humming issues...but I wasn't totally sold on lugging that much gear around anyway. The Mark IV is so versatile that it did pretty much everything I needed.

The silver guy is an APHEX Aural Exciter. I used that backstage to get me relaxed before a show....


..er...



It's basically like a sonic maximizer just for the high end. I ran that in the loop and used it on the clean channel and it made it just shimmer. Lots of sparkle but never harsh.

I've gone through a ton of stuff, but like you said, now I know what I like. Mesa's are the backbone to my ideal tone. I grew up worshiping Metallica and because of that Boogie's are the standard to which I judge all other amps...be that good or bad. Boogies, 5150's, hot rodded Marshalls...that's what does it for me.






...and Fender, ENGL, VHT, Framus, Soldano, Splawn, Mako, Diezel etc etc