Ordered an ESP M-I

[mickrich]

Had a beautiful Rickenbacker guitar in the studio that has not been used since a mod album last year so with 3 metal albums booked in it was time to change it for a killer metal guitar.
I have a PRS Cstm24 and Gibson LP standard that both sound great but some metal players don't like the necks on them.
The M-I seems like the perfect studio metal guitar. 25.5 scale, neck thru, strung thru, no trem and single EMG 81 with one volume.
Should be very easy to tune and set up for any tuning.
Should have it in October and will post clips then.
The black satin looks cool too.
http://www.espguitars.com/guitars_m2.html
Bottom of the page.

 

[Jaymz]

Id be all over that myself if it had a neck pickup

Good purchase though!

 

[JeffTD]

Very nice dude, I absolutely fucking LOVE mine! I put an 89 in the bridge for a bit more beef, but the guitar itself plays and sounds like sex all over!

Id be all over that myself if it had a neck pickup

That's what I said... so I put one in.

 

[Rob Logic]

I love my M-II. Neck is glorious...

 

[Jaymz]

Very nice dude, I absolutely fucking LOVE mine! I put an 89 in the bridge for a bit more beef, but the guitar itself plays and sounds like sex all over!



That's what I said... so I put one in.

Nice! That must have took a fair bit of work to do that?

 

[mickrich]

The single pickup sealed it for me.
No magnetic pull from a neck pickup (I know EMGs don't really pull the strings much) and no extra pickup cavity in the body, or in this case neck thru. I find most metal guys who use neck pickup for lead want a floyd too so they can use their own guitar. I have several fantastic guitars for cleans. No switch/tone control so no extra electrical contacts/pots should give a cleaner signal.
DSS3, I have seen several M-I photos with the strings taped behind the nut. Is there too much resonance (harmonics) when you need a tight stop when playing.

 

[JeffTD]

Nice! That must have took a fair bit of work to do that?

A few hours with a drill + dremel... I don't have a proper router or templates so it took a full afternoon or so.

The single pickup sealed it for me.
No magnetic pull from a neck pickup (I know EMGs don't really pull the strings much) and no extra pickup cavity in the body, or in this case neck thru. I find most metal guys who use neck pickup for lead want a floyd too so they can use their own guitar. I have several fantastic guitars for cleans. No switch/tone control so no extra electrical contacts/pots should give a cleaner signal.
DSS3, I have seen several M-I photos with the strings taped behind the nut. Is there too much resonance (harmonics) when you need a tight stop when playing.

I've never heard of anyone getting magnetic pull problems from a neck humbucker... you have your pickups WAY too close to the strings if that's the case. I also notice absolutely no difference in tone in the bridge pickup before/after installing the neck pickup, so your fears are a bit unfounded. Still an absolutely killer axe and I plan on getting another to refinish some day!

There's too much resonance from the above-nut strings on any guitar, IMO - I use the hair band or tape on all of my guitars, and also tape below the TOM bridge when doing serious tracking.

 

[P-E]

Best feeling guitar I've ever played. So awesome.

 

[Jaymz]

Is the neck essentially the same as a M-II?

And its THAT good?

 

[JeffTD]

Is the neck essentially the same as a M-II?

And its THAT good?

I had an M-II maple for a bit at the same time as this axe, it's the same neck.

And yeah... ridiculously nice axes for the cash. Not very versatile but I fucking LOVE the one trick this pony does!

 

[mickrich]

Strings move in the magnetic field of a pickup so a pickup will always exert a small amount of pull on the strings.
This is a big selling point of active pickups. They have a very small magnetic field with the signal then boosted by an internal preamp.
http://www.emginc.com/pages/whyemg
High output passive humbuckers, like the invader, certainly pull the strings.

I have played lots of ESPs. Until recently I owned a shop that is an ESP dealer.
The Ms are flat and thin and very fast. Horizons are very strat like and eclipse are similar to 60s profile Gibson LP. There is essentially no quality difference between ESP standard and original/custom series. The standards are as well made and set up as handmade custom guitars. I used to find it amazing that people would buy ltd 1000 series rather than spend a couple of hundred more to get a real ESP which is FAR better.

 

[Jaymz]

Yeah because I was gonna say, for £800ish you can get something like a M-1000 Deluxe with all the nice binding and flamed this n' that but a plain M-II is even more expensive! I thought the ESP badge would be whats going on there....but if there is actually a quality difference....I just wish they did M-II with no floyd and I don't fancy cutting one up myself haha.