chromium

You're right! Got my wires crossed - was thinking of Rise...

Rock for Light - great album! He also did God of Love, although that one just wasn't the same without HR. RIP

Received a helpful message from Velorush (Thank you!!!!!). Despite digging around the ESP forum, I hadn't come across this info. Sharing it back here in case any others might benefit from it in future searches.

Thanks guys- hard to find info on these, and just trying to learn more about 'em. Traded a more-prevalent 400 Series strat for this one, and happy that deal worked out- more of a tele guy, and it plays great. Action was ridicuously high, but almost have it dialed in perfectly. One of these days, I might even learn how to get the neck shim thickness right on the first shot...

I moved to imgur back when the new photobucket regime rendered the site useless with a barrage of ad-popups in a crackhead attempt to encourage subscriptions. Don't mind paying for a good service, but their approach smacked of imminent disaster. Kind of suprised that they've hung.on this long...

I just picked up an ESP tele via a Craigslist trade deal, and was hoping to learn more about it. Info out there is sketchy, and so I just wondered if anyone here has experience/knowledge of these? Serial is 207XX with ESP embossed neck plate, and neck pocket has a faded "NY" written in it. Bridge is embossed with "ESP" but looks different than most I've seen from 90s era - traditional plate w/vintage style brass saddles. Looks like the tuners were originally vintage style Kluson, but replaced with a set of Rotomatics. No markings at all on the neck heel. Not sure whether they are replacements, but current pickups are a set of Duncans - STR-1 and STL-1. I was thinking this might be mid-90s Japan market model, given the headstock shape and the previous owner's mention that he bought it in Japan. I've read that some of the earlier ESPs assembled at 48th St had "NY" markings and that just got me curious about its origins. Thanks \

Just got this ESP in a local trade. A double bound tele has been on my bucket list for a while! It has a great V carve neck. The owner had bought it while he was stationed in Japan, and it apparently spent some time with him on a Naval sub

That Cimar is pretty slick. Love the Japanese stuff of that era. Kinda reminds me of the Peavey Mantis (or rather, vice versa...). I admit that I liked those. Ah... guilty pleasures.

Yeah I miss those days, although scraping together $250 was a monumental feat back then I bought that one at Rockin' Robin guitars in Houston. I had received one of their flyers in the mail advertising a big blowout sale on Ric 4001s at $249/ea. When I made it there, they had a big "V" formation of them on stands in the back room. I played every one of em! 15 or so... It was between that mapleglo and a burgundyglo which I probably should have opted for... but the one I picked played better. This would have been around '87, when people wanted Ibanez Soundgears and stuff like that. If I could've afforded 'em, I still remember playing a wonderful Guild Starfire and a metric s***ton of Hofner 500/1s - all ridiculously cheap by today's standards.

Necks on my 4001s have been ultra stable as well. Most of the problems with those basses (if any) stem from owners torqing on the truss rod nuts thinking they adjust like typical rods - sometimes causing the hairpin rods to rotate in their channels, or worse pop the fingerboard off by the nut. With those hairpins, you have to pull the rods, bend them into arcs, manually muscle the neck into the relief you like, reinsert rods and just snug the nuts up to hold 'em in place. They work well as designed, but adjustment requires either contortionist acts by yourself :), a friend to lend extra hands, or a jig (I use tie down straps on the bench to anchor the base of the body, and another to pull the neck into position). That mapleglo bass had a rod that was slighty skewed in its channel and would rattle when the bass hit that magical resonant frequency. Aside front that, it maintained the same fast, low action for 25+ years across two States with vastly different climates. Pretty cool!

I remember the grommets on the neck pickup of my '78 4001. They were sandwiched in between the pickup flange and underside of the pickguard. My 360 has them as spacers under its upper pickguard. They're everywhere! Kind of endearing how little they've changed over the years. At least they ditched the hairpin truss rods... instruments with those are always, errm... fun(?) to setup \

As stock, the upper register on my 360 was pretty dead/plinky sounding. That was the impetus for me trying a Mastery... and it made a big difference in that department. Great bridge, despite the Ric zealots pointing out that it's a downgrade since it only has two saddles and could never possibly intonate (plot spoiler: it intonates just fine; even have an action shot of it below ) Still have the crappy pot metal tailpiece... solely for aesthetics. I definitely have a love/hate thing with Rics, but I've always had one or a few bumping around here for the past few decades. Bought the 78 mapleglo (now gone) when I was 16 for a whopping $250 with OHSC.

Wow.

What sort of bass is that- EB0/3 slothead?

Thanks! Just when you think you've seen 'em all... That is so cool.