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The name ESP is a household name for every metalhead, standing for first-class electric guitars and electric basses of the heaviest variety. Founded in 1975 in Tokyo's Shibuya district by Hisatake Shibuya, Electric Sound Products initially concentrated on manufacturing high-quality replacement necks and bodies, but also built electric guitars and basses under its own name and the Navigator label.
To tap into the American market, ESP founded the New York branch on 48th Street in 1983. Here they laid the foundation for international success by working with Vernon Reid of Living Color and Page Hamilton of Helmet. George Lynch discovered the ESP shop in Tokyo by chance during the Dokken tour in 1985 and was more than taken with the quality of the guitars. As a result, ESP Kamikaze, the first ESP signature model, was created in 1986 and is still available today.
ESP finally catapulted into the Olympus of metal guitars when in 1987 ESP won Kirk Hammett and in 1988 James Hetfield from Metallica as endorsers, who drew the attention of guitarists worldwide to the Japanese company with their ESP signature electric guitars. To allow younger musicians to enjoy ESP guitars, ESP launched the LTD series in 1995, offering typical ESP designs and the renowned high quality at a much more affordable price. From 1986 to 1996 ESP also ran a Custom Shop in Düsseldorf's Stresemannstraße, from which European-wide distribution was organised and where guitar maker Reiji Maruyama built first-class guitars.
