48th Street Custom Guitars

atyourlasthourrr

atyourlasthourrr

Inspired
I just picked up an 800 Series ESP Strat off Reverb. While I'm pretty well versed on most modern ESP's this one is a late 80's guitar which was apparently assembled in the 48th Street Custom Guitars shop.

I've been lurking around the web trying to find some good info on these guitars and cannot come up with anything other than 'ESP makes solid guitars'.

Anyone around here have any actual experience with any of these instruments? If so, how do they compare with their American counterparts?

These guitars seem to be pretty esoteric.
 
Without a pic, I’m at a little disadvantage. But when you say late 80s ESP Strat, it makes me think of the ESPs that Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) was playing in that era. (He switched from Fender for a bit.) Particularly on the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour in 1988. Is the one you bought like that?
 
I used to hang out there, I had know Idea it was such an iconic, legendary store. 80s esps were awesome.
 
Jiffzillla said:
Without a pic, I’m at a little disadvantage. But when you say late 80s ESP Strat, it makes me think of the ESPs that Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) was playing in that era. (He switched from Fender for a bit.) Particularly on the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour in 1988. Is the one you bought like that?
Click to expand...

Here are some pics.

zlcvld7yafkr9d8licco.jpg


nahodmwqco4ud2etzho6.jpg
 
Looks similar to the ones that Dave played during that era. Although he had a different pickup configuration (HSH) and was outfitted with a Floyd Rose tremolo. Either way, that looks like a nice guitar you’ve got there. I’ve never picked up an ESP that wasn’t a really solid guitar. Even their LTD line are great guitars for not a ton of money. I’ve got a 2013 ESP Eclipse in silver sparkle that I actually prefer over my Gibson Les Paul Standard from 2005. Much better feeling neck radius, and a matte finish on the back of the neck that solves the issue of the finish getting tacky when warmed up that I fight with on the Les Paul.
 
Jiffzillla said:
Looks similar to the ones that Dave played during that era. Although he had a different pickup configuration (HSH) and was outfitted with a Floyd Rose tremolo. Either way, that looks like a nice guitar you’ve got there. I’ve never picked up an ESP that wasn’t a really solid guitar. Even their LTD line are great guitars for not a ton of money. I’ve got a 2013 ESP Eclipse in silver sparkle that I actually prefer over my Gibson Les Paul Standard from 2005. Much better feeling neck radius, and a matte finish on the back of the neck that solves the issue of the finish getting tacky when warmed up that I fight with on the Les Paul.
Click to expand...

That seems to be the overwhelming consensus with these guitars
 
unix-guy said:
Before this thread, I never heard of 48th Street Guitars... But this just showed up while browsing Reverb:

ESP 48th Street Guitars Super Strat 1980's Natural https://applink.reverb.com/item/15032900-esp-48th-street-guitars-super-strat-1980-s-natural
Click to expand...

I was really just looking for a strat since I don't have one in my collection. This one happened to pop up on my feed and in taking a closer look I discovered that these guitars really seem to be something special.

I'm just curious if anyone on here has first hand experience with these instruments so I can know exactly what to expect and how it compares to a 'proper' strat.
 
Last edited:
48th street in NY was amazing during the 80s. All the stores are gone now. 48th st custom guitars were terrible though. I feel bad that you got stuck with it and am willing to pay shipping to my place where I will dispose of the guitar properly. Seriously, I used to drool over those guitars. It was them and Charvel/Jackson. Great find, congrats!
 
Great playing and sounding guitars. I got to play one once at the store when I visited it in my college days. The guitar I played was styled like the one in the Reverb ad.

Congrats!
 
hippietim said:
48th street in NY was amazing during the 80s. All the stores are gone now. 48th st custom guitars were terrible though. I feel bad that you got stuck with it and am willing to pay shipping to my place where I will dispose of the guitar properly. Seriously, I used to drool over those guitars. It was them and Charvel/Jackson. Great find, congrats!
Click to expand...

Hah. I'll be the judge of whether or not this guitar needs to be disposed of ;)

The guy who I bought this from alleges that this guitar is comparable to similar models in the 2.5k range (Fender CS, Suhr, Tom Anderson, etc.) needless to say I'm pretty psyched to get my hands on her.
 
UPDATE: Just got her in. This is a GREAT looking guitar and boy does she sound nice. I don't have any real strat experience, but in terms of feel and sound, it's definitely up there with my high end axes. Really glad I took the plunge on this one!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom