Monday, May 27, 2019

Clean tones of ESP Eclipse II with EMGs

In another chapter of my Les Paul craze, hoping for something more comfortable than my previous Gibson Les Paul Studio, which I had back in 2014, I bought an amazing-looking ESP Eclipse II, in silver sparkle finish. Realy eye-catching. A Japanese one, not the LTD crap.

I’m very pleased with the EMG pickups. Originally this guitar probably had a Seymour Duncan JB/59 set, and they were replaced by EMG 81 (bridge) and 85 (neck). However, I noticed the 85 is higher output and also it has a lot more bass, so I swapped both pickups. This EMG system is great: once you have the circuit installed, the pickups can be changed quickly by detaching the cables. Now, with the 85 at the bridge and the 81 at the neck, the guitar sounds very balanced.

As for the comfort, it’s not bad as my old Gibson, but definitely it’s not a comfortable guitar. The neck made me realize how much I like finished necks, and the ebony fretboard is sweet. Other than that, I played only one gig with it, and it felt very awkward on my shoulder. I guess I’m a superstrat player, definitely.

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