Schecter Japan EX STIII ESP Custom Shop

I'm quitting France/E.U to relocate definitely to Japan, where my music activities are mostly located, i can't bring all my guitars (there's already 16 sleeping in their case in my Kanazawa's studio), this particular guitar were my main guitar for 6 years (2013/2019) along my ESP Snapper custom, plenty of studio work, Shanghai musikmesse and Tokyo booth animation, she got me thru tons of situation and turned head many times, she have some ding but still plenty of fret life before leveling.
She's full of unique specifications the Hollywood custom shop can never do and the ESP Japanese one only if you order thru over their craft counter with their master builder at an ESP Bigboss shop, means you should live in Japan.

Here's the specs:

The Neck:
one piece birdseyes maple with walnut skunk stripe
single action truss rod
Small C shape, tough to describe, a C with small shoulder, wood to grab but feels speedy, they don't do this shape no more.
21mm at first fret 24mm at 12th
Compound radius 254mm to 305mm
22 frets, les paul type of jumbo
Unbleached bone nut
Tuners are staggered Schecter Deluxe, vintage fender kluson type, no string trees needed
An off the sheets spec ESP did on this neck is the fretboard (the front of headstock too) is lacquered with nitrocellulose to protect it, while the back profile (also back and edge of the headstock) is only oiled, bare wood feeling. This is very costly option.

The Body:
2 pieces centered, thin grain light weight swamp ash with light quilted maple drop top (this is not a veneer, if doubt ask me a neck pocket picture)
3 strap buttons, 2 at the bottom so guitar never fall if laid against a wall or table
S S S routing, original graphite shielding of all cavity (jack cup included)
3 ply perloid pickguard, large bevels, 11 screw, shielded with aluminium.
6 screw vintage original Schecter tremolo, this is totally off the spec, this is a real Van Nuys chromed brass tremolo with brass machined saddles (you can see the marks of the milling thru their chrome) , not a replica nor a Gotoh, the 6 screws spacing is totally unique, it is impossible to replace it by any kind of trem of the market neither replace its block (i tried at one moment to install a brass block, none could fit, only custom made, so i thought of swapping the tremolo by a Gotoh, a Callaham, a Bare Knuckles and a Fender USA, but none could fit, as the master builder at ESP Bigboss in Kyoto explains to me the trem was certainly a NOS Van Nuys ESP had from their importation period).

The Electronics:
5 way switch CRL USA, 1 Volume CTS BKP 5% tolerance and treble bleed , 1  General Tone CTS BKP Emerson tone cap, 1 treble cut Tone CTS with push push for coil Tap, Switchcraft Jack, all wiring in Belden cable
3 Schecter US made single coil with tap and big pole piece, hand-built by Tom Anderson himself (this is documented on his website), these pickups are not humbucker disguised in single coil, no coil stacking or side by side coil, they are overwound, with the possibility to "tap" into half of the bobin to have a traditional single coil sound by using the push push of the second tone.

So when the second Tone pot is down your pickup are tapped, and sound like normal single coil with a reading around 6/7K, when the button is pushed and in up position, the rest of coil is added and sound become fatter, increasing in medium and higher output, perfect for Blackmore kind of riff or Solo or have stronger dynamics with finger style playing like Knopfler.

To note, the original 3 pots, especially the volume, were bit scratchy, after i got tired to open the pickguard to service before each paid gig/session, i decided to have the original CTS with fender type bottom replaced by CTS Bare Knuckles Pickup specs, the original Push Pull for coil tap by a CTS push push faster to use in action and replace the original tone cap, no extra hole got drilled in the pickguard and all the original hardware (old tone cap included) are inside the Fly case.

She's 3.6kgs or 7.9 lbs, given the fact that the pickup are twice the weight of normal strat pickup. Without her pickguard, all the rest loaded she's 2.8kgs. The wood are marvelously light for a drop top, thanks the swamp ash.

She's coming with her original ESP made in Canada hard case. This is a very heavy duty hardcase (survived 4 flight from EU to Asia per year minimum) with real plywood and sewed (not glued) tolex to the plywood, they don't produce such high quality fly case anymore, my ESP Snapper (original series so custom shop produced) came with way shittier hardcase were the tolex glue is going off.

So, a high end ESP japan custom shop produced Schecter of the early 90's huh? How's that possible?

Here's the tale: after the demise of Schecter and the awful Dallas era, ESP founder, Hisatake Shibuya, who was importing the Van Nuys Schecter to Japan and appreciated them, bought the company back and intend to bring back the company to its roots.

To do so he asked Tom Anderson to make Shecter's style pickup for ESP and settled factory back in Hollywood, where today's Schecter US CS are made and made a japanese division where today, they produce 90% of mid end and high end strat/superstrat and accept custom order, the mid end ones are built by ESP at their E-II factory in Tokyo suburbs, the high end ones and custom order are all built by the ESP's craftsmen carefully one by one with no CNC or automated process. This model is an early 90's high specification model, hence the ESP hard case.

It was long to read, its hard to let go this beauty. If any questions don't hesitate to ask, i fly back to Japan during Summer, if you buy while I'm nit here, I'll have a friend handle the shipping so no worries.