Up for sale, a 1980s ESP custom bass, 100% original and featuring neck through construction and a gloss purple finish. Ostensibly part of the Horizon family of instruments, there is little to no precedent for this extremely unique model. The bass features a quilted maple top, extremely thick and comprising about half of the body depth, with an extremely distinctive top carve. The maple neck through body is framed by mahogany body wings, and this ESP is an articulate, immediate, and bright-sounding instrument, with excellent growl and upper midrange burp via the pair of single coil pickups. The bass weighs 8lbs 7oz and is very well-balanced on a strap. We've had this ESP bass professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with 45-100 strings, comfortable action and accurate intonation.
The maple neck has a slender U-shaped profile carve with generous shoulder in every register, filling the palm comfortably as you travel up the fretboard, measuring .810" deep at the 1st fret and .930" at the 12th. The ebony fretboard has offset dot inlay, and the original medium jumbo fretwire is in great shape, playing cleanly up the 34" scale with a straight neck and responsive, optimally adjusted truss rod. The graphite nut measures 1 1/2" in width, and the headstock features the ESP logo and matching truss rod cover, with black tuners that turn smoothly and hold pitch reliably.
On the body, all of the electronics function as intended, and the pair of J-style single coils have clean ESP silkscreens on the covers, matching the headstock. The heavy duty top loader bridge is inset into the top, and the original trio of knurled knobs rounds out the hardware. The purple gloss finish highlights both the very distinctive top carve and the quilt figuring in the maple. Cosmetic wear includes a spot of buckle rash on the back of the bass-side body horn, and some additional small dings and finish scratches on the body as a whole. There is also some finish chipping on the back lower bout body edge and along the headstock.
