Saturday, 9 March 2013

2001 ESP KH-2 Kirk Hammett Signature relic guitar, #18 of 100

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Legions of Metallica fans will probably want to lynch me, but I'm sorry, it has to be said...
HOW MUCH for a Japanese-made Super-Strat?
Currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £3,999.99.

Blimey!

[NOTE: I have nothing against Japanese guitars. In fact I think they often represent the very finest production-made guitars on the planet, and I have owned many. What I am really astonished at here, is the super-inflated price for a guitar that is essentially a "super-strat", just a very basic guitar. I'd like to know how that price tag is justified. Is this actually the recommended selling price (in which case in seems that Metallica fans are being ripped off big time) or is it a price that has been created by demand?]

G L Wilson

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6 comments:

  1. It gets worse..... http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Flying-V/Gibson-Custom/Kirk-Hammett-Flying-V.aspx

    Personally, I've always thought signiture guitars are a bit of a waste of time really. The vast majority are guitars with maybe one or two cosmetic 'improvments' but ulktimately everything about the guitar is largely the same.

    Then there is signture instruments like the schecter ultracure, and the Kurt Cobain Jaguar. They aren't just cosmtic improvments to a boring formula, they represent and actual engagement with the instruments they had been using.And then there are even more radical signiture models, which aft bare no realtion to the guitar which the are based upon. See the radical ibanez artcore signiture models for example. Creating something interesting that will likely not have wide appeal, but will find an interested audience of guitarists.

    Yes, I am aware the cobain jaguar was modieifed before he bought it, but he still used it over other guiatrs, and pushed it to it's limit.

    The kirk Hammett signiture models however... Just do the goddamn pickup swap yuorself, save thousands.

    Still not as bad as the mark knopfler sig strat. It's Red! Different in any other way? Nope! But it's Red!

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  2. How many guitars do there have to be to make them rare. these for instance ESP make a hundred a year. probably been making them since the mid 90's if not earlier. so that's a couple of thousand guitars. Not that rare then. and your right horrendously overpriced.
    I do quite like it though:-)

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  3. Every time a buddy of mine makes a big deal about some guitar being "limited edition", I always love to remind him that everything is limited edition. Eventually the Sun is gonna burn out, then all Earthly guitar production will cease. Buy 'em up, suckers!!

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  4. Anonymous1:25 pm

    Im not defending the price of this one, but it is one of the ESP custom shop style "exact copies".
    Similar to the Clapton, Gilmour, Yngwie fenders that have come out in the past few years with 10k price tags. The non relic copies of the KH-2 are $3.000 in the states.

    Depending on your age group and tastes, the influences are equatable when it comes to getting people plying.... so price isn't that bad.
    On the other hand 10K display case guitars for offices and ego-caves that are never intended to play diminishes the original players and the hardware they used.

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  5. Metallica fans being ripped off? Well, it's a relic guitar, the same is about Eric Clapton fans or Mark Knopfler fans being ripped off for baing told that the beaten guitars they get are something special, when basically they get Les Pauls Standard, which are damaged. With KH-2 it's actually the same as with other relic guitars, and also it has assymetrical neck profile, neck-thru-body construction and is extremely durable. It's not "just a superstrat" that is worth 200 dollars "in reality".

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