North Hollywood, CA (January 8, 2020) -- ESP Guitars has posted the third and final phase of their “New for 2020” product collection on their web site at espguitars.com.
A new series of instruments called the ’87 Series has been debuted. The guitars and basses, which will only be produced for the calendar year of 2020, are faithful recreations of ESP’s offerings in 1987 when their instruments grabbed the attention of players around the world. The ’87 Series includes the LTD Eclipse '87, a guitar based on the TE shape unlike the current single-cutaway Eclipse. It comes in Black and Pearl White, and includes a Floyd Rose locking tremolo. The LTD Eclipse ’87 NT, available in Black and White, has a TonePros locking TOM bridge and tailpiece. Both models offer neck-thru-body construction and a set of Seymour Duncan ’59 (neck) and JB (bridge) pickup set (with original style bobbins and a push-pull control to split the coils). The LTD M-1 Custom ’87 is based on the legendary original ESP M-1 model, and offers neck-thru body construction with a three-piece extra thin U-shaped maple neck. It features a Floyd Rose 1000 bridge and a single Seymour Duncan Distortion TB-6 pickup with a push-pull control for coil splitting, and an EMG PA-2 boost switch for when you need that extra push of raw power, and is available in Black, Dark Metallic Blue, and Candy Apple Red finishes. The LTD Mirage Deluxe '87 is a bolt-on guitar with an alder body and three-piece extra thin U-shaped maple neck being made available in Pearl Pink and Turquoise finishes. These guitars feature a Floyd Rose 1000 bridge and a pickup set that includes a Seymour Duncan Distortion TB-6 (with original style bobbins and a push-pull control to split the coils) in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail single coil in the neck position. The LTD Surveryor ’87 is a classic bolt-on bass at 34” scale, and features top-tier components including a Gotoh 201-B4 bridge and a Seymour Duncan Vintage P/Vintage Jazz pickup set. It’s available in Black and Pearl White finishes.
ESP has also announced new and updated editions to its well known Signature Series. The LTD NS-6 is the brand new Signature Series guitar from Nergal of Behemoth. Based on the coveted ESP Stream guitar shape, the NS-6 offers a range of tones with a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker pickups. Available in Black Satin finish, it offers a set-thru design at 25.5” scale with a mahogany body and a three-piece maple neck that features a Macassar ebony fingerboard with an inlaid Behemoth Triumviratus logo, and glow-in-the-dark side markers. The updated Signature Series guitar for Alex Wade of American deathcore band Whitechapel is the LTD AW-7 Baritone, a 7-string guitar at 27” scale that has a swamp ash body with an outstanding Open Grain Black Satin finish. The AW-7 Baritone gets its tone from a set of direct-mount DiMarzio D-Activator 7 pickups, and also features a Hipshot fixed hardtail bridge and LTD locking tuners.
ESP also updated the Signature Series guitars of Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders). The affordable, high-quality LTD JR-208 is an 8-string baritone guitar at 27" scale with a mahogany body, a bolt-on maple neck, ESP Designed LH-308N and LH-308B pickups, and an LTD fixed bridge with string-thru-body. It’s available in Pelham Blue finish with gold hardware. Javier’s neck-thru-body LTD JR-608 model has been updated with a set of his new Fishman Javier Reyes Open Core Signature Pickups, with a mini-switch to engage their multiple voicings.
Stephen Carpenter of Deftones, one of ESP’s most longterm artist endorsees, has had two of his Signature Series guitars updated for 2020. The LTD SC-20, celebrating Stef’s 20th anniversary of his first ESP signature model, is now available in Sonic Blue finish. The newest version of the LTD SC-607 Baritone is being made available in a great-looking Purple Satin finish. ESP also announced a solution for musicians who are looking for a more affordable solution for the LTD Signature Series guitar of Brian “Head” Welch of Korn with the LTD SH-207. It offers bolt-on construction with a comfortable and fast extra thin U-shaped three-piece maple neck. The SH-207’s sound is powered by a set of high-output ESP Designed LH-307 pickups.
ESP also debuted several more guitars in their “Phase III” announcement. These include the Phoenix Black Metal, which offers the styling theme from the other Black Metal models — all-black finish, components, and hardware, a single premium-quality pickup, Macassar ebony fingerboards with no inlays and glow-in-the-dark side markers — in the stylish Phoenix body shape. It offers neck-thru-body construction using a three-piece maple neck and mahogany body wings, and a single Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker pickup that offers a push-pull control to select voicings. More additions to the LTD Deluxe “1000 Series” include the LTD Deluxe EC-1000 in Black Natural Burst, a guitar with a burled poplar top on a mahogany body with a three-piece mahogany neck and Macassar ebony fingerboard, and Seymour Duncan Sentient (neck) and Pegasus (bridge) passive pickups. The LTD Deluxe M-1007 is a 7-0string model with neck-thru-body design, and offers a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern Humbuckers, with a push-pull control to activate the second voicing. The LTD Deluxe Viper-1000 EverTune adds the innovative EverTune constant tension bridge to the offset double-horn Viper design for the first time. The Viper-1000 EverTune also includes top-tier components like direct-mount Seymour Duncan Sentient (neck) and Pegasus (bridge) passive pickups, splittable by a push-pull control, and Grover tuners.
While no more previews will be forthcoming, ESP emphasizes that at the NAMM Show, the company will also be debuting a number of Japan-built guitars and basses in the ESP Original Series and ESP Exhibition Series. Detailed specifications and more information on all new models will be available on the ESP web site by the beginning of the 2020 NAMM Show.
For more information:
ESP Guitars
Guitarists are used to coveting cranky, old gear, but if you’re not a rack user, the H3000 might not be for you! If you ever see one of these in a studio, be sure to take some time to check it out, and maybe give the plugin a try.When it debuted in 1987, the H3000 was marketed as an “intelligent pitch-changer” that could generate stereo harmonies in a user-specified key. This was heady stuff in the ’80s! But while diatonic harmonizing grabbed the headlines, subtler uses of this pitch-shifter cemented its legacy. Patch 231 MICROPITCHSHIFT, for example, is a big reason the H3000 persists in racks everywhere. It’s essentially a pair of very short, single-repeat delays: The left side is pitched slightly up while the right side is pitched slightly down (default is ±9 cents). The resulting tripling/thickening effect has long been a mix-engineer staple for pop vocals, and it’s also my first call when I want a stereo chorus for guitar.
The second-gen H3000S, introduced the following year, cemented the device’s guitar bona fides. Early-adopter Steve Vai was such a proponent of the first edition that Eventide asked him to contribute 48 signature sounds for the new model (patches 700-747). Still-later revisions like the H3000B and H3000D/SE added even more functionality, but these days it’s not too important which model you have. Comprehensive EPROM chips containing every patch from all generations of H3000 (plus the later H3500) are readily available for a modest cost, and are a fairly straightforward install.
In addition to pitch-shifting, there are excellent modulation effects and reverbs (like patch 211 CANYON), plus presets inspired by other classic Eventide boxes, like the patch 513 INSTANT PHASER. A comprehensive accounting of the H3000’s capabilities would be tedious, but suffice to say that even the stock presets get deliciously far afield. There are pitch-shifting reverbs that sound like fever-dream ancestors of Strymon’s “shimmer” effect. There are backwards-guitar simulators, multiple extraterrestrial voices, peculiar foreshadows of the EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid and Rainbow Machine (check out patch 208 BIZARRMONIZER), and even button-triggered Foley effects that require no input signal (including a siren, helicopter, tank, submarine, ocean waves, thunder, and wind). If you’re ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000’s singular knob makes a pretty good substitute. (Spin the big wheel and find out what you’ve won!)
“If you’re ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000’s singular knob makes a pretty good substitute.”
But there’s another, more pedestrian reason I tend to reach for the H3000 and its rackmount relatives in the studio: I like to do certain types of processing after the mic. It’s easy to overlook, but guitar speakers are signal processors in their own right. They roll off high and low end, they distort when pushed, and the cabinets in which they’re mounted introduce resonances. While this type of de facto processing often flatters the guitar itself, it isn’t always advantageous for effects.
Effects loops allow time-based effects to be placed after preamp distortion, but I like to go one further. By miking the amp first and then sending signal to effects in parallel, I can get full bandwidth from the airy reverbs and radical pitched-up effects the H3000 can offer—and I can get it in stereo, printed to its own track, allowing the wet/dry balance to be revisited later, if needed. If a sound needs to be reproduced live, that’s a problem for later. (Something evocative enough can usually be extracted from a pedal-form descendant like the Eventide H90.)
Like most vintage gear, the H3000 has some endearing quirks. Even as it knowingly preserves glitches from earlier Eventide harmonizers (patch 217 DUAL H910s), it betrays its age with a few idiosyncrasies of its own. Extreme pitch-shifting exhibits a lot of aliasing (think: bit-crusher sounds), and the analog Murata filter modules impart a hint of warmth that many plug-in versions don’t quite capture. (They also have a habit of leaking black goo all over the motherboard!) It’s all part of the charm of the unit, beloved by its adherents. (Well, maybe not the leaking goo!)
In 2025, many guitarists won’t be eager to care for what is essentially an expensive, cranky, decades-old computer. Even the excitement of occasional tantalum capacitor explosions is unlikely to win them over! Fortunately, some great software emulations exist—Eventide’s own plugin even models the behavior of the Murata filters. But hardware offers the full hands-on experience, so next time you spot an old H3000 in a rack somewhere—and you’ve got the time—fire it up, wait for the distinctive “click” of its relays, spin the knob, and start digging.
You can access your complete TONEX library, including Tone Models, presets and ToneNET, quickly load favorites to audition, and save to a designated hardware slot on IK hardware pedals. This easy-to-use application simplifies workflow, providing a streamlined experience for preparing TONEX pedals for the stage.
Fine-tune and organize your pedal presets in real time for playing live. Fully compatible with all your previous TONEX library settings and presets. Complete control over all pedal preset parameters, including Global setups. Access all Tone Models/IRs in the hardware memory, computer library, and ToneNET Export/Import entire libraries at once to back up and prepare for gigs Redesigned GUI with adaptive resize saves time and screen space Instantly audition any computer Tone Model or preset through the pedal.
Studio to Stage
Edit any onboard Tone Model or preset while hearing changes instantly through the pedal. Save new settings directly to the pedal, including global setup and performance modes (TONEX ONE), making it easy to fine-tune and customize your sound. The updated editor features a new floating window design for better screen organization and seamless browsing of Tone Models, amps, cabs, custom IRs and VIR. You can directly access Tone Models and IRs stored in the hardware memory and computer library, streamlining workflow.
A straightforward drop-down menu provides quick access to hardware-stored Tone Models conveniently sorted by type and character. Additionally, the editor offers complete control over all key parameters, including FX, Tone Model Amps, Tone Model Cabs/IR/VIR, and tempo and global setup options, delivering comprehensive, real-time control over all settings.
A Seamless Ecosystem of Tones
TONEX Editor automatically syncs with the entire TONEX user library within the Librarian tab. It provides quick access to all Tone Models, presets and ToneNET, with advanced filtering and folder organization for easy navigation. At the same time, a dedicated auto-load button lets you preview any Tone Model or preset in a designated hardware slot before committing changes.This streamlined workflow ensures quick edits, precise adjustments and the ultimate flexibility in sculpting your tone.
Get Started Today
TONEX Editor is included with TONEX 1.9.0, which was released today. Download or update the TONEX Mac/PC software from the IK Product Manager to install it. Then, launch TONEX Editor from your applications folder or Explorer.
For more information and videos about TONEX Editor, TONEX Pedal, TONEX ONE, and TONEX Cab, visit:
www.ikmultimedia.com/tonexeditor
