ESP EX
a series of ESP electric guitars
The ESP EX is a series of electric guitars produced by ESP produced in the United States, Europe and in Japan with the ESP logo as part of the ESP Original Series.
Notable users of models in the EX Series include Patrik Jensen and Anders Björler of The Haunted, Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy, Seth of Behemoth, Devin Townsend and Jed Simon of Strapping Young Lad, Chris McCarthy of Internal Bleeding, Wayne Static of Static-X, Dan Jacobs of Atreyu, Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir, and Jesper Strömblad of In Flames.
ESP began the EX Series with models such as the EX-100 and the EX-102 among others. In 2000 there was an EX-350 that was a set neck with a Floyd Rose and 2 humbuckers, it was only available in oxblood red. In 2003, those models were discontinued and the EX-351 and EX-50 were introduced. The EX-351 was discontinued in 2004 when the EX-400, EX-400BD, and the EX-260 were introduced. The EX-400BD was discontinued in 2007, therefore the EX-400, EX-260, and EX-50 are the only EX models currently produced by ESP in the LTD production line. The discontinued models are still sold online or in some guitar shops that still have them in stock.
History
The EX series began as the MX Series in the mid to late 1980s, firstly producing a MX 220 based on a 1970s Gibson Explorer Body with the ‘famed’ banana headstock, then later with the MX 250 model (as shown in the pic above) with a smaller headstock and a 1980s Gibson body shape. Towards the late 1990s the range was renamed as EXP series (often simply called the ESP Explorer), which featured a design exactly like the Gibson Explorer, down to the same rounded body edges and headstock shape; the only differences being EMG pickups, two control knobs (versus the three on Gibson Explorers) and the ESP logo on the headstock.
The public source identifies “ESP EX” as a series of ESP electric guitars. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around series, electric and guitars.
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This entry incorporates text from “ESP EX” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.