ESP Eclipse vs Gibson Les Paul

[duke84]

    I am looking for a new guitar and am wondering where the difference between a Gibson Les Paul and an ESP Eclipse lies.
The specs seem to be very similar, except that, as far as I know, the Esp has a thinner body and Emg active pickups.
However the Esp is a lot cheaper so I'm not sure if that is a sign of poorer quality or just Gibson overpricing their merchandise because it says Gibson on the headstock.

[ericsabbath]

esp uses a cheaper asian mahogany, plastic inlays, thin body, different body shape
I'd pick an edwards over an esp clipse II any day
the esp eclipse ctm I has the correct thickness and a closer shape, but it's more expensive than a used gibson custom or a new standard
a navigator is exactly like a custom shop gibson, including wood species, but it's just as expensive as a custom shop gibson

[Lew]

Isn't Edwards ESP's budget line? I didn't like the neck profile on the Eclipse I tried and in honesty it did feel a bit cheap which was disapointing because I was really interested, they look great. The only Lespauls that have stood out as outstanding to me are late 80s and early 90s standards.

[dave_mc]

^ edwards is kinda for the japanese market. I think grassroots is the really budget line, Edwards is inbetween. Subjective, but IMO they're better than LTDs, but perhaps not quite as good as full-on ESPs. However, you have a bigger choice of vintage-style models with edwards. I think they're started off in china too, not 100% MIJ as used to be claimed/as was supposed by the customers. Very nice guitars, though they're nowhere near as good value as they were because of the pound's fall against the yen recently- a japanese-made tokai or similar which you can get here in the UK more easily, plus get to try first, is probably a better bet at the moment.

regarding the eclipse versus the gibson- the gibson will feel and sound a lot more vintage, the esp a lot more modern, especially if you go for the EMG model.

doesn't esp use african mahogany? I'm not certain, but i'd have thought so. Could be wrong, of course. And doesn't gibson use african for its non-CS models? Again, not certain, but what I've been hearing.

[MatchooW]

esp uses a cheaper asian mahogany, plastic inlays, thin body, different body shape

I think your talking about the cheap ltd series?

My Esp Eclipse (japanese made) has the original les paul shape and has MOP inlays, and i doubt they use a cheaper grade mahogany  :?

[Jonny]

esp uses a cheaper asian mahogany, plastic inlays, thin body, different body shape

I think your talking about the cheap ltd series?

My Esp Eclipse (japanese made) has the original les paul shape and has MOP inlays, and i doubt they use a cheaper grade mahogany  :?

That's the Eclipse Full Thickness one, which is like a Les Paul but I doubt they would cut back on good materials for the Standard series, I tried an Eclipse and loved it.

[Sifu Ben]

esp uses a cheaper asian mahogany, plastic inlays, thin body, different body shape
I'd pick an edwards over an esp clipse II any day
the esp eclipse ctm I has the correct thickness and a closer shape, but it's more expensive than a used gibson custom or a new standard
a navigator is exactly like a custom shop gibson, including wood species, but it's just as expensive as a custom shop gibson

Gibson uses plastic inlays, whereas ESP use abalone or MOP, and an eclipse 1 CTM costs a good £400-£500 less than a new Les Paul Standard, so I'm not really sure what you're on about  :?

[dave_mc]

depends on what you mean by "good quality materials", really. African mahogany is considered "good" too, and is used on many high-end brands (French-made Lags spring to mind, and they're upwards of £1k, often two or three thousand), but historically Gibson used Honduran Mahogany, I think. Though as I said, I don't think they use Honduran now, on the non-CS models anyway. I'm not certain, though. :lol: EDIT: a lot of the japanese companies will use african mahogany too, which is why i thought it might be african on the ESP.

[ericsabbath]

esp uses a cheaper asian mahogany, plastic inlays, thin body, different body shape

I think your talking about the cheap ltd series?

My Esp Eclipse (japanese made) has the original les paul shape and has MOP inlays, and i doubt they use a cheaper grade mahogany  :?

by cheaper, a mean a cheaper priced species, not a cheaper grade of the same wood
they don't sound the same

[ericsabbath]

depends on what you mean by "good quality materials", really. African mahogany is considered "good" too, and is used on many high-end brands (French-made Lags spring to mind, and they're upwards of £1k, often two or three thousand), but historically Gibson used Honduran Mahogany, I think. Though as I said, I don't think they use Honduran now, on the non-CS models anyway. I'm not certain, though. :lol: EDIT: a lot of the japanese companies will use african mahogany too, which is why i thought it might be african on the ESP.

Gibson used african mahogany in part of Norlin era, I think
apparently they used in the 50's too
but the new ones are definitely honduras
I had 2 SG Faded (the cheapest model ever) and I have no doubt they were honduran mahogany
I also had a brazilian les paul in brazilian mahogany (same species as the honduran)
they had EXACTLY the same grain, resonance, smell, texture, greasiness in the cavities
I'd even say that those SG had better pieces of wood than my 1970-1972 Les Paul Custom
they also had flawless fretboard and overall construction
I don't know what ESP uses, but it's definitely another species

[dave_mc]

are they? i was under the impression they didn't use honduras any more. :)

[mikey5]

I cannot speak from experience with the Edwards although my research has convinced me that if I every buy another guitar it will be a Edwards les paul. I have played the ESP. People like the eclipse for its better access and 24 frets. My opinion of many ESPs that I have played is that they feel like machines. There are some better ones but they are nothing special. I would think that Edwards is superior because it is like the Navigator models. Some people like the esp and I am not one of them. Thats just my opinion

[Alex]

ESP uses high-grade woods on the Japan ones. I'm quite sure the inlays are not plastic.
One guy called pushead on the ESP Forum had both a Gibson custom (the black one with the ebony board) and an Eclipse Full Thickness CTM-1 (that one costs a bit more). he had the same pickup configuration in them and they sounded virtually indistinguishable (EMG 60/81). He even made some clips for the rest of the forum, but I trust the guy,he has quite a lot of LesPauls anyway. So much for the different wood species. It's just a matter of what you compare.
The ESp has a thinner neck profile and jumbo frets which will feel different from the Gibson one. On the good side, the neck is faster in response, notes are clearer distinguishable.

IMO the Eclipses are great value but they have a bit of their own sound; they are not "close to an SG though", as some people sometimes say, there's def more bite from the maple cap and more LesPaul in there than SG.

[ericsabbath]

I'm quite sure the inlays are not plastic.

and I'm sure that is plastic
I'm VERY obsessed with that, and that's my biggest turnoff on ESP
Gibson is also using plastic for Standards and Studios for 20 years
apparently the new non-custom shop 2009 Customs have plastic too, but I never saw one like this
I think I've seen one or two custom shop ESP's with MOP, but I'm not sure
most of them are clearly perloid plastic

he had the same pickup configuration in them and they sounded virtually indistinguishable (EMG 60/81).

that says a lot :lol:

[ericsabbath]

examples:

this appears to be MOP


this is definitely not MOP


and they're both custom shops