ESP basses - vintage from the 1980's

[ultra60]

my band opened for Tommy Keene around '84/'85. Ted Nicely used (2) ESP basses. One was a sunburst/rosewood Jazz. The other was a P bass, LPB/rosewood. If I remember correctly, both had Fender '51 style head stocks.

I recall seeing a few J basses at Southworth's (a year later perhaps) that had a different style head stocks, more in line with the 400 series.

Does anybody else recall these early ESP's? I've done a few searches, and have come up empty. Any links to info would be appreciated.

 

[DaveDeVille]

no links to share , but i used to use one as my
backup bass , back in the early '90's ...
white P-Bass with maple neck , Tele style headstock .
{ check out my old Acoustic 360 ...}
here's a shot of me at Billy Blues , with my
three year old son slappin' at my basses ...

 

[20db pad]

Nice basses - I have no pics or links but they were solid, well made basses that played well and sounded great. Carmine Rojas played one on David Bowie's "Serious Moonlight" tour and he's playing his ESP P Bass in some of the videos that supported that album.

 

[Doctor J]

Many 400 Series P's came with 51 style headstocks, the J's with the regular Fender style. There are other 400 Series with ESP's own style of headstock but there are lots with direct Fender copy headstocks. This is my 400 J, from 86-88 but many records were destroyed in a fire so they can't accurately date them. I bought it over 20 years ago, still comfortably the finest J I've ever played. The early ESPs assembled in the NY shop had Fender style headstocks too, I believe.

 

[ultra60]

thanks for the info... cool stuff for sure.

 

[Tomasw]

This is my ESP P/J custom i think it,s from 1984
the serialnumber is 035**
/Tomas

 

[20db pad]

Nice. I had one way back when, would buy another to replace it if I could find one !

 

[TN WOODMAN]

Check out their current Vintage 4 p / j. Love mine in sunburst /rosewood board .

 

[mpdd]

there was one for sale on ebay 2 weeks ago, mary kaye white, gold pg, 51 headstock, neck said it was a ny 80s neck

 

[Petethebassman]

This is my ESP P/J custom i think it,s from 1984
the serialnumber is 035**
/Tomas

Here's my custom ESP, I don't know when it was made, I bought it used in 1987. Serial number 033**. Currently it has a Badass bridge and a SD Quarter-Pounder pickup, but I have all the original parts.

 

[Wallace320]

Check these beauties out




The latter is sold out at present, and it's a Fender Classic '60s Jazz bass alike, lastly offered for around €. 949,00 (a hundred less than declared price)

The former is available: its sports Seymour Duncan SPB2 split and traditional Fenderish Vintage "screw" saddle tin bridge. Again, around €. 849,00 so a hundred less than declared price

Great basses: too bad I'm lockin' down my money reserves for family unwanted needs (divorce)

Cheers,
Wallace

 

[Charley Umbria]

there was one for sale on ebay 2 weeks ago, mary kaye white, gold pg, 51 headstock, neck said it was a ny 80s neck

Oh, yeah. I was looking at that one for days. I can't possibly justify owning another P-Bass, but if it had been local...


There's a nice-looking 1980's 400 Series Jazz on e-Bay right now.


Not to get too far OT, but there have also been two ESP Vintage Fours that have gone for $600 and $650 recently. IMHO, these are every bit as well-made as the 1980's ESPs, and, at those prices, a no-brainer if you can't find a 400 Series bass.

 

[Charley Umbria]

Here's mine, BTW. It's a 1980's 400 Series P/J. The bass was missing its original pickups and bridge when I got it, so it's now wearing Lindy Fralin P/J pickups (5% overwound J-pup) and a Hipshot Vintage bridge.

It's probably the best player I own, and only cost me about four hundred bucks, plus the replacement parts.

 

[ajn]

I've had this bass for years, but the only identifying mark I have found on it is the small ESP logo on the neck plate. The guy I bought it from said he'd had it since the early 80s and had done nothing to it. I've always been a bit confused by the neck, but it appears from the earlier posts that very early on they were just copying Fender's headstock, and on some other sites I have found some very early 80s ESP Strats that, like mine, did not have any logo on the headstock.

Does anyone else have a neck plate like this one on an early 80s ESP model?

Although I can't authenticate the origins of this bass, I can say that I much prefer this one to the half a dozen or so U.S. made P's that I have owned over the years, and it's the only P-bass I have held on to (although it now has GHS flats on it!).

 

[Charley Umbria]

Sweet bass, ajn! It looks to me like one of the earliest NY-built models, before they switched to the 400 Series headstocks.

Have you ever removed the neck?

Mine has "NY 2-27" penciled on the heel, and what looks like another "2 27" inside of the heel pocket:

My neck plate has a larger ESP logo, plus a serial number (the last two digits are blurred out in this photo):

Your tuners appear very similar to mine, too:

Unfortunately. ESP has almost no records dating back to that time period, so reliable info is really hard to come by...

 

[Tomasw]

Mine has the larger esp logo on the neckplate.
better pics........

 

[Petethebassman]

I've had this bass for years, but the only identifying mark I have found on it is the small ESP logo on the neck plate. The guy I bought it from said he'd had it since the early 80s and had done nothing to it. I've always been a bit confused by the neck, but it appears from the earlier posts that very early on they were just copying Fender's headstock, and on some other sites I have found some very early 80s ESP Strats that, like mine, did not have any logo on the headstock.

Does anyone else have a neck plate like this one on an early 80s ESP model?

Yeah, my early custom ESP (shown in post #10) has a similar neck plate with a small ESP logo with a slight difference: on my bass the ESP logo is closer to the top edge of the plate with serial number (033xx) under the logo. I don't have any detail photos now, I'll have to take some.

Sweet bass, ajn! It looks to me like one of the earliest NY-built models, before they switched to the 400 Series headstocks.

Have you ever removed the neck?

Mine has "NY 2-27" penciled on the heel, and what looks like another "2 27" inside of the heel pocket

My ESP has "KI-15" penciled on the heel, my guess is that the bass was custom-made for the Kitarapaja music shop here in Helsinki, Finland, at the time (=1980's) they were the local ESP dealer.

 

[ack]

That looks like the P/J that Jeff Ament used to play.

 

[lsabina]

Navigator by ESP too during that era. There's one on Ebay now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Navigator-by-ESP-PJ-160-/300987831601?pt=Guitar&hash=item461445d531

 

[Charley Umbria]

Navigator by ESP too during that era. There's one on Ebay now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Navigator-by-ESP-PJ-160-/300987831601?pt=Guitar&hash=item461445d531

My gawd, look at all the rust!

That just makes me want to

It would be a smokin' deal at that price, if every piece of metal on the bass wasn't orange!