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ESP basses - vintage from the 1980's

#21
Here's more detailed pictures of my early-80's ESP.. like I said earlier, I bought it used in 1987. I do know it is definitely made before 1986 because I later spotted this bass listed for sale in a music magazine ad from January, 1986.

Headstock front:

DSCN4610.jpg


Headstock logo, detail:

DSCN4614.jpg


Back of headstock:

DSCN4624.jpg


Neck plate, small ESP logo on top with serial # under the logo:

DSCN4639.jpg
 
#22
Ok:
no skunkstripe, then on the black Navigator there's a Gotoh bridge with ESP engraved on it, yet, you know Gotoh Vintage open gear tuners (still the best open gear tuners to date) are there and your sticker logo just seem to be an excerpt of a wider "Navigator" one, finally small engraved ESP logo on neck plate is placed right like on yours:)

Furthermore, so appears to be the other red P down a few more posts: it bein' with Fender strings, skunkstripe again, no logo at all (but, bein' a sticker, easy removable from owner to owner) small engraved ESP logo on heel, only differin' because of the Hipshot HB1 tuners (like MusicMan's)

what would you say?

Cheers,
Wallace
 
#23
My bass has no skunk stripe because it has a rosewood fingerboard, on those the truss rod is inserted from top before the fingerboard is glued on. The tuners on the ebay Navigator look identical to the ones on my ESP: they are very high quality, no backlash or play and they work very smoothly even after 27 years of use. Amazing tuning stability.

The original bridge on my ESP is different, it is a '60s Fender-style unit: thin plate, flat bottom with no grooves under saddle screws, threaded barrel saddles. I'm fairly sure it is the original bridge because when I removed it some red finish had stuck to the bottom and the body top shows no signs of redrilled holes or outlines from other bridges.

I didn't notice yesterday the small "Produced by ESP" logo on the Navigator.. that too looks identical to my bass, apart from missing the "Navigator" part. I'd really like to know the exact year my bass was made, but as there are no dates anywhere on the bass and with no definite info from other sources available, the manufacture year will most likely remain a mystery.
 
#24
Petethebassman said:
I'd really like to know the exact year my bass was made, but as there are no dates anywhere on the bass and with no definite info from other sources available, the manufacture year will most likely remain a mystery.
Click to expand...

http://mycoolguitars.com/navigator-guitars/1985-esp-navigator-guitars-catalog/
There's some info here. The "My Cool Guitars" site has ESP and Navidator catalogs. In the one that is linked a PJ160 (ESP) is listed, like the Navigator on eBay.
 
#28
ok, so Destructobot gave me this bass as a Secret Santa gift on another forum... and it is an amazing piece, but its weird. trying to track and place it has been tough.

notable things about it:

ESP stamp into the wood on the headstock

painted ESP logo on the front of the headstock

badass II Bridge

Entire pickguard is plastic (as opposed to plastic with a metal control plate like most jazz)

anyone know what the hell it is?

F931F189-3FFD-454D-A3CE-F772DC0E6185_zps1i1isbrb.jpg
00D3D791-A9F2-4FDF-B60E-F3C26E55768C_zpsv0v53fd3.jpg
A2A0383A-C5B2-45D3-8D78-119F7273FCDB_zpsv5k2pfoh.jpg
 
#31
$uperpuma said:
ok, so Destructobot gave me this bass as a Secret Santa gift on another forum... and it is an amazing piece, but its weird. trying to track and place it has been tough.
notable things about it:

ESP stamp into the wood on the headstock

painted ESP logo on the front of the headstock

badass II Bridge

Entire pickguard is plastic (as opposed to plastic with a metal control plate like most jazz)

anyone know what the hell it is?

View attachment 2218676View attachment 2218677View attachment 2218678
Click to expand...
That is thing of beauty
 
#32
Wow didn’t expect to get sucked into an ESP thread but frankly it got me feeling nostalgic. Around 35 years ago I picked up an ESP PJ but on a tele body and neck shape from Matt Umanov in NYC.(sn 02833) I remember it like yesterday because I met Roger Taylor and his wife while checking this bass out in the shop. At the time it was a beautiful baby blue with cream binding. But somewhere in the midst of a 15 year run of countless 3 set cover band gigs (5x a week) I thought the blue wasn’t cool and took a black spray can to it then thinking that lacked personality I somehow got inspired and took tons of little newspaper clippings with various stuff and pasted them on and sprayed clear over it. Then for further unintended insult I decided ESP wasn’t cool so I scraped of the logo and made a terrible impression of a Fender logo. I know...
This bass has long been retired from real duty although it still sits on my rack in my studio. Ironically now I think it would be cool to strip it back to the blue again which I think could happen as it was just spray paint.
F8B5565F-7BB6-4288-BF61-F88464E48255.jpeg
2FDDEC1E-A919-4DDC-A412-AE8A49343DEF.jpeg
10A101B5-A3A3-4221-AA2C-761BDFF17F5A.jpeg
67A96238-ADC2-47FB-BCFA-37CA647DA3F5.jpeg
 
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#33
RNG1 said:
Wow didn’t expect to get sucked into an ESP thread but frankly it got me feeling nostalgic. Around 35 years ago I picked up an ESP PJ but on a tele body and neck shape from Matt Umanov in NYC.(sn 02833) I remember it like yesterday because I met Roger Taylor and his wife while checking this bass out in the shop. At the time it was a beautiful baby blue with cream binding. But somewhere in the midst of a 15 year run of countless 3 set cover band gigs (5x a week) I thought the blue wasn’t cool and took a black spray can to it then thinking that lacked personality I somehow got inspired and took tons of little newspaper clippings with various stuff and pasted them on and sprayed clear over it. Then for further unintended insult I decided ESP wasn’t cool so I scraped of the logo and made a terrible impression of a Fender logo. I know...
This bass has long been retired from real duty although it still sits on my rack in my studio. Ironically now I think it would be cool to strip it back to the blue again which I think could happen as it was just spray paint.
View attachment 3961695 View attachment 3961696 View attachment 3961697 View attachment 3961699
Click to expand...
You should do it!
That thing looks amazing shame you took the logo off!
I've been looking for an esp like that but they are super hard to find down under. :/
 
#35
JonesyHC said:
You should do it!
That thing looks amazing shame you took the logo off!
I've been looking for an esp like that but they are super hard to find down under. :/
Click to expand...
Just curious when you say I should do it, do you mean I should put the logo on and leave the body alone or do you mean I should strip everything back to that blue with the binding?
 

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