Jake E Lee - ESP model

[idsnowdog]

I got to play an ESP Jake E Lee model signed by the man himself today. I can't say I was really impressed. I only played it unplugged. The body is light and resonant it also seemed like it might have been a bit smaller than a normal strat and much lighter. The pickups were OEM junk and not the pickups he uses. The neck feels small almost like a tele neck with C shape. I think it might be 24 3/4 scale if not 24 in. The fretboard has a slight radius and it as wide at the heel as it is at the nut. What got me was that the frets were very thin and not that tall. Together with the fixed bridge, shorter scale neck, small frets and slight radius the action is very low and tension is very low. This makes for a very fast feeling neck but it is one that you could easily fret out on by playing too hard.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Jake E Lee - ESP model

Yup, but thats how Jake liked his guitars

It is a 24.75" scale. It has small vintage type frets, except for the highest 4 or 6, IIRC. Jake is a little guy, and has small hands without much reach and a light touch in his playing. He plays agressively, but all the agression is in his wrist of his picking hand, he frets very lightly.

Thats how his Charvels were built too, though they had the same size frets all the way up IIRC. And his white one was a fender neck anyways..just with a Charvel Logo.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Jake E Lee - ESP model

He must use light strings because fretting with heavy strings would be a pain on that neck.

 

[n1kk]

Re: Jake E Lee - ESP model

And there goooooes.... Necro bump, haha!

You were very lucky to try this guitar. Wish I could too.
I don't think, that .010-.046 or .010-.052 gauges would be heavy on 24 3/4" scale.

I have the same problem, I mean, I feel more comfortable with short scale than with Stratocaster scale, but I like Strats. I was quite happy with Charvels SDK-080/085 which had 24 3/4" scale, but they sounded too thin, and I realised, that only strat body + medium thickness neck sounds good.