ESP USA Viper Guitar, Ebony Fretboard, EMG 57 / 66 Pickups, Black Blood Splatter

PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE

It's always a treat to get a beautiful USA-made ESP into the shop. Built in ESP's USA factory right here in California, these instruments are top-of-the-line instruments on par with their renowned, artisan-made Japanese Custom Shop guitars. The "Black Blood Splatter" finish on this Viper is simultaneously artistic, fearsome, and quite the head-turner. With how "killer" this guitar sounds, this finish certainly looks the part!

The Viper has long been one of ESP's most popular body shapes, and this luthier-built version is for the more discerning players wanting a bit more in terms of build quality and craftsmanship. This beast pumps out venomous tone with the EMG pickups while being incredibly easy to wrangle!

All puns aside, this is a shredder's dream with killer playability in a simple and sleek package. The unmistakably meticulous attention to detail from top to bottom is stunning. The fretwork is pure perfection and allows for incredibly low action. A simple control layout gives you everything you need and nothing you don't.

This one's loaded with the venerable EMG 57 & 66 set of pickups. These are unique because they're active pickups, but feature Alnico V magnets and impart a vintage-style level of output to the tone. These combine the best of both worlds, providing PAF-like classic tone and dynamic response with the clarity and headroom of active pickups. If you're into old-school humbucker guitar tone - the tone that made rock history - these are the EMGs for you!

ITEM SPECIFICS

Crafted at our ESP USA facility in Southern California, the USA Viper ups the ante on the ultimate offset double-cutaway guitar shape that so many ESP players have used over the years. The USA Viper offers a mahogany body with optional flamed maple and quilted maple tops and a wide variety of gloss and satin translucent finishes to allow the figured wood grain to be highlighted (solid colors are also available). These guitars offer smooth set-thru construction at 24.75” scale, with a three-piece thin U-shaped mahogany neck and ebony fingerboard with 22 extra-jumbo Jescar stainless steel frets and mother-of-pearl split-flag inlays.

We chose the very best components available for the USA Viper, including Sperzel Trimlok tuners, TonePros locking TOM bridge and tailpiece, Dunlop strap locks, and a bone nut. Pickups for the USA Viper include a variety of world-class Seymour Duncan (passive) and EMG (active) models, with a push-pull coil split control on the tone knob for passive pickup models. The USA Viper includes a high-quality ESP USA form-fitting hard shell case.