A Navigator SP-01 Esparto produced by ESP in the late 70’s.

We can see the sentence “Navigator 2 catalogue, please” on ESP advertisement page in Music Life magazine published In September,1976.  Recently I got the catalogue and confirmed Esparto and model name.  ESP stopped listing Esparto from 1980 on catalogue (but photo was remained on its back cover).  So Esparto seems to have been produced from 1975, the establishment of ESP, to 1980.

Its finish is so thin that it’s easy to have dents.  The body was made of ash according to the catalogue, but hard to distinguish from sen(Japanese ash).  Single piece body doesn’t always indicate high grade guitar then.  Beautiful 3 tone sunburst is eye-catching.  I wonder if it would be NSB(Nishimori Sunburst) finished by Nishimori, the master-finisher of the early period of ESP.

Internal cutting was done after finish.  Only this Esparto has plus screw head of rod adjustment bolt like early Fender.

Pickup assembly was exchanged.  I found original screw holes under the pickguard. The pickups have “SD 2 93” engraving but I can’t identify its model name.  I only know that they seem to be old Seymour Duncan pickups.

Sound is dryer than original. 3.32kg(includes strings). (Updated 2016.8.24)