ESP Navigator Esparto — Natural Finish

This Esparto in natural finish reflects the aesthetic of Fender’s large-headstock era, which spanned from late 1965 to the early 1980s.

The popularity of natural-finish Stratocasters in the mid-1970s was almost certainly due to the influence of Ritchie Blackmore.
During Deep Purple’s Mark III period (1973–1975), his main guitar was a natural Strat, and that visual impact resonated deeply with guitarists of the time.
Indeed, when one looks through vintage Strats from the 1970s, the number of natural-finish examples is striking.

The original Fender models switched to a three-bolt neck joint and bullet truss-rod nut design in 1971.
In Japan, the large-scale production of Stratocaster copies likely began around 1973, but among major manufacturers, only Tokai Gakki and Fernandes released three-bolt-neck models.
Greco, Aria Pro II, and ESP, despite adopting the larger headstock shape, continued producing the older four-bolt design — for reasons that remain unclear.

The large-headstock Esparto thus represents a copy of the mid- to late-1960s CBS-logo Stratocaster, but with several uniquely Japanese twists.
For example, even some rosewood-fingerboard models feature a skunk-stripe neck, a specification that never existed on genuine Fenders.

Weight: 3.45 kg (including strings).
(Updated August 25, 2016)