ESP Navigator Esparto — Natural Finish (Distinct from the Tobacco Sunburst Model)

This guitar is a different instrument from the tobacco sunburst Esparto I introduced earlier.

It may sound self-congratulatory, but I believe it was through this site that the Esparto—a model slowly fading from Japan’s collective memory of its guitar history—was reintroduced to the awareness of domestic vintage-guitar enthusiasts.

Of course, some players at the time did know about the Esparto.
But ESP in the mid-1970s was still just a small garage shop in Shibuya—not the kind of place someone from the countryside could casually visit to buy a guitar.
In reality, only a handful of Tokyo-area guitarists knew these instruments firsthand, and only they understood their true value.

This particular example features a one-piece ash (or possibly sen) body.
The fingerboard finish has worn away beautifully with age.
The tremolo unit and pickup assembly appear to have been replaced, yet curiously, the pickguard screw holes remain unchanged.
It now mounts a DiMarzio FS-1 in the neck, a DiMarzio HS-2 in the bridge, and a Greco Excel in the middle position, the latter stamped 31276.

Among Japanese-made Stratocasters of the late 1970s, only a few—Esparto included—have now aged enough to convey a truly authentic vintage character.

Weight: 3.49 kg (including strings).
(Updated August 25, 2016)