My Lifetime Guitar — Custom-Ordered ESP Stratocaster (1985)

This is the guitar I’ve played and cherished since my university days — in the truest sense, my guitar.

Back in college, I played in a band, knowing it would probably be my last chance to do so seriously.
As a kind of parting memento, I decided to order a custom guitar from ESP in Ochanomizu in 1985.
The price was ¥250,000 — an enormous sum for a poor student.
I paid for it in installments from part-time jobs, never imagining that one day I’d turn into the eccentric collector I am now.

I chose a Stratocaster simply because I loved Strats at the time.
The other guitarist in our band played a Tokai LS-200 Les Paul, and I wanted something different.

The order details were as follows:

• Body: one-piece alder

• Finish: cream lacquer

• Pickups: S–S–H configuration (originally Seymour Duncan SSL-4 × 2 and an Allan Holdsworth model humbucker; later replaced with a P.J. Marx)

• Controls: no tone knob

• Bridge: Floyd Rose tremolo

• Neck: bird’s-eye maple, 22 frets, semi-jumbo fret wire

• Output jack: side-mounted, Les Paul–style

The SSL-4s eventually rusted and died, so I replaced them, but everything else remains as it was.

The bird’s-eye figure on the neck is simply stunning.
Sato-san, the repairman at First Touch in Akita City, who does all my setups, once told me,

“You can hardly find neck wood like this anymore.”

To me, this guitar is truly a lifetime companion.
I may no longer be at the age to crank the Floyd Rose and play wild dive bombs,
but I’ll never part with it.

Weight: 3.81 kg (including strings)
(Updated August 26, 2016)