ESP LTD Master Of Puppets 30th anniversary guitar: Metallica’s milestone celebrated
Released on 24th February 1986 the album is considered a classic by fans
ESP and Metallica have had a close partnership for many years. The guitar maker is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the thrash band’s landmark album Master Of Puppets with a limited edition guitar that launches at Summer NAMM this week.
Master Of Puppets
The guitar is limited to 400 units worldwide and is being launched under the LTD name. Featuring a full colour graphic of the album’s cover art work, it will come in a Metallica-branded hard case to keep it safe. The guitar has the band’s logo inlayed at the 12th fret and also comes with a certificate of authenticity as part of the package.
Battery
The guitar features a pair of EMG 81 active pickups that run off of a single 9v battery and should provide it with a tone familiar to any Metallica fan: Tight, focused and heavy.
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
The Metallica / ESP partnership is a long-standing one and the company has released many guitars for the band over the years. This new guitar follows on from their celebration of the Ride The Lightning limited edition guitar from 2014, which was released to celebrate the other classic Metallica album of the same name. That one sold out and became sought after by fans of the band, so this new version will likely have a similar appeal to all the ‘insane’ Metallica fans out there.
Damage Inc
The guitar features and alder body, with a 25.5″ maple neck and an ebony fretboard fitted with 24 extra jumbo frets. At time of writing pricing has not yet been announced. Of course, it will probably sell pretty quickly as there are a lot of fans out there of that particular album.
From my perspective, the band during this era were at the peak of their creativity. It was also the last album that the late Cliff Burton played on and so I can see there being a lot of interest in these guitars. The album was the soundtrack to the summer of ’86 for many of us and has a place in many guitarists’ hearts as a landmark album in its genre. Of course there is always the Slayer argument, but hey, lets not go there…
RRP TBC
ESP Guitars site