George Lynch Kamikaze - ESP's Best-Known Guitar

My playing has been heavily influenced by the playing of George Lynch. He often does not get the respect he deserves, but he is probably the best guitar player around. He by far has done more with the instrument than anyone else since Jimmy Hendrix. He has been using guitars made by ESP of Japan since the middle of the 1980s.

ESP began producing the Kamikaze in 1986 when George Lynch stumbled across the company. He went into a shop looking for a replacement neck and ended up starting a relationship that has been very profitable and creative for both ESP and himself. The kamikaze was actually the first signature guitar that ESP produced. They have made four versions of the Kamikaze, but the only real difference is the colors that are used. A less expensive LTD version of the Kamikaze was produced in Korea for a couple years in the late 1990s.

The ESP George Lynch Kamikaze is made in Japan by hand. It is essentially a black guitar with a custom graphics and reverse headstock. The guitar has an almost camouflage paint job featuring brown, red, and yellow. It has two Japanese characters vertically at the back of the guitar, a picture of a Kamikaze pilot right above the tremolo. On the bottom horn of guitar there are bomb graphics. I must say I love my country very much and think the Kamikaze attacks against our soldiers were horrible, but it is a really good looking guitar.

The specs on the ESP Kamikaze are as follows. As mentioned it is black with custom graphics and a reverse headstock with black hardware. It has a bolt on neck and has a Stratocaster scale. The body and neck are maple with a 22 fret fingerboard with dot inlays. It features extra jumbo frets for comfortable playing action. The neck is very comfortable to play and really thin and fast. It comes with a locking Floyd Rose Tremolo and Gotoh tuners. A Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon pickup is in the bridge and an ESP SH-100 pickup in the neck position. The pickups are selected by a push/pull control that also controls the volume. A case is included with this guitar. This guitar is pretty expensive at $2,999. You can usually find a nice one used for $1,500 or more. I personally have seen a couple lower, but they usually had many issues.

As I mentioned I am a huge George Lynch fan. There are products that he makes that I like very much, but you will often pay more fore them because they carry his name. This is simple marketing. I have owned one Kamikaze and played even more. I must say that I am not really big on using maple for the body of a guitar. The thing is really heavy. I actually think it weighs more than Gibson Les Paul. The maple does have a very good sound combined with the Duncan pick up. The weight of the guitar is really the big thing that I don't like. I still own the LTD version of this guitar made from alder and love it. I especially like the push/pull pick up selector. The neck and fret board are fast and comfortable as anything to play.

Because of some of these issues I really can't highly recommend this guitar. There is a reason that most people don't make guitars from maple. The reason is how heavy and uncomfortable they are to play. Another thing I don't like is the fact that one of these will cost you about $3,000. For that price you could buy a couple high quality guitars, some effect pedals, and an amplifier and be ready for jamming with a band. I will say that it is a very good guitar though. I just hate maple bodies and think the price is way too high.