ESP Japan Original Snapper CTM Flamed Top Maple Neck Guitar – See Thru Black

Information

Brand New with Warranty. We are an authorized ESP Dealer.

The ESP Snapper CTM is a truly outstanding guitar, built one-by-one at the ESP Custom Shop in Japan by our world-renowned master luthiers. It’s the ultimate version of a traditional body shape that’s been modded to perfection using the highest level of build quality along with the finest woods and components.

The ESP Snapper CTM offers bolt-on construction at 25.5” scale with a swamp ash body and flamed maple top with masked binding, paired to a thin U-shaped maple neck. Its maple fingerboard has 22 medium jumbo frets along with abalone dot inlays. Top-tier components include an unbleached bone nut, Gotoh locking tuners, and an ESP Flicker-III tremolo.

This guitar’s H/S/S pickup configuration includes two Seymour Duncan STK-7 Vintage Hot Stack Plus stacked single coil pickups, which are slightly overwound and offer a wealth of warmth, sustain, and sweetness. The bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan TB-16 ’59/Custom Hybrid, a medium output humbucker that sparkles with upper midrange harmonic content and grit. Controls on the ESP Snapper CTM include volume, tone (with a push-pull knob that allows for capacitance selection), a 5-way pickup selector, and a mini-toggle switch that offers a pickup mix variation for a wealth of tones.

What Do We Think?

The Seymour Duncan pickup set offers an array of sweet and rocking tones. The Vintage Hot Stack Plus in neck and middle offer classic Strat tones of a slightly overwound variety, while being noiseless in all positions. The 59/Custom Hybrid humbucker in the bridge mixes coils from two of Seymour Duncan’s most notable pickups. This provides a more vibrant and balanced harmonic palette than your average bucker, as well as a strong coil split from the hotter Custom coil that pairs sweetly with the neck and middle pickups in combined positions.

Speaking of combined positions, the mix variation mini toggle allows for pickup combinations not achievable with a 5-way switch alone. Activating the toggle in position four takes you from neck/middle to neck/middle/bridge, while activating it in position two takes you from the traditional middle/bridge to the elusive neck/bridge combination. The guitar also features two tone caps, selectable via the push/push tone knob. The standard 0.047μF tone cap can be bypassed in favor of a darker 0.01μF cap by merely pushing down on the tone knob.

Though spec’d as a “Thin U”, we are pleased to find the neck profile to be remarkably close to a medium C. The shoulders are sleek and fast, yet the neck has a nice round back that will feel more akin to its boutique guitar contemporaries than to the ‘80s shred scene.

How Does It Play?

We give a thorough setup to every instrument that comes through our shop. From truss rod to nut slots, pickup heights to saddle heights, you can rest assured we have this one dialed in. We also do a thorough inspection and check of all electronics and hardware to make sure nothing slips by!

The Snapper CTM ships with ESP Form Fit hard case.

Specifications

CONSTRUCTION: Bolt-On

SCALE: 25.5"

BODY: Swamp Ash

TOP: Flamed Maple

NECK: Maple

FINGERBOARD: Maple

FINGERBOARD RADIUS: 305mm

FINISH: SEE THRU BLACK

NUT WIDTH: 42mm

NUT TYPE: Bone

NECK CONTOUR: Thin U

FRETS/TYPE: 22 MJ

HARDWARE COLOR: Chrome

STRAP BUTTON: Standard

TUNERS: Gotoh Locking

BRIDGE: ESP Flicker-III

NECK PU: Seymour Duncan Vintage Hot Stack Plus (STK-S7)

MIDDLE PU: Seymour Duncan Vintage Hot Stack Plus (STK-S7)

BRIDGE PU: Seymour Duncan 59/Custom Hybrid (TB-16)

ELECTRONICS: Passive

ELECTRONICS LAYOUT: Volume/Tone(Push/Pull)/5-Way Switch/Mini Toggle Switch

STRINGS: Elixir Nanoweb Super Light (.009/.011/.016/.024/.032/.042)

CASE: ST-1 GUITAR FORM FIT CASE

CASE INCLUDED: Y

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