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ESP Grass Roots Mini Les Pauls?

Ed Driscoll

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
4,691
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I think these are being built for the Japanese/Asian market only, but are being imported into America by eBay merchants. I've seen these on eBay recently in both 'Burst and Black Beauty colors. They're both look cute as the dickens in the photos; anybody know anything about them?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESP-Grass-R...W-/271676483015?pt=Guitar&hash=item3f412e25c7

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GRASSROOTS-...l-/261562251845?pt=Guitar&hash=item3ce6533a45
 

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner
Joined
Aug 2, 2001
Messages
42,567
And to think, Gibson hassled [Forum member] Frank Pine over making similar guitars that are less of a Les Paul knockoff than these! :bigal
 

Ed Driscoll

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
4,691
Tom,

I know -- that had occurred to me as well. Perhaps Gibson doesn't have the same level of legal firepower in Japan.

(Hopefully I haven't just given ESP extra hassles by linking to these here. But they're pretty easy to find on eBay.)

But does anyone have any experience with the actual guitars in question?
 

Ed Driscoll

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
4,691
Sorry for the necropost, but having been intrigued by these guitars on eBay for years, I enjoyed this new "Trogly's Guitar Show" deep dive into the ESP Grass Roots /Edwards Mini Les Paul:


For a mini-guitar, I was surprised how large it is, when held over a real LPC.
 

Nobody_G13

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
19
I own a grassroots guitar..
They're made by ESP which owns Edwards, Navigator,ect ..
They're really nice guitars, mine is a 2008 GLP-60S and it's got a thick maple top(have to use long pots) a multi piece African mahogany back and neck with no veneers,rosewood fretboard,and medium jumbo frets,they have in house pickups which I think are low wind ceramic mag paf'ish style pickups..
Mine has a decently deep carved top and short neck tennon, it also has 500k alpha pots and Korean hardware that's more hefty than say a 90's mik Epiphone..
The neck profile is almost identical to a 92-99 Lp classic.. they have extremely strict cq as they all go through qc at ESP Japan,but are made under contact by Chinese guitar manufacturers,until you hit the Navigator line which is all Japanese..
They're made for places that it's difficult and too costly to buy real Gibson's, such as Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Siberia, ect..hence why the majority of demo videos are from Russia..
They're definitely on par with a lower end Gibson tribute model, but definitely not as nice as a Gibson lp standard or reissue, I'm not even going to lie and say they are..
They're nicer than any Epiphone at any price range,though..
I hope this helps, I figured I share specs for future reference as I actually own one and not just speculating and talking out my bum..
It's relatively hard to find proper specs and first hand information on these...
 
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