Tentatively: looking for an ESP Kamikaze or Sunburst Tiger

Capelo

Hi everyone,

Have an itch for an ESP Kamikaze or Sunburst Tiger, so wondering what these guitars (realistically) go for nowadays and if anyone has one for sale. 

I’ve checked sold listings on eBay and Reverb, but prices are a bit all over the place. From as low as £1,500 to £3,500 and even more for fancy CS stuff. 

Many thanks in advance

Darren

There used to be a lovely Lynch Burst tiger - Ebony board on Ebay for sale - around £2500.00 not sure if it sold or not?

I have one of the original Made in Japan Kami's from around 1987. The Floyd is top mounted - No routing and no Lynch signature on the headstock - pickups are original ESP before Lynch moved over to Seymour Duncan.

It's my favorite of all my guitars - probably over anything I've ever owned.

Capelo

@Darren many thanks for letting me know about the SBT on eBay, will check in case it is still around. 

BTW your Kami is absolutely stunning and one of my two holy grail guitars (the other one being the EBMM EVH) 

BigAl100

That's a gorgeous guitar!! A real thing of beauty! 

kipple

Capelo said:

Hi everyone,

Have an itch for an ESP Kamikaze or Sunburst Tiger, so wondering what these guitars (realistically) go for nowadays and if anyone has one for sale. 

I’ve checked sold listings on eBay and Reverb, but prices are a bit all over the place. From as low as £1,500 to £3,500 and even more for fancy CS stuff. 

Many thanks in advance

Hi Jose
I know the seller of the ESP sunburst Tiger Lynch that Darren refers to, He wants £2500 for it and it is collection only from Essex he will not ship under any circumstances.
I can try to put you in touch with him if you are interested in it. 
The ESP Lynch Kami that Darren owns used to belong to me and I bought it from the chap who is selling the Sunburst tiger.

I would advise a certain amount of caution with the seller of the tiger if you do look into it. 
When I originally showed interest in the ESP Kami that Darren now owns the seller advised me it was in 'Perfect' condition.
 
These older ESP have Floyd rose trem posts that are just very large screws that are screwed direct into the wood and they can suffer from 'Post lean' which happens because they are adjusted under tension and the holes for the posts become wallowed out and become oval shaped introducing tuning instability. 
When dealing with the Seller of the Lynch Kami that Darren now owns I specifically asked the seller if the posts were leaning and he said they were perfect, when I went to pick the guitar up it was not the case and the posts were leaning badly, I took a chance and bought it anyways but I had to get my guitar tech to install modern floyd rose posts.

Be advised that although in some cases the modern Floyd posts can be installed so you cannot see the work has been done if the holes for the posts have wallowed out too far and the holes for the posts have become oval shaped then after the modern Floyd posts are installed you will defintely see bad evidence marks left destroying the appearance and value of the guitar.

I also asked the seller if the frets were in good condition and he said they were perfect which was not the case and I had to pay for a fret dress as they were in very poor condition especially from 14th fret to 22nd which looked like someone had already tried to do a fret dress with a hacksaw.
So. BE CAREFUL 

The only real way to tell if the floyd posts are leaning and the post holes are wallowed out is to take the Floyd off and examine it and test it by seeing if you can make the floyd posts move backwards or forwards. If you do that and see find posts can be moved forwards and backwards even the slightest amounts then it's a problem and you have post lean. 
More importantly if the Floyd post holes are no longer perfectly round and have wallowed out too far then installing modern Floyd rose trem posts will most definitely leave evidence marks.. and in that case you should definitely walk away.

I have seen this kind of repair done on a few older Kramers where the post holes had become too oval shaped and it left evidence marks and it looks awful.

Capelo

@kipple Many thanks for the super detailed reply. It is much appreciated. 

Fully agree on the old FR trem screws/posts, they can be an absolute nightmare. In fact, I recently took one of my FR guitars to the luthier and, even though the screws/post were OK and there was close to zero wiggle room, he insisted on installing the newer ones. He has seen his fair share of mishaps with the old ones and convinced me that in the long run it would save me quite a bit of heartache. 

I believe I have seen the SBT you mention on Preloved (based in Great Dunmow, Essex). Tried contacting him, but never got a reply. £2,500 would be IMHO a fair price if the guitar is in good condition. Problem is, as you pointed out, if you need to add new frets, new FR posts, etc. it can end up being a really expensive purchase. I guess it is good thing that he isn’t open to shipping the guitar, saves me from pulling the trigger and ending up in a money pit. 

Have a great weekend everyone!