Everything began 1975, when the young Hisatake Shibuya opened a little shop for audio and music replacement parts in Tokyo under the name Electric Sound Products (ESP). A few years later, he followed the electric guitar boom and sold apart from seperate parts also guitar accessories.led him to offer copies from Fender and Gibson guitars two years later. Instead of a big production, he produced made-to-measure products on demand. Just a short time later, ESP managed to obtain a really good reputation and supplied big brands like Kramer and Schecter. Hisatake began to develop his own models which he sold at first in Japan under the name ESP or Navigator. Because of his great success, he decided to sell his models also in the USA. In this period, he receive help from a lot of well-known musicians like Vernon Reid, Kiss, Ronnie Wood.... One day, George Lynch discovered the brand while he were in Japan for a tour; the beginning of a long and successful cooperation. The young businessman settled in the USA and opened a factory in Japan. In 1987, Hisatake bought the brand Schecter from investors from Texas but let the brands have their independence. As a real businessman he bought furthermore the respected music scool Musicians Institute in Los Angeles (former Guitar Institute of Technology). At the beginning of the 90s ESP opened a shop in California. In 1996 there is huge demand for cheap models and the brand decided to open a LTD brand to sell copies from the original models produced in Korea and Indonesia. Although ESP had to bear a strong competitor from Jackson, the enterprise could profite from the sale of this brand to Fender in 2000 because a lot of guitar heroes quited their sponsor contracts and changed to ESP (especially Dave Mustaine and Alexis Laiho). For 30 years now ESP leave its mark on the world of the rock guitar and of the rich sound. We would certainely not blame about that! Still less when we see that the models of this brand are still in the front row on stage. Besides, you have to replace the models only rare (who wants to leave a winning team?)but they are still attractive! The sucess attribute not even to the showpieces (Signature) but also to his variations under the name LTD.