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Key Features
The ESP Iron Cross James Hatfield offers premium quality and a world renown sound to create a masterful playing experience. Beautifully handcrafted to James' custom instrument design, the iron cross decal and fretboard inlay gives this guitar a stunning finish. Sonically unique, this signature model comes equipped with James Hetfield's custom EMG pickups, helping you to achieve a blistering metal tone with the essence of Metallica infused into it.
A Thin U neck profile has been sculpted to fit comfortably within your grasp, combined with a silky, smooth ebony fretboard, this guitar plays like a dream. Built to be durable, the guitar is comprised of a mahogany body featuring a maple top, and a set one-piece mahogany neck, all of which offer unrivalled strength and reliability. The ESP Iron Cross is the perfect metal companion.
***Box is damaged*** It has been quality checked by one of our team of repair technicians to ensure that it meets a high playing standard.
Ex-Demo: This product may be ex-display, have light signs of use, have slight cosmetic marks or may have non-essential parts or software missing. The original box, packaging or manual may not be included. Each item is checked by our team of repair technicians to ensure it meets our high standards. This is a great opportunity to buy a fully functioning product at a discounted price.
Product Ref: 294883
Created with one of the most famous rhythm guitarists in mind, the ESP iron cross is hand-built for chordal consistency and accurate performance. A “Thin U” neck is sculpted to provide a secure grasp and comfortable support, while still providing the freedom to effortlessly glide across the fretboard. 22 extra jumbo frets offer an abundance of room to accurately position your chords. The ebony fretboard provides a smooth surface to move across, perfect for those lightning-fast riffs. Tonally, the ebony fretboard offers up a snappy, bright attack and resembles a perfect companion to the mahogany body. Tonal stability is provided by Sparzel locking tuners and a Tune-O-Matic bridge and tail piece system, guaranteeing more time is spent performing and less is spent tuning. All of this combines to produce a guitar that is a pleasure to play.
The ESP Iron Cross James Hetfield is based off James’ personal custom design. The guitar is certainly eye-catching, featuring a bold black Iron Cross that contrasts to the Snow-white finish, this guitar certainly stands out from the crowd. The naturally dark ebony fretboard is embellished with an Iron cross inlay at the 12th fret, acting to juxtapose the colouring of the guitar. Constructed with a mahogany body, and a one-piece set mahogany neck, you can be assured that whilst the guitar is striking aesthetically, it is still durable and resistant. Handcrafted in Japan the guitar comes with a certificate of authenticity. All of this allows you to shine on stage, letting you focus on your showmanship.
The Iron Cross guitar is equipped with James Hetfield’s own custom pickups. Created in 2009, Hetfield contacted the president of EMG pickups and asked him to produce a discrete looking pickup, which possessed the clarity and power of a passive pickup, whilst retaining the iconic active tone. The set consists of two humbucker pickups, JH-N for the neck and JH-B for the bridge. The JH-N is designed to offer a higher attack and fuller low end for the neck position, whilst the JH-B offers a similar tight attack - it too provides a clean, crisp low end. As you can imagine this creates the perfect tone, specifically designed for Metallica’s iconic metal sound.
ESP have been creating guitars for over 30 years and have since become one of the world’s leading manufacturers. Specialising in instruments built for rock and metal, they have created signature models for artists such as Will Adler, Kirk Hammett, Alexi Laiho, and of course, James Hetfield. All ESP guitars are built to the highest quality to ensure each instrument holds up to a professional standard.
James Hetfield has been at the forefront of metal for over 40 years. As co-founder, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the genre defining band Metallica, it is obvious why his name is etched into rock n roll’s hall of fame. Voted by Guitar World readers as the 19th greatest guitarist of all time and placing 2nd in their greatest metal guitarists of all time, it is clear his prestige and ability has not gone unnoticed. Most notably a rhythm guitarist, with his iconic percussive picking and fast tempo chord patterns, Hetfield still takes the opportunity to play soaring solos. All of this makes him an incredibly well-rounded guitar player. ESP here have produced a guitar that not only equals James’ fame but also supports his personal playstyle.