Description

Designed by Stephen Carpenter of Deftones, the ESP STEF-B8 is built by hand at the ESP Custom Shop in Tokyo. As the name implies, it’s an 8-string, neck-thru-body guitar at a 27” baritone scale, allowing for amazing stability and excellent string tension even at the lowest pitch registers. The STEF-B8 features an alder body with maple neck and ebony fingerboard, along with Sperzel locking tuners and a Hipshot fixed bridge. Perhaps the highlight of this guitar that was updated in 2016 is its Fishman Fluence SRC Signature active pickup set. Each pickup has multiple voicings; use the push-pull control on the volume knob to select the one you want. On the middle alnico pickup, push down for “Modern Active” tone or pull up for “Modern Passive Attack”. On the bridge ceramic pickup, push down for “Modern Passive Attack” tone or pull up for “Modern Active” voicing. This model includes Fishman’s universal USB rechargeable battery pack. Here it is: the ultimate guitar to explore the deepest tunings, and for finding all-new sonic textures.

FISHMAN FLUENCE SRC SIGNATURE
Stephen is a player’s player, preferring to concentrate more on his music than equipment. “My signature pickup set has the full range of tones that you’re looking for. Voice 1 is similar to the tone of the original Modern Humbucker Fluence set. And for the second voice, I like a bit more heat, some hot stuff on it… more edge, so that’s in there too.”

Each Fishman Fluence pickup has two distinct and useful sounds on-board. These sounds start with the revolutionary Fluence Core, the heart of Fluence tone. From this Fluence Core we then create the classic timbres and tone — colors you expect from great guitar pickups — as well as some you’ve never expected.

“I was never the super-critical guy. I’m not much for specs, but I like clean, full sounding pickups. We put Fluence in and I jammed on them for 45 minutes and thought… ‘these things are freaking great…’ I didn’t want to stop playing.”

ABOUT ESP
ESP Company, Limited is a Japanese guitar manufacturer, primarily focused on the production of electric guitars and basses. They are based in both Tokyo, Japan and Los Angeles, California, United States, with two distinct product lines for each respective market. ESP Company manufactures instruments under several names, including “ESP Standard”, “ESP Custom Shop”, “LTD Guitars and Basses”, “Navigator”, “Edwards Guitar and Basses”, and “Grassroots”. www.espguitars.com