NAMM 2014: Ben Weinman’s Signature ESP with an Evertune Bridge

The coolest thing at ESP, besides their first-ever American guitars, was that they have a couple new signature guitars featuring Evertune bridges: one from Unearth’s Ken Susi and one from The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman. I completely love that Ben’s BW-1 LTD guitar is a semi-hollowbody, because you find all these companies with such a narrow view of what constitutes “metal gear.” In fact, as I went around the NAMM floor I eventually stopped introducing Gear Gods as a website for “metal” or “heavy” players because of all the gear they’d skip over. Sometimes a Fender Twin is exactly the amp you need on a metal record, you know?

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Anyway, as I was saying the standout feature of Ben’s guitar is the Evertune bridge, which unlike the digital tuning solutions from Peavey or Line6 is a completely mechanical solution. And it works incredibly well. Watch as Ben moves that tuning knob all over the place without effecting the pitch.

I’m curious if the cavity of Ben’s LTD leaves enough room for his custom wireless solution. I’m assuming so.

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Chris Alfano has written about music and toured in bands since print magazines and mp3.com were popular. Once in high-school he hacked a friend's QBasic stick figure fighting game to add a chiptune metal soundtrack. Random attractive people still give him high-fives about that.

Latest comments
  • Kind of surprised to see a semi-hollow body metal guitar myself. I have a friend who uses one occasionally with his punk band, and he says feedback is a problem. I’d think it would be even worse when you’re using a high gain amp.

    Also, Fender Twins make great metal amps, if you’ve got the right pedals.

  • I saw a video with the prototype that had a cavity for his wireless and an internal input jack so he could easily install and remove the wireless. That would great to have on the retail models, but I doubt they will have it.

    When do these hit the shelves? ESP’s site says it’s MSRP is $1200, so I am assuming it will be close to $1000 at the store/online.

  • Yes, the guitar has the internal output jack in the cavity for the wireless transmitter. Its a super smart guitar, i have a prototype in my studio and its amazing.

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