1988 Custom 48 aka 48th Street Custom Soloist" Style Black, Very Good, Hard, $1,599.00

This 48th Street Custom is in very good condition, neck and frets are fine. Featuring three EMG pickups, two model 81 humbuckers and a single coil, three on/off mini toggle switches, the bridge toggle is a three-way for some reason and is wired on/off/off, we don’t know why however the wiring looks original. The three piece Map le neck thru body is very fast playing and nicely sculpted. Two tuners are missing the back covers, this doesn't affect the performance but the gear is exposed. The vibrato spring cover and vibrato bar are not pictured but are included in the case.

About 48th Street Custom, there is much written about the nature of this operation, here are some previously published highlights: In 1975 Hisatake Shibuya opened a shop in Tokyo named Electronic Sound Products (ESP) offering guitar replacement parts for sale. In 1976 after gaining market respect for its high-quality replacement parts, ESP began building its own line of guitars branded “ESP” and “Navigator” in Japan. Ron Wood was one of the first players of these guitars. 1983, ESP replacement parts were offered in the USA out of a loft on 19th Street in New York City.

1983/1985, ESP luthiers started building custom guitars out of this location for NYC players. 1989, ESP moved its operations to 48th Street.
We have found many versions regarding the exact details of 48th Street Custom, it’s been stated that they were ESP’s custom shop; others state that they were an independent full service guitar operation with wood shop and spray booths, cutting bodies and building anything imaginable if you could afford it. There has been talk of prototypes being built and some big names such as Vernon Reid and George Lynch playing these instruments. If the definitive history of 48th Street Custom ever gets written, it should a good read.

Cool guitar, interesting history, very few of these in circulation.

Hard case included

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