August '08
2008 NE Metal/Hardcore Festival Diary
July '08
June '08
George Lynch's New Band:
Souls of We!
May '08
Artist Spotlight: Michael Paget of Bullet For My Valentine
April '08
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Counterfeit ESP guitars
MARCH '08
FEBRUARY '08
Artist Spotlight: Richard Z of Emigrate
JANUARY '08
One of the newer members of the ESP family is Michael “Padge” Paget of Bullet for My Valentine. While Padge has been playing ESP for a long time, it was only at the beginning of this year that his ESP and LTD Signature Series models (ESP Michael Paget and LTD MP-600) were made available for the public.
Michaelʼs band, Bullet for My Valentine, hails from Brigend, Wales. For those of you who are geographically challenged, Wales is a country in the United Kingdom, west of England. While the band first formed in 1998, it wasnʼt until 2002 that they settled into the sound you know and love today. Their debut full-length album, The Poison, was released in 2005, and did very well for a first album with 375,000 copies sold in the USA to date. However, their second and most recent album, Scream Aim Fire, was released this year and has done exceptionally well, debuting at number 4 on the Billboard 200, with sales of 53,000 in the first week alone.
How has Padge and B4MV done so well? Like most success stories, itʼs through hard work and dedication. The band has been nearly constantly on tour for the past few years, only stopping for recording dates. But beyond that, Padgeʼs playing is inspired by bands such as Metallica, Machine Head, Iron Maiden, Testament, Slayer, Judas Priest, and others. Helping him achieve the sonic performance and playability needed to take on such high-level influences is his custom ESP guitar, which is now available to the general public through our Signature models mentioned above.
Padgeʼs ESP custom is the same as the ESP Michael Paget signature model. Itʼs a Vshaped guitar with a neck-thru-body at 25.5” scale. Featuring a mahogany body, the mahogany neck uses an ebony fingerboard with custom inlays and 24 XJ frets. Hardware is black nickel (yes, this guitar can be none more black), including Sperzel locking tuners and a Tonepros locking bridge. The pickups on this metal machine are EMG 81 at the bridge, and EMG 85 at the neck. A skull with pistols superimposed on the UK flag graphic is beneath the bridge. If your budget is a little too tight for that model, check out the LTD MP-600, which offers the same specs minus the custom graphic, and with ESP tuners instead of Sperzels.
