Guitaripedia

Every guitar has a story.

ESP

Horizon

Page Hamilton’s got smashed at First Avenue. Wooden dowels hold the horn on, and he says he’ll be buried with it.

New York, 1989. Page Hamilton’s band has a 7-inch single out and no album yet. At ESP on 48th Street he picks up a Horizon: fuchsia, headstock pointing the wrong way, Floyd Rose on the back. It’s going to take a beating.

Introduced
1987
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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ESP Horizon FR-II double-cut solidbody on a tile floor
Photo: Cisco93 / Wikimedia Commons / Public domainESP Horizon FR-II double-cut on tile. Isolation catalog still.

The short version

  1. 1984

    The name appears

    An ESP overseas catalog shows a “Horizon” with three single-coils. It has almost nothing to do with the later guitar.

  2. 1986

    Original designs

    ESP’s export line starts carrying its own shapes, the Horizon among them.

  3. 1987

    The real Horizon

    Arched top, neck-through, locking vibrato. Bruce Kulick gets a sunburst one around now.

  4. 1989

    Fuchsia

    Page Hamilton gets his in New York, for $600.

  5. 1992

    Figured tops, and Meantime

    The Horizon Custom brings quilted and flamed maple. Helmet’s Meantime comes out, on Page’s fuchsia one.

  6. 1994

    Betty

    Every rhythm track on Helmet’s Betty is the Horizon.

  7. 2014

    New badge, same factory

    The Japanese-made ESP Standard line becomes E-II. The Horizon carries on in it.

Side A

A1

Fuchsia, on 48th Street

In 1989, Page Hamilton had a band called Helmet, a 7-inch single, and no album. Strap It On wasn’t a record yet. What he did have was a new guitar from ESP’s shop on 48th Street in New York, a Horizon in fuchsia with a reverse headstock and a Floyd Rose.

He didn’t pay much for it, and he got a good deal after that too.

My ESP Horizon Custom. It was my first endorsement guitar that I paid $600 for, and they never charged me again.

Six hundred dollars, in 1989 money. Keep an eye on that guitar. It’s about to go through a lot.

A2

A parts company with its own ideas

ESP started out in Tokyo making replacement parts for other people’s guitars. By the mid-’80s it was in New York too, and by 1986 it was selling guitars of its own design overseas.

Where the Horizon starts depends on how you count. The name shows up on a 1984 catalog guitar with three single-coil pickups that ESP itself says is “totally different” from the one we know. The Horizon that stuck arrived in 1987: an arched top, a neck that runs the whole length of the body, and a locking vibrato.

ESP’s US president, Matt Masciandaro, puts it about as plainly as a company man can:

If a musician in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s wanted the very best available shred guitar, it was likely an ESP Horizon.

A3

The arch hides the trick

On a neck-through guitar, the neck wood runs from the headstock all the way to the tail, with the body wings glued on either side. No bolted heel in the way, so your hand gets all the way up to the 24th fret, and the whole thing rings together. The catch is that you can usually see the stripe of neck wood running down the face.

ESP’s answer was to glue a top over the whole thing and give it an arch, so the maple core disappears. It looks like a smooth, dressed-up body and plays like a neck-through.

There was one thing ESP couldn’t put on the catalog guitars in those days, and Bruce Kulick remembers it. ESP “didn’t have a Floyd Rose license,” so the production Horizon used a different locking vibrato. An artist, though, could get a real Floyd. Kulick had found ESP through its New York shop and started on an M-1. The “Banana” on the back cover of Crazy Nights is one of those, not a Horizon, whatever you’ve heard. He got his sunburst Horizon around 1987, took it out on the KISS Crazy Nights tour, and used it on a lot of Hot in the Shade. He also had a black “Radioactive” Horizon, with warning symbols his tech cut out of contact paper.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • $600

    What Page Hamilton paid for his in 1989. ESP never charged him for a guitar again.

  • 3

    Helmet albums with the fuchsia Horizon as the main guitar.

  • 24

    Frets on the 1987 Horizon, all of them reachable, thanks to the neck-through build.

  • 1987

    The year the Horizon became the arched neck-through guitar it still is. The name is three years older.

Side B

B1

Rhythm tracks and a broken horn

Page Hamilton’s fuchsia Horizon went everywhere Helmet went. CBGB, over and over. It was his main guitar on Meantime in 1992, Betty in 1994, and Aftertaste in 1997. Every rhythm track on Betty is that guitar, and if you know those records, you know that’s a lot of the sound: dry, tight, stop-on-a-dime riffs. (The one to leave out is “Beautiful Love.” That’s a Les Paul.)

It didn’t get treated gently. At First Avenue in Minneapolis, it got smashed. It was put back together, and wooden dowels hold the horn on to this day.

ESP kept changing the Horizon around it. Figured maple tops in 1992, a new headstock, then another one. In 2014 the Japanese-made line got a new badge, E-II, from the same Tokyo factory. Page has signature versions now, and in 2022 he picked out a brand-new American-made Horizon from ESP’s custom menu.

B2

Buried with it

None of that replaces the fuchsia one. It’s the guitar he bought when Helmet was a 7-inch and a lot of noise. It has dowels in the horn and CBGB in the finish, and it doesn’t owe him anything.

I’ll be buried with this.

You can buy a new Horizon tomorrow, and it’ll be a good guitar. It won’t have dowels in the horn. That part you have to earn.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. Helmet · 1992

    Meantime

    Page Hamilton’s fuchsia Horizon is the main guitar. Listen to how dry and tight the riffs are, and how hard they stop.

    Find it on YouTube

  2. Helmet · 1994

    Betty

    All the rhythm guitar is the Horizon. One exception on the album is “Beautiful Love,” which Page played on a Les Paul goldtop.

    Find it on YouTube

  3. KISS ·

    Rise to It (video)

    Bruce Kulick with his sunburst Horizon, the one he used on the Crazy Nights tour and a lot of Hot in the Shade.

    Watch it on YouTube

  4. KISS ·

    Turn On the Night (video)

    That’s Kulick’s black “Radioactive” Horizon. His tech cut the trefoil symbols out of contact paper.

    Watch it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1989

    Page Hamilton

    1989 fuchsia Horizon, reverse headstock, Floyd Rose

    Main guitar on Meantime, Betty, and Aftertaste. Smashed at First Avenue, doweled back together, and still his.

  • 1987

    Bruce Kulick

    Sunburst Horizon, and a black “Radioactive” one

    Took the Horizon on the road with KISS. The “Banana” on the back of Crazy Nights is a different ESP, an M-1.

  • 2024

    Matt Masciandaro

    ESP’s US president

    Remembers what the Horizon meant to shred players in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

ESP’s arched double-cut workhorse — Horizon, not the Eclipse single-cut, and not Kirk Hammett’s KH-2.

Body
Mahogany, quilted maple arched top; double-cut
Neck
Neck-thru 3-piece maple, thin U
Fingerboard
Ebony, 305 mm radius, 24 extra-jumbo stainless, offset blocks. Mix flagged.
Scale
25.5". Mix flagged.
Pickups
EMG 57TW (bridge) and 66TW (neck), brushed black chrome
Hardware
Floyd Rose Original; Gotoh locking tuners; black; ESP strap locks
Electronics
Volume (push/pull), tone (push/pull), 3-way toggle; active
Finish
See Thru Black Cherry Sunburst, gloss
Nut
Locking, 42 mm. Mix flagged.
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current typical = E-II Horizon FR-II See Thru Black Cherry Sunburst (Japan; espguitars.com, fetched 8 September 2026). Factory mixed inch/mm flagged; no millimetres invented for the 25.5" scale. Factory $3,289.00, form-fit case included. Sweetwater the same $3,289.00 on Tiger Eye Sunburst. Sibling NT-II $2,849.00 (Gotoh TOM and tailpiece, bone nut). 2026 FR-II Andromeda II Satin / Gun Metallic Black $3,249.00 are set-thru, EMG 81 / 89R — same plate, not this table. Factory clash on those 2026 pages: body copy Floyd Original / Gotoh locking; spec table Gotoh Locking bridge / Grover tuners. Keep both. ESP Original Horizon-I, USA Horizon-II, LTD H, and LTD Horizon Custom ’87 are the same silhouette on other lines — same plate, not a second slug. Horizon-III is the offset-horn cousin. MH mashes Horizon arch with Mirage; not this table. KH-2 and Eclipse are other slugs.

Construction

The job was ESP’s own double-cut, not a Strat copy and not a signature. Arched top. 25.5". Through-neck, later bolt-on and set-thru too. Floyd or a hardtail. Superstrat is a genre label, not an ESP SKU.

Not Eclipse (esp-eclipse). Eclipse is the set-thru 24.75" single-cut. This is a 25.5" double-cut. Different joint, different scale, different job. Not KH-2 (esp-kh-2). Kirk’s is a reverse six-in-line with skull-and-bones. This is the catalog workhorse, not a Hammett signature. Not Snakebyte, Iron Cross, or Truckster (Hetfield). Not Kamikaze (Lynch). Not M-1 / Mirage. No Gibson SKU lives here.

Year fight: ESP’s own model-history blog (4 March 2010; updated 30 August 2022) dates the name to a 1984 overseas catalog — three singles, Flicker-II tremolo, ST-style, “totally different” from current. Reverb News (James M. Brill, 6 January 2016) puts original ESP designs, “such as the Horizon,” on the 1986 400-series export. Japanese catalog 1987, New York Series: arched top, neck-through, ESP Sinclair locking trem. GrassRoots (8 August 2024): the current HORIZON spec “born in 1987.” Matt Masciandaro, ESP’s US president (25 January 2024): “If a musician in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s wanted the very best available shred guitar, it was likely an ESP Horizon.” Keep 1984, 1986, and 1987. This plate starts in 1987 as the living guitar. Do not flatten the 1984 three-single custom into this table.

The 1987 trick is the arch over a through-neck. ESP’s blog: wings and through-neck glued, then a top laminated on so the through-maple does not show on the face. Alder wings, maple core. Ebony, 24 frets. Sinclair locking trem, not yet a Floyd on the catalog page. Kulick, to Ultimate Guitar (5 December 2024): ESP “didn’t have a Floyd Rose license,” but could buy a real Floyd for an artist guitar. Keep catalog Sinclair and artist Floyd both on the table.

1989 catalog: unusual fingerboard inlay ESP itself calls scarce. 1992: HORIZON-CUSTOM, first quilted and flamed maple tops. 1993: Custom becomes HORIZON-I; ash-top HORIZON-II; figured-top stays CUSTOM; California Series. Offset-block markers, ESP at the 12th. 3+3 headstock joins the six-in-line — ESP: that 3+3 started on the Joy Stick bass, later called the Horizon head, “around 1992.” 2002: knife head (pointed six-in-line) replaces it on Horizon-I. Do not promote a Jackson-lawsuit story; the factory blog does not print one.

1998 Horizon Classic is a different job: maple or ash on mahogany, 5 mm thicker, mahogany neck, rosewood, 628 mm scale, set-neck, TOM and stop. ESP: Les Paul-type sound, later inherited by Potbelly. Not this table. 2000: Horizon-III, offset body from the Horizon bass. 2005: Horizon-II NT, mahogany-only, Floyd swapped for TOM and stop. 2012: CTM from through-neck to set-neck; double-stripe inlays on the bass side (I and II NT later follow). 2014: ESP Standard becomes E-II — same Tokyo factory, new badge (ESP: “until the end 2013”).

Bolt-on catalog Horizons exist. Set-thru is now a current option: USA Horizon-II, and the 2026 E-II FR-II Andromeda / Gun Metallic Black. The living Floyd table above is still neck-thru.

Classic vs current: 1987 New York Series — alder, maple through-neck, arch hiding the core, Sinclair, six-in-line — against the 2026 E-II FR-II: mahogany and quilt, Floyd Original, EMG 57TW / 66TW, Japan factory, $3,289.00. Original Series Horizon-I (alder, Cool Rails and JB/Custom Hybrid, $5,699.00) is the closer hand-built cousin, not this table.

Players

Do not steal KH-2, Eclipse, Lynch Kamikaze, or Hetfield credits. Do not hang Kulick’s M-1 “Banana” on this plate.

Page Hamilton. This is the named guitar. ESP Classic Customs (2018): 1989, 48th Street, New York. Fuchsia, reverse headstock, Floyd. He had a 7-inch out; Strap It On was not yet a record. “I’ll be buried with this.” CBGB many times. Main guitar on Meantime (1992), Betty (1994), Aftertaste (1997). Smashed at First Avenue in Minneapolis; wooden dowels hold the horn. Guitar World (September 1994): all Betty rhythm tracks on the ESP Horizon Custom. Guitar World (22 August 2024): “My ESP Horizon Custom. It was my first endorsement guitar that I paid $600 for, and they never charged me again.” Historical 1989 money, not 2026 street. Beautiful Love on Betty is a 1986 Les Paul goldtop — not this guitar. Signature relics (2009 MG; LTD PH-600 brushed aluminum) sit on this silhouette. They are not the 1989 fuchsia object. ESP USA Horizon-II reverse-burst (2022 unboxing; serial US211989) is a later USA guitar he picked off the configurator.

Bruce Kulick. ESP’s Japan blog names him as the player who pushed Horizon’s profile. His own tape (July 2019): sunburst Horizon, ebony, Duncans, Floyd, neck-through, “I probably got it in 1987,” Crazy Nights tour, Rise To It video, a lot of Hot in the Shade (1989). Black Radioactive Horizon in the Turn On The Night video — contact-paper trefoils his tech cut. The Banana on the back of Crazy Nights is an M-1. Keep it labeled. Not this table.

Also known to play stays empty this pass. None invented.

Rarity

E-II, USA, Original, and LTD Horizon SKUs are regular production. ESP does not publish Horizon unit totals. None invented.

Serials date a guitar, they don’t count a factory. That is why a first-year census is unknown, not the chapter. The 1984 three-single catalog guitar is scarce because it is not the living shape. 1987–early-’90s Japan neck-throughs with six-in-line and Sinclair or artist Floyd sit at the scarce end of this slug. 50th-anniversary Custom Shop Horizons are labeled limited: US page, ten (five flamed maple, five Buckeye burl); Japan announcement, 30 HORIZON-CTM. Keep both counts. They are not a vintage Horizon.

Page’s 1989 fuchsia and Kulick’s Radioactive are unique. They are not a street E-II.

Value

Informal estimate, 8 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not-comps. No invented medians or factory counts. Reverb Price Guide page for “ESP Horizon” did not resolve this pass. Flag: thin sold-comp access. Period $600 (Hamilton, 1989 endorsement) is 1980s money, not 2026 street.

New street. Factory E-II Horizon FR-II See Thru Black Cherry / Tiger Eye $3,289.00 (Sweetwater the same). 2026 set-thru FR-II Andromeda II Satin / Gun Metallic Black $3,249.00. NT-II $2,849.00. Original Series Horizon-I Deep Candy Apple Red $5,699.00. Horizon FR CTM $8,299.00. USA Horizon-II configurator from $5,199; Black Adamantium $4,899. LTD Horizon Custom ’87 $1,499.00. LTD H-1001FR $1,149.00 — labeled LTD, not this Japan E-II.

Used modern. Named asks this pass, not hammers: Gear Exchange Good-condition E-II FR-II Tiger Eye $2,167.71; 2012 Japan Horizon (seller: not E-II / not LTD) $2,276.18. Do not average LTD H streets into an E-II or Original.

Vintage / collectible. 1987–early-’90s Japan neck-throughs are the scarce end of the same slug, not a separate SKU. Named older asks, not a series: 1990 Horizon Custom NT magenta listing ended; 1990 Horizon-I with a non-original finish sold listing $1,225 (eight years ago). Do not average those asks. Page’s fuchsia and Kulick’s Radioactive are unique objects. Not comps.

See also

  • esp-kh-2 — Kirk Hammett’s 25.5" reverse-headstock signature; not this workhorse
  • esp-eclipse — ESP’s set-thru single-cut; not this double-cut
  • jackson-soloist — the other famous neck-through superstrat; not an ESP

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.