They have a way of producing black again now so expect it to all go back to the way most of us prefer over time. They changed pretty much everything for the “export” market, and export to most makers means anything but US. It all began a few years ago with the EU and a thing called the RoHS (Regulation of Hazardous Materials) and Gotoh in Japan basically changed their production to ensure they didn’t lose the European market, and that being manufacturers who shipped to Europe, which is most everyone. Some of the ESPs have black hardware in North America and Black Nickel hardware elsewhere. Thanks for your understanding.' NOTES ON SERIAL NUMBERS.
HOW TO READ ESP LTD SERIAL NUMBERS SERIAL NUMBER
The PRE-2015 system doesn't apply to early ESP's, some of which had no serial number tracking system at all and used random numbers. For this we apologize, and we are working to maintain a more consistent system going forward. You may still come across the occasional serial number that may conflict with, or doesn't fall under any of the listed categories. This has resulted in alot of confusion, and. ESP Guitar Company says: 'Unfortunately the factories at ESP Japan have not kept a consistent and sensible serial number tracking system in place over the years. I keep record of this data in order to try to deduce other correspondences. For old guitars we can only know the exact data reading the ESP warranty card (when there is), or unscrewing the neck (if the neck is bolt on) and read under it becuse probably theres the data write on pencil). Many records have been lost during years and most of all were destroyed in a fire accident on late '90s in ESP Japan factory. Unfortunally ESP didn't keep good records of old serial numbers. N.37936 japan (horizon model with Floyd) reply Re: Serial Number esp guitar.