They make some top notch stuff, and have several brands that carry the ESP name but shouldn`t be mistaken as ESPs. Highly respected in Japan and in general even used they cost quite a bit depending on model. They`ve been making strats and teles for a few decades now, they make a lot of artist models sold only in Japan...most of which do not appeal to me but I bet they look great on stage. They seem to appeal to the heavy type of music genres but not entirely. I own a semi hollow Eclipse thats real nice as well as one of the Koji Kikkawa model that I bought 11 years ago when it was at about 70% off. In terms of quality they rate among the best builders. Personally I would not place the LTDs in the same catagory...they are the MIK models. Grassroots is the entry level MIC line. During the 7 string craze of a few years ago, they made the Pro-Gauge line. Some time ago I saw the custom made line called Pro-Ceed in the local Big-Boss/ESP chain of shops Anyone can have anything they want custom made in any ESP shop. Edwards have been made for a long time but when they decided to make the Seymour Duncan series, they really took off...just not in this city...and evidently those garner a lot of respect outside Japan. As for the guy who played one Navigator and was disappointed I recommend he play more of them. When Seymour Duncan decided to have his own line of guitars made in Japan, ESP is the company that built them and they are extremely well made...the Traditional series give F/USA a run for their Standard series money and the top end Duncans are in every way imaginable equal and may surpass F/USA custom shop guitars...certainly in terms of quality control and argueably in terms of overall quality, they used the best of everything,...F/USA could relearn a few things they seem to have forgotten from those Duncans. In 2006 the Duncans as we knew them here disappeared and the line was drastically reduced in choice of models and redesigned and they no longer appeal to me...which is good since I haven`t seen any in shops here and as they are no longer featured in ESP catalogs I`m guessing not made by them any more. I own one guitar from each of the Duncan series and in a fire, I`d grab my Duncans before I grabbed my F/USA custom shops.
2004 was ESPs 30th anniversary and they printed the history of the company and they began as a repair/mod shop but got so good at it that customers were asking them to build something other than the standard strats and teles available at the time, which gave birth to their own designs and a Japanese player named CHAR was one of the first to play his own models made for him by the company...he`s still playing and is very well known over here...as are his CHAR/ESP models.