After a number of gigs and after seeing various pictures, I noticed that Richie has played on a sunburst SA-2, on various occasions. My guess on this guitar is that it was a modified production SA-2 from ESP/LTD. It did look very nice and I was impressed by the shape and the combination with the color.
Now, getting an SA-2 is getter harder and hard, ever since these guitars have gone out of production. The SA-2 has been end of life for a couple of years now. (see my post on this topic). So, obtaining one would be possible, but harder every day.
Therefore, towards the end of 2013 I contacted a custom guitar builder for me who would be able to make a replica of this guitar, in the sunburst colours, with the Richie Sambora specifications. It took several weeks before the builder was able to provide me with some pictures during the process of building.
A number of weeks later, the guitar was ready and was delivered carefully at my front door, very well packaged.
I must say that the end result is great. It plays very well and sounds great. Here are some more pictures for you. If you want to know more about my custom SA-2, please drop me a note using the feedback tab in the top right of this screen.
The guitar has the following specifications, which do not differ so much from the production ESP/LTD guitar.
The body is made of Basswood and the neck, which is a bolt-on, is made of maple. Just like the original SA-2, the neck has not been painted. The fretboard is made of Rosewood and has a scale length of 25,5 inch across 22 frets. The guitar has been provided with 2 humbuckers, which will be replaced for other ones, in the near future. The hum buckers are switched and controlled using 2 volume knobs, , 2 tone knobs and the 3-way toggle switch. Naturally, the guitar has been fitted with a Floyd Rose Tremolo.
Pretty cool, right?