make guitars, they also produce various hardware parts themselves, like bass bridges or the ESP Flicker tremolo, ESP Labs Pickups, as well as sustainers, equalizers, etc. Usually these parts are only available for OEM use and not to the ordinary customer. Popularity ESP found fame by making and endorsing guitars for guitarists who went on to become leading exponents of thrash metal in the 1980s, along with other guitar manufacturers Jackson and Dean, with bands Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth. As a result of these endorsements, ESP has become one of the most popular suppliers of guitars for heavy metal. ESP instruments are endorsed by musicians numbering in the hundreds. A complete list of them can be found on the Artists section of ESP Guitars' website. The bass signatures by J, founder of Luna Sea, are one of the most influential models manufactured by ESP, with over 50,000 copies sold. From the same band, Sugizo also contributed significantly to the brand with his design ideas. Guitars and bass series Dependent on the target market (i.e. Asia, US, Europe) and brand (ESP, LTD or Xtone), various models are organized in marketing series. The ESP Original series has three other lines of guitars, the Edwards, Grassroots and Navigator series and are largely based on these models as well as some ESP Standard series Models. ESP Edwards Series produces mid-to-high range guitars, at a quality near the ESP Standard series, whilst ESP Grass Roots Series cater towards a more value-oriented segment of the market and are more akin to the 400 series of LTDs, however these can vary. The ESP Navigator Series on the other hand is a line which produces mainly replicas of Gibson and Fender guitars and basses, to a very high standard. ESP USA features the ESP Standard line (which was replaced in 2014 by E-II), as well as the lower end LTD and Xtone series. ESP USA's standard series generally caters more towards to metal players, with characteristics such as active pickups. Another line of guitars, called LTD Elite, was introduced in 2013 for overseas markets, as the ESP Standard line was slowly being phased out. LTD Elite guitars are made in Japan, and initially offered alongside the ESP standard replacement brand E-II in the export market in 2013 while a limited range of ESP Standards were sold in the US to be phased out for E-II in 2014.