While some sources date the initial construction of this guitar as early as 1992, the “Mummy” officially arrived in Kirk’s hands around 1996, just in time for the Load tour. Commissioned after Kirk purchased the original movie poster in 1993, this ESP KH-2 features custom “Eye of Horus” inlays and the iconic graphic painted by ESP’s custom shop. It remains his absolute favorite guitar, serving as the primary axe for his live performances for nearly 30 years.
The Graphics
The body features the movie poster art from the 1932 Boris Karloff film The Mummy. Kirk actually owns the incredibly rare original physical movie poster, which serves as the source for the graphic; however, due to the complex licensing rights surrounding the Universal Studios character, ESP has never been able to release a commercial version of this instrument.
Unlike standard KH-2s, this guitar does not feature skull inlays. Instead, to match the theme, the rosewood fingerboard is inlaid with Egyptian hieroglyphs, specifically the “Eye of Horus.”
These custom inlays provide the definitive proof that the guitar was built specifically for this graphic and not simply repainted from an older model (as some sources online seem to claim). Also, because the KH-2 utilizes neck-thru construction – where the neck and body core are a single piece of wood – the neck cannot be swapped. Of course, inlays can be routed out and changed, but at that point, why not just choose a different, brand-new KH-2 for that?
So, based on this, if this had indeed been an older 1992 standard model, it would have had skull inlays, which cannot be easily removed or replaced. Therefore, the guitar had to be built from scratch sometime after Hammett acquired the poster in 1993.
Specs and Electronics
Construction-wise, the guitar features a neck-through-body design with a maple neck and alder body, adhering to the 25.5″ scale length.
The pickup history is notable. For the majority of its life (including the Load, Reload, and S&M eras), this guitar was fitted with dual EMG-81 active humbuckers. It wasn’t until 2009 that Kirk switched the neck pickup to an EMG-60, updating the guitar to produce the cleaner, brighter neck tones he prefers in his modern touring rig.
Usage
Kirk reportedly owns a few variations of this guitar, but the “Number One” is his main stage instrument. It is easily identified by the wear on the pickup rings from decades of picking, and the fact that newer replicas have different fretboard inlays (see image below).
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