When Gojira treated an estimated one billion TV viewers to some French heavy metal during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Joe Duplantier’s chrome-coated weapon of choice raised some curious eyebrows.
A custom-made ESP XJ-1, spec'd out with a DiMarzio Fortitude humbucker and an EverTune bridge – tuning stability is a must when you’re performing in literal hellfire – it was a guitar fit for the occasion.
But it wasn’t from Charvel – the brand that has been producing Duplantier's signature models for quite some time. Now, after much speculation, ESP has confirmed that the guitarist has officially joined its artist ranks.
“Over the past nearly 50 years since ESP opened our doors, we’ve been blessed with some of the world’s most respected and influential guitar and bass players who chose to be part of our artist endorsee roster,” reads an official statement.
“The latest addition to our artist family is Joe Duplantier, the rhythm guitarist, vocalist, and lyricist of Gojira.
“The debut of Joe Duplantier as an ESP artist coincided with Gojira’s appearance at the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, with a total viewership that exceeded one billion people, using a very special chrome-finished ESP XJ model that we custom-crafted for the occasion.
“We are honored to have Joe as part of our artist family and look forward to a great relationship with him as an ESP artist. More details about Joe and his choice of ESP will be available soon.”
Duplantier has been playing Charvel’s Telecaster-esque San Dimas models for over a decade, with a multitude of signature guitar editions being released in that time.
Speaking to Guitar World about his love of Charvels in 2021, he said: “From the first time I tried that guitar, I never wanted to play anything else. It fits perfectly on me and I absolutely love the shape. It’s as aggressive as it is beautiful.”
As such, this new move to ESP creates some questions about Duplantier's partnership with Charvel. Namely, has he left Charvel altogether, or will he endorse both brands? Dual-brand partnerships aren't new – Slash with Marshall and Magnatone, and Kirk Hammett with Gibson and ESP – so it's entirely possible.
Regardless, moving forward it will be interesting to see what this new partnership will bring to the table; the question on everyone’s lips, of course, will be: “Will there be a signature version of the chrome XJ-1?”
The wait for an answer to that burning question hopefully isn’t too far away.
Despite Duplantier's ever-rising stature at the forefront of the global metal scene, he doesn't believe his six-string talents are anything extraordinary.
“I’m not an awesome guitar player,” he tells Guitar World. “Sure, I have my technique and experience, but if you drop me in a room full of people jamming blues, it’s gonna be a little difficult. There’s going to be a lot of wrong notes in there. [Laughs] I don’t have my scales down and I’m not a shredder.”
While shredding isn't exactly his forte, innovation on the instrument is – pick scrapes are commonplace in metal today, one trick that Duplantier helped popularize.
“My approach to guitar is very physical… but not sexual. [Laughs] I have a physical approach to instruments; sometimes I’ll pound on the guitar and it’ll go 'boom' and I’ll use that in a song. That technique wasn’t premeditated.”
In 2021 he worked with Neural DSP to create the Archetype: Gojira plugin, which has since become a fan favorite, with Plini among its admirers. In fact, he liked it so much, he stole some of its core features for his updated signature plugin, Archetype: Plini X.
