Explorer gurus

[Lew]

Yo! I'm checking out an 06 USA Explorer tomorrow with an eye to buy. I'm quite a vocal Gibson hater too...  :lol: but it's a great deal and imagine it would be perfect for some stuff I'm doing at the mo.

Assuming it's not a bag of shite is there anything I should be looking out for on it when giving it an inspection (maybe a stupid question but I'm an Explorer virgin)?

It has the stock 496/500t pickups, are they any good?

I imagine it would be a fun guitar to pimp out too, new hardware - electrics, bkps etc etc...

[Afghan Dave]

...I'm an Explorer virgin)?

Sorry I can't help but I hope you like it... I love to explore-a-virgin  :P

[horsehead]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzing!

[gwEm]

i quite like the 500t, but the 496r is pretty bad - change it for some kind of duncan (jazz or maybe a '59). obviously a complete change to bkps would be better ;)

[Tellboy]

Sorry I can't help but I hope you like it... I love to explore-a-virgin  :P

Good luck Dave ........ I think they're rarer than a  '59 Les Paul these days .. :lol:

[Philly Q]

I don't know anything specific about Explorers, but watch out for the usual Gibson dodginess like badly-cut nut, dry fingerboard and frets pressed in a bit too "enthusiastically".

The 500T is nothing special but it's kinda fun for a while if you don't usually use high-output pickups.

[Ratrod]

I'm not a big fan of those pickups.

Check for the usual stuff Phil mentioned. And check the neck joint. If it has the same range as a Bigsby when you bend it, walk away from it.

[MDV]

Usual gibson poor QC, like phil says. Might be a great guitar though.

I find the 500t to be woolly in them, but generally passable. Dont recall playing a neck pickup on a gibson explorer, so I dont know how the 496r works in the oddly high-middy-but-huge (as you expect a slab of mahogany to be) explorers generic sound

[AndyR]

I agree with all the above (with the possible exception of the virgins bit - I always found they were too much trouble compared to a slightly more "enlightened" lady :lol:)

I quite liked the 500T/496R - probably for Philly's "it's kinda fun for a while if you don't usually use high-output pickups" reason though!

I've tried Riff Raffs in it, and then MQs. For me, the MQ pairing has been wonderful (I am toying with swapping back to Riff Raffs again though, so the MQs get a run in my newer SG).

One thing - make sure your living room is big enough. For the first few days you'll be in grave danger of sticking the back end of the body through the TV screen everytime you turn round... and definitely take the guitar off if you're about to walk through a doorway! :lol:

EDIT: MDV posted while I was writing. "Usual gibson poor QC, like phil says. Might be a great guitar though." - I agree totally with this. Mine had a dry board, fixed with Fret Doctor, and it has extraneous marks and divots from the fretting process... but it sounded and felt heavenly, so I went for it anyway...

[marauder]

Those pickups were especially unsuitable for my Voodoo Explorer, which are made of swamp ash.  Even worse Gibson thought it would be a good idea to remove the screw poles, so they had two rows of unadjustable slugs, to limit the chances of getting better tones.

[Lew]

I took it  8) It's not got a very flat finish, there's some finish sinking and the rosewood is a bit dry (it hasn't been played for 3 years). But, overall I'm really pleased with it. It plays really well and the neck profile feels good (especially as I sanded some gloss off) and it sounds ace in the bridge position. Neck pos sounds weak though. I reckon it could probably do with having the electrics gutted, probably not great stuff in there? and of-course it needs BKPS. Maybe some coldsweats or crawlers, hmmmmm!

I've already hit a few walls with it, Andy  :lol:

[Philly Q]

Pics or..... (etc)

[MDV]

Glad youre getting on well with it. I have a bit of a soft spot for explorers, even gibson ones.

One of the reasons I sold my explorers (a dean and an epi 'Xplorer', modernised, thin neck one) was they were too big to sloth around with in an armchair or on the couch :lol:

The other was those particular guitars werent very well made and the 'little things' made them much less preferable to play than my main guitars, so there was no point having them since I wasnt playing them.

I'd love to have another explorer, but it would need to be 25.5, 43mm@nut and ~2cm thick neck, cos I'm fussy like that (just ask bob johnson!). I'm not sure such a guitar exists off the shelf?

[maverickf1jockey]

Maverick X-1 seems closest to that brief if you could get one second hand, though it isn't really an explorer per se.

[AndyR]

Nice one :D

Yeah let's see those pics....