The Gibson Explorer: A Short History

[Music] hi this is keith williams welcome to 5w world where we're interested in helping you get the most music from the least gear gibson's bid to show that they could innovate and compete with all the new ideas coming out of fender resulted in two of the most radical guitar shapes yet seen by the world the flying bee and the explorer if you've already watched the 5 watt world history of the flying v then this is the inevitable sister history the gibson explorer the rarest of vintage guitars much more valuable than even the fabled bursts from the same year the explorer is the most coveted and copied of the late 50s gibsons if you want to hear the whole story then stay tuned because this is the 5 watt world short history of the gibson explorer if you enjoy our videos take a minute to subscribe and hit the bell icon to be notified when we put out new videos if you've already subscribed swing by the store and grab a t-shirt or a mug to support what we're doing here and if you don't need another t-shirt but want to support us even more consider becoming a friend of five watt the links are in the description gibson musical instruments was founded in 1902 in kalamazoo michigan as guitars became more popular in late 20s and 30s gibson began building arch top guitars with their first es or electric spanish guitars in 1936 with the es150 in 1944 the chicago musical instrument company bought a controlling interest in gibson and while manufacturing remained in kalamazoo the new sales and administration headquarters was moved to chicago an important character in our story of the explorer ted mccarty joined the company in 1948 and became president of the company in 1950 so ted was already president of gibson when leo launched his first electric solid body guitars out in fullerton california though mccarty's initial feeling was to ignore the newfangled solid body once fenders started to sell guitars gibson changed their mind and launched their les paul in 1952. by 1957 the pressure from fender's rapid pace of innovation had gibson feeling like they needed to do something big to re-establish themselves as the industry leader the stratocaster had been introduced in 1954 and had moved away from the traditional single cut guitar shapes that had even echoed in the new salad body guitars vendors marketing folks even capitalized on the space age theme of the 50s with the name stratocaster so gibson decided to show fender that they could surprise the world and in the spring of 1957 mccarty put together a team to come up with a plan to build three new models they dubbed them the modernistic series and they were supposed to put gibson's stodgy reputation to rest once and for all looking ahead to the summer namm trade show ted told the group let's make some guitars that are so outlandish they'll cause a stir at the show we'll prove to leo that we can make something different the three proposed models would become known as the flying v the explorer and the modern in an interview with guitar historian tony bacon mccarty said that there were three or four people on the design team plus himself ted's main role was leadership but he certainly had much to say in which three of the more than 13 original submitted designs were chosen the team likely included john house gibson's head of production and mccarty's right-hand man larry allers who was the company's chief woodworking engineer at the time and likely rem wall who was quote one of the guitar players end quote in final assembly according to gil hembry's gibson guitar's ted mccarty's golden era allers is likely the biggest unsung hero in the late 50s gibson years allers was in charge of building prototypes and in what gibson called the whitewood shop he oversaw the pattern makers and the machine shop he organized the fabrication work on the modernistic guitars selecting a builder and giving him the instructions on what to build according to hembree quote not only did larry supervise explain and coordinate but also he would have done some of the most difficult handwork on the designs in june of 1957 gibson filed three new patent applications these were ornamental design patents illustrations of each guitar showing a front and side view this was an unusual thing for gibson as they were more commonly filed invention patents for unique mechanical or electrical inventions like their humbucking pickups it seems that this may have been a reaction to leo fender having filed design patents for the telecaster and precision base it seems that mccarty believed the fender might try to put out their own versions of these three new innovative body styles at the summer 57 namm show in chicago the sales team had a rough early version of the futura which would later be renamed the explorer at the show there's just one photo of this explorer style guitar and it's the single photographic evidence of the modernistic guitars at the 57 namm show it's believed that the v prototype was also there so that mccarty could get feedback from the dealers visiting the gibson suite the steeler reaction often dictated if a guitar was put into production and it's been surmised that the v and explorer did well but the reaction to the images of the modern were not as positive and that's why the guitar was never produced the flying v came first and received the most press attention up front but on may 7th 1958 gibson sent a letter to their dealers along with the new catalog the letter was designed to focus the dealer's attention on specific points in the catalog and at the top of the list were the modernistic design guitars the dealers had previously seen pictures of the v but then came some startling news the letter read then there's the explorer another ultra modern design this guitar is so new you won't find it in the catalog but it is featured in the april may issue of the gibson gazette mailed a few days ago the gazette was gibson's promotional company magazine and on page six of that issue next to the now familiar v was the first image of the brand new explorer the gazette copy followed up with the standard company language about the modernistic line the impressive appearance of either modernistic guitar would be a real asset to the combo musician with a flare for showmanship engineering of both instruments is identical they are dissimilar in shape only it's believed that the delay in launching the explorer was due to modifications that gibson made to the earlier prototype known as the futura and its name may have been inspired by the launch of america's first satellite explorer one once again guitar historian tony bacon puts it best the outcome was the most remarkable guitar design of the 50s an uncompromising study in offset rectangles the shape of the explorer though radical was not out of step with what you'd see in 1950s designs in furniture automobiles or even a man's bow tie one of the reasons i haven't made this video earlier is that due to the incredible rarity of these guitars photos of them are equally scarce my research led me to dave rogers at dave's guitar in wisconsin who owns an authentic 59 perhaps one of the rarest guitars on earth he generously had his photographer tim mullally take these incredibly detailed pictures of that amazing guitar for me beside dave rogers 59 there might be just seven or eight other known surviving explorers and of those i could only find a few images of each as the gazette put it the general construction the explorer was very similar to the v a carina body one piece carina neck 22 fret rosewood fingerboard dot markers and the typical twenty four and three quarter inch scale length the guitar followed the standard gibson formula of a glued in tight mortise and tenon neck joint like the flying v it had a three control knob layout of two volumes and one master tone control the serial number was inked on the back of the headstock under clear lacquer the first digit being either 8 or 9 to indicate the year of production the explorer had the traditional two metal strap buttons one attached on the shoulder by the neck and one at the center of the base of the guitar where you'd find it on a les paul the pickguard was made of triple layer white black white nitrocellulose plastic and was attached with eight screws the selector switch was on the pickguard out on the front of the lower horn the paf humbucking pickups were set in injection molded butyrate black plastic mounting rings attached to the body with four screws unlike the v with its string through and cadillac style tailpiece the explorer had a gold-plated stud-mounted stop bar tail piece like the les paul along with a tunomatic bridge the output jack was on the bottom edge of the guitar's body by the time production settled they'd adopted the now familiar long drooping shaped headstock dubbed the hockey stick or scimitar shape according to phil jones who worked at the gibson custom shop from 1984 to 1999 and is an authority on the modernistic guitars though the necks were one piece there was a one inch wing strip glued along the base side where the tuners were for strength but also because the long grain revealed there looked better than an angled cut grain this headstock was likely influenced by fender's single-sided designs and it certainly adds to the overall radical look of the guitar of course the defining feature the modernistic guitars is the use of carina instead of mahogany for the bodies and necks they were even referred to simply as the karina guitars when asked why carina was used mccarty said that blonde guitars were popular at the time and that by using karina they could achieve that lighter finish vendor's telecaster and esquire had also had a blonde finish as standard at the time and at the 57 namm show fender had displayed a stratocaster in blonde finish with gold hardware the name karina was actually a us trade name for a west african hardwood known as limba limba is often compared to mahogany in terms of average weight tonal characteristics and how it works in guitar building gibson had used carina for their skylark lap steel guitars in 57 so it's likely they already had the exotic hardwood in stock at the factory when it came time to shock the world with these new shapes the shape of the explorer was at least as radical as the flying bee but the shape is balanced and it's another example of the quality of the late 50s gibson design team like the v's we know very little about the specifics of explorer production from the middle of 58 onward because the day books the records of daily production at gibson for that period were lost in the transition of manufacturing from the kalamazoo to the nashville plant in the mid 70s the known day books run until june 31 1958 and no explorers were listed so we must assume that none were produced until after that date but we still have the end of the year manager's tally sheets for reference the explorer is listed there for 1958 as karina model guitar and the number written there is just 19. a tiny number by any standard even when compared to the 81 flying v's that were produced that year for comparison there were 434 les paul gold tops that morphed into the sunbursts during 58. by 59 the failure of the line seemed complete with just three explorers shipped that year so a total of just 22 guitars were issued in the introduction years of the explorer in 6263 gibson assembled and sold a few more from leftover parts but finished them with contemporary parts like nickel plated hardware and metal cap knobs the number of guitars shipped during this cleanup of parts is unknown a gibson price list from july 1 58 listed the new explorer as well as the flying v under the heading modernistic guitars with both guitars priced at 247.50 this was exactly the same price as a les paul gold top the same year a stratocaster listed for 274.50 and a telecaster listed for just dollars and 50 cents marv lamb who started working in the wood shop at gibson in 56 remembered they were the ugliest things i think gibson practically gave them away to get rid of them they had them hanging around for years after a pause he added i wish now that i'd taken a few of them for myself the gibson promotional literature proclaimed of the two new shapes either as a sure-fired hit with guitarists of today of course we now know that that was not the case and so amazing to us though it may be the modernistic guitars were dropped from the line at the end of 1959 the late 70s saw the explosion of interest in vintage guitars norman's rare guitars opened in los angeles and george groon opened his store in nashville and wrote articles for guitar player magazine that extolled the advantages of vintage instruments gibson even published a book the gibson story in 1973. the book wasn't particularly well researched but it took a minute to mention that musicians had been requesting to buy quote previously discontinued models end quote it was around this time that they issued the medallion flying v and firebird guitars price lists for groons during that time period listed the occasional explorer at around four thousand dollars and all of this demand for the playability and the look of vintage instruments is what led to what are often politely referred to now as conversion or the replica guitars it's around the same time that john danzig paul heymer and craig hendy opened a vintage shop northern prairie music just north of chicago they soon connected with john montgomery a local repairman and dansig began learning how to fix and build guitars they built a few v's and another chicago builder jim beach built a couple of explorer replicas that were sold out of their shop dansick and hamer would talk their way backstage at rock shows to show the artists their replica guitars they'd built a maple topped explorer that they'd often bring along this was how the hamer guitar company began and their maple topped explorer morphed into their first model the standard the pointy guitars became a flagger rebellion for the players in the 70s and the artist roster at hamer grew quickly and included martin barr of jethro tall mick ralph's a bad company and rick nielsen and robin zander from cheap trick hamer built their company on building the guitars that gibson should have been building if they'd been listening to what the musicians wanted to play one of the most prominent custom builders at this time was max barnett who built instruments in california from 70s through the 90s though his reputation looms large he downplays the number of instruments he built saying there are way less than 100 and that includes flying vs explorers strats teles and les pauls meticulously built by hand the copies made by barnett mike stevens in texas and rex bogue were exacting in nearly every detail my buddy and five watt world editor dave vonorado owns a max barnat explorer i've handled the guitar and i was bowled over by the wood alone let alone the fact that the hardware and pa of pickups had been sourced from the late 50s es355 barnett's attention to detail went so far as to track down karina imported in the late 50s perhaps even from the same importer that gibson had used so even the wooden max's karina guitars was the same age and grade as the original gibsons honorado's guitar has original hardware and pif pickups from that 58 355. even the smallest details like the pickup rings the truss rod cover and the period correct white chiclet tone capacitor are from the 50s the neck is the perfect 58d shape and dave said quote the guitar plugged in is a religious experience the body rings like a piano it is so huge [Music] so much of the guitar actually started life in the 50s the fact that it is a replica built in 1997 is kind of hard to get your head around for these reasons very few people are able to verify the authenticity of the original 50s guitars having had a chance to handle and take measurements from many of the original instruments instead of working from second-hand sources one of those people is our new friend and karina expert phil jones phil pointed out that one of the defining characteristics of an authentic gibson explorer is often overlooked the unusual angle of the headstock because the hockey stick headstock shape is so long if gibson had used their traditional 17 degree headstock angle they would have had to use a much thicker piece of wood to make the one piece next so the headstock is actually 14 degrees on the originals instead of the more traditional 17 degrees that you'd see on les paul's this is a detail that seems to have been missed in the replicas dave honorado added that it's often a tip-off if a vintage guitar doesn't have an original case some copies of the vr explorers have them but the majority do not a famous example of the problem with authenticity is a photo in the ar ditra soir's early guitar history book gibson electric's the classic gears where the gibson shown as an original 58 explorer is actually a copy this very guitar was presented at groons for appraisal not once but twice in the 80s and 90s and both times it was had been sold to the owners as an original explorer all of these copies have led us to a world where there are many many more explorers claiming to be authentic than were ever built by gibson in the first place and this includes many guitars owned by very famous players rick nielsen would end up being the poster boy for hamry guitars playing endless custom hammer explorer shape guitars with cheap trick as it happens nielsen bought his own original 58 explorer from groons around the same time he got his first hamer standard 1975. he paid around four thousand dollars for that first 58. a year or more later he bought his second from the shop strings west in tulsa oklahoma trading a few guitars in cash worth about seven thousand dollars and this is how nielsen became one of the few men on the planet to own not one but two of the rarest production guitars ever made he also has a guitar with the split headstock of the futura the dealer he bought it from said it was one of max barnett's guitars but nielsen called max and max said he didn't build it nielsen put it casually so maybe it is real and maybe nielsen owns three original explorers dean zielinski launched the dean guitar company in 1976 at just 19 years old his first three models were the v the z and the ml the first two were copies of the flying v and the explorer like hamer he put fancy maple tops on the guitars and he added a large v-shaped signature headstock it took his guitars to winter nam in 1977 as the guitar world was exploding dean said quote a lot of people seymour duncan dimarzio wayne charbelle bc rich hamer were all showing for the first time at namm around then it was a historical time in the music business there was a surge in new pickups and parts and new guitar brands zielinski took 40 thousand dollars worth of orders at the show but like any new guitar company he was struggling with being seen as legitimate in the industry this was solved when carrie livgren of kansas bought the 13th dean guitar built kansas was flying high on their left overture album and this put dean guitars in front of a world clam ring for the live experience of carry on my wayward son going into the 80s the dube brothers the cars hart iron maiden def leppard and zz top were all seen playing dean guitars there were corporate replicas of the explorers as well from companies other than the new startups ibanez for one built many v and explorer style guitars and even released a modern style guitar but many top artists were still looking for original guitars around 1974 eric clapton got an original explorer i've heard the story both ways one that clapped and modified the guitar then gave it to junior marvin who had just joined bob marley's whalers marvin sold the guitar to a collector in 1980 or that when clapton learned that the guitar he'd bought had been chopped up he got rid of it and bought his second explorer which was near mint and original he sold the second guitar at auction in 1999 to benefit his crossroads foundation for one hundred and thirty four thousand five hundred dollars also around this time rick derringer acquired an original explorer one of the rarest early ones with a split headstock he played the guitar live with johnny winter and used it on sessions with steely dan todd rundgren and many others eventually derringer had rex bogue build him a copy of the guitar so he could retire the original from the road the original guitar eventually found its way into the collection of scott chinnery leonard skinner co-founder alan collins began on a firebird but jumped at the chance to buy an original 58 explorer from eric clapton in 1976. it became his main guitar for the rest of his days in 2003 gibson did a limited run of 100 guitars based on that collins explorer by 1975 gibson had moved its solid body guitar manufacturing to the new plant in nashville and after building some 60s style vs in the late 70s they finally turned their attention to producing explorer again these early production first year models were made as limited editions and the model was successful at the reintroduction according to gibson's shipping totals 1835 guitars were shipped in 76 the guitars were offered in natural wine red white and black it's not clear how many of the 76 explorers were labeled as limited edition though as gibson's records did not differentiate between the models in that year they were all mahogany guitars and have a one-piece mahogany neck like the 1976 bicentennial instruments that followed gibson continued that model explorer beyond 76 building and selling them until 1979. in 1978 17 year old david howell evans later to be known simply as the edge was on vacation in the states with his parents on the hunt for a guitar he went into stuyvesant music in new york looking to buy a les paul to play with the guys at school that had recently pulled a band together instead he found himself drawn to the sound of a 1976 explorer he paid the high price of 248 and took it home to ireland worried all the while of what his bandmates might say about this unusual looking guitar in the end they weren't sure of the look but they loved the sound he went on to use that guitar on every early studio recording that youtube made and he played it at endless shows in the mid 80s it had a headstock break and his guitar tech dallas shoe began encouraging him to leave it at home when the band went out on tour so they went looking for a backup but this proved difficult because in 76 gibson produced two very different explorers the guitars from the first half of the year have a thicker 50 style neck and that's what the edge wanted the guitars in the second half of the year have a more 60s sized neck but find one they did and in 2008 he decided to auction off his beloved 76 explorer to benefit a charity that was helping to replace instruments lost in hurricane katrina contrary to pre-auction estimate of 80 000 the guitar sold for 240 000 in 1979 gibson also released the e2 explorer brother to the flying v2 guitar they were notable for their use of maple and walnut laminate bodies and beveling on the edges they were built until 1983. gibson overlapped the e2 with a more traditional explorer as part of their heritage series starting in 1981 in fact they went so far as to release all three of the original modernistic designs in that series at the time the explorers in 81 and then the v and then the never before produced modern in 82. dim shaw said the gibson's heritage explorer was very close to the original because gibson had access to an original 50s explorer to use as a model in 1984 they moved the explorers to the designer series adding custom graphics and even an explorer synthesizer model in 85 with the roland 700 synth pickup and controls installed in the 80s matthias jabs of the band scorpions began proving the advantages of the explorer and it has been for the last 40 years now known for playing his white guitar on stage when he finally got another white explorer as a backup he wanted to show folks that he had two so he put two stripes of gaff tape on it and that then became his signature look the 1980s also saw the young members of the band metallica creating a modern medal of their own touring on the back of the success of their master of puppets albums james hetfield wielded an explorer as his primary instrument while kirk hammett often played a flying v or a jackson rhodes v guitar it was an amazing time and a modernistic frontline both guitarists move to playing esp guitars later in the decade and have played them predominantly since esp or electric sound products began as a custom shop behind the tokyo music store in 1975. growing the business on the back of copying classic american companies they grew their reputation as a quality alternative to the old-school brands of fender and gibson besides the boys from metallica george lynch and ron wood all endorsed esp gibson introduced a new reissue explorer out of the custom shop in 1993 the 58 karina explorer settled in 99 agreeing to quote not use the shape and appearance of any of gibson's explorer flying v sg and les paul series guitars end quote but that their unique versions would be allowed their snakebite guitar has been their modified explorer shape ever since around 2000 dave grollo the foo fighters wielded a black explorer alive and gary moore broke out a white explorer on his live at monster's rock album and concert dvd showing all the different types of tunes that can be played on the venerable explorer in 94 gibson moved the explorer along with the v to its historic collection to pull them into the same program as the reissue les paul models being built then the explorer has stayed in the custom shop catalog from those first guitars in the early 90s until today the current gibson catalog has three explorer models all based more or less around the 76 mahogany guitars in natural classic white and satin ebony even today the explorer seems like a guitar that's hard to imagine where did the idea ever come from phil jones told me that the shape of the v was from the swept back wings of the then new jet planes but the explorer shape came from the bow ties that were in fashion with businessmen in the 50s and i'll admit that that seemed far-fetched even coming from his augustan authority as phil until i watched multiple clips of rick nielsen from the late 70s rocking out his explorer during cheap tricks live at budacon replete incardigan and a bow tie then phil's words came echoing back as completely true i need to thank phil jones for again offering his time to talk about the modernistic guitars and for fact checking the script it's been great getting to know one of the world's experts on the karina guitars i need to thank dave onorato for sharing his expertise and the pictures of his max bar internet explorer it's one of the nicest guitars i've ever held in my own hands this video would not have been possible without tony bacon's excellent book flying v explorer firebird the book is available online from multiple retailers i need to specifically thank tim mullally photographer dave's guitars for going above and beyond capturing the images of their 59 explorer and finally i need to thank dave rogers of dave's guitar in wisconsin for generously sharing the pics of his original 59 explorer i called him out of the blue and he was a prince he literally helped make this video possible if you have your own explorer story please share in the comments and let me know what i missed i know i can count on you remember if you want to further support 5 what world stop by the store and grab a t-shirt or a mug and if you don't need another t-shirt but you want to support us even more consider becoming a friend of five watt the links are in the description thanks for watching until next time thanks for being a part of the 5 world [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music]

Channel: five watt world

Views: 392,302

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Id: zzla5UqL25U

Length: 27min 18sec (1638 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 14 2020

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