SG Std
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2014
- Messages
- 610
Looks like there's an mild uproar about the tuners on Kirk's 58/63 Explorer--could it be that those are not the original tuners and are 'replacement tuners'? [as the vibrato tailpiece was removed at some point]? Or could it be that they are the original tuners?
The consensus on the original Explorers built in 1958 is that a 'lot/batch' of 40 were made sometime in 1958 [or possibly in 1957] and that 19 were shipped in 1958 with 3 more shipped in 1959.
Reportedly 2 of the 40 Explorer bodies were made into 'bass guitars' which left 16 Explorer bodies remaining at the Kalamazoo factory after the 22 Explorers were shipped by 1959.
And reportedly those 16 remaining Explorers were then shipped out between sometime between 1960 and 1964--at that point, coupled with the fact that the Explorers did not sell well at all, was Gibson really concerned about what style tuners were installed when [my guess is] all they wanted to do was get rid of them at the time?
We all know that the 'electric guitar craze' 'exploded' Sunday Feb 9, 1964 when The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show & still continues, but until then, Gibson Explorers were not the most sought after electric guitar in the modern world.
I have a few great pictures to share here about all this but am going to post them in the 'My list of known original 58 thru 1963 Explorers...' discussion in 'The Other Gibsons' pub [instead within this discussion here] as that's where all this really belongs.
Here are a couple of LPF quotes worth sharing at this point that kinda concern the tuners that were installed on the remaining 16 Explorers before they shipped--the first 2 quotes are from Mat Koehler.:
MK: "But because it was a matter of using up inventory, there would not be a formal production change date (and we have all those records for the 1960s btw." I'm sure there was some overlap as well. Your guess is as good as mine!
MK: "I wouldn't think twice about the tenon; it's all about who was working that day and what they had to work with. Same is true today...slight variation is to be expected there."
Anonymous: "Amazing, thanks Mat! Great to know there's more oddball stuff out there waiting to be discovered."
And also it is worth mentioning [as a good friend let me know this 2 days ago] that Richard/Rick Henry was not involved in the purchase of this Explorer to Kirk Hammett as I previously stated going by the pictures I have. Kirk had his Explorer on tour with Metallica & showed it to Richard/Rick Henry at some point during that tour. Kirk had purchased the Explorer quite a while earlier.
Also hopefully some of the 'experts' here will add to all this Explorer discussion as well...with Mat Koehler stating "If anyone owns a 60s-feature Korina guitar personally and want me to authenticate, I'm happy to do it. It's a scary world out there, though, so we at Gibson keep that information close to the chest. As for "leftover" builds...I have not seen any evidence of hard-stamped serial number or even no-serial-number Korina guitars logged, nor are there any Korina guitars listed anywhere that I have seen after 1964.
"In my opinion, the value of original Korina Flying V and Explorer models is all about hard provenance that goes back further than the 1980s. I have seen a lot of scary guitars (and cases!) come out of the woodwork recently, and even if you're an expert in tells and fine details, you still have to take a leap of faith on them.
"They're still out there, though. Gibson just landed a really killer and uncirculated V from its original owner.
The V that sold through Brian's Guitars recently was absolutely stellar as well...the cleanest example out there with provenance too. It was known/circulated before, but good to see it surface again."
The consensus on the original Explorers built in 1958 is that a 'lot/batch' of 40 were made sometime in 1958 [or possibly in 1957] and that 19 were shipped in 1958 with 3 more shipped in 1959.
Reportedly 2 of the 40 Explorer bodies were made into 'bass guitars' which left 16 Explorer bodies remaining at the Kalamazoo factory after the 22 Explorers were shipped by 1959.
And reportedly those 16 remaining Explorers were then shipped out between sometime between 1960 and 1964--at that point, coupled with the fact that the Explorers did not sell well at all, was Gibson really concerned about what style tuners were installed when [my guess is] all they wanted to do was get rid of them at the time?
We all know that the 'electric guitar craze' 'exploded' Sunday Feb 9, 1964 when The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show & still continues, but until then, Gibson Explorers were not the most sought after electric guitar in the modern world.
I have a few great pictures to share here about all this but am going to post them in the 'My list of known original 58 thru 1963 Explorers...' discussion in 'The Other Gibsons' pub [instead within this discussion here] as that's where all this really belongs.
Here are a couple of LPF quotes worth sharing at this point that kinda concern the tuners that were installed on the remaining 16 Explorers before they shipped--the first 2 quotes are from Mat Koehler.:
MK: "But because it was a matter of using up inventory, there would not be a formal production change date (and we have all those records for the 1960s btw." I'm sure there was some overlap as well. Your guess is as good as mine!
MK: "I wouldn't think twice about the tenon; it's all about who was working that day and what they had to work with. Same is true today...slight variation is to be expected there."
Anonymous: "Amazing, thanks Mat! Great to know there's more oddball stuff out there waiting to be discovered."
And also it is worth mentioning [as a good friend let me know this 2 days ago] that Richard/Rick Henry was not involved in the purchase of this Explorer to Kirk Hammett as I previously stated going by the pictures I have. Kirk had his Explorer on tour with Metallica & showed it to Richard/Rick Henry at some point during that tour. Kirk had purchased the Explorer quite a while earlier.
Also hopefully some of the 'experts' here will add to all this Explorer discussion as well...with Mat Koehler stating "If anyone owns a 60s-feature Korina guitar personally and want me to authenticate, I'm happy to do it. It's a scary world out there, though, so we at Gibson keep that information close to the chest. As for "leftover" builds...I have not seen any evidence of hard-stamped serial number or even no-serial-number Korina guitars logged, nor are there any Korina guitars listed anywhere that I have seen after 1964.
"In my opinion, the value of original Korina Flying V and Explorer models is all about hard provenance that goes back further than the 1980s. I have seen a lot of scary guitars (and cases!) come out of the woodwork recently, and even if you're an expert in tells and fine details, you still have to take a leap of faith on them.
"They're still out there, though. Gibson just landed a really killer and uncirculated V from its original owner.
The V that sold through Brian's Guitars recently was absolutely stellar as well...the cleanest example out there with provenance too. It was known/circulated before, but good to see it surface again."
Last edited: