Good Gibson Explorer runs?

shaunk26

Howdy. I've always been interested in buying a gibson explorer due to Dave Grohl using one as his tour guitar in the early foo fighters years. Are there any periods where they had a good run such as the 90s or early 2000s? 

usedtobe

Some people might think so, but others would disagree..

meltedbuzzbox

usedtobe said:

Some people might think so, but others would disagree..

This in a nut shell. Go try some and buy the best one you play

stickyfiddle

Yep. You'll get plenty of people saying [insert year] was The Best period for Gibsons. You'll then see that these people are usually selling one from [insert year]. 

There's good and bad from all years.

mooncat

1958 was a good year for the explorer 

JayGee

I could be wrong, but my perception is that Gibson never mucked around with the construction and materials “recipe” for the Explorer in the way they did with some models, and as a result, QA issues aside, give or take the odd change to pickups there really isn’t much to choose between model years.

Mine’s a 2014 with the 120th anniversary inlay as the 12th fret marker and “Burstbucker Pro”[1] pickups, and it’s lovely! :-)

[1] Well, you wouldn’t want to caught playing a gig with amateur pickups would you?

Cirrus

Mine's an '07 iirc and honestly in the grand scheme of well detailed guitars, it's absolutely bog standard. There's a tool mark on the fretboard, the nitro is really thick and cracked on some corners, and the shape of the pickguard going down the lower fin doesn't *quite* match the shape of the fin.

That said, I gigged and recorded with it constantly for 10 years and have made so much music with it. In the end, you either like a guitar or don't and the only way to find out is to play it.

@Jaygee I've got a BB1 & 2 in mine, really like them!