2017 Gibson custom shop '58 Explorer demo.

A limited edition Explorer from 2017 featuring a one piece mahogany body finished in Gibson's TV yellow - a finish that started out on the Les Paul Junior and Special models in the late 1950's.

In 2017 Gibson released 4 finishes on the Explorer re-issue, TV Black Gold, TV White, TV Yellow and TV Black Silver. Mine is the TV Yellow finish with chrome hardware.

I replaced the pickguard, jack plate and knobs as I prefer the white to the original black and got a custom guard made at Tiny Tone in Manchester as finding a correct fit for the custom shop '58 Explorer was impossible. A really good job actually and I highly recommend them.

You might think the Explorer is a Metal™ guitar and sure enough it fits the bill very well but it was released in 1958 with a body made from Korina and gold hardware. It wasn't designed for heavy distorted tones but more as a futuristic statement, just as the 1960's were about to dawn. The Flying V and Moderne were companion designs and, at the time, they all bombed. In the days of Les Paul and Mary Ford, people wanted traditional guitars, not some alien artefact from a distant moon.

However, things changed and the Explorer came back in 1975, with the 1976 models being best known as being played by the Edge from U2 and guitarists from the Heavy Metal crowd had used them a lot too.

Unlike the Flying V, the Explorer is quite comfortable but take care; the pointy bits are magnetically attracted to furniture and amps. They are physically quite big but not especially heavy.

I recorded this one clean into a Fender Twin Reverb and then into a Lazy J 20 for some crunchy overdriven sounds.
Microphones are an SM57 and a Rode NT1-A just off cone centre and about 10" away from the speaker. Audi Interface is a Presonus Studio68C and there is no processing in Studio One. Reverb comes from each amplifier.

Visit my website at https://www.gringopig.com/ for more info about this guitar and others!

00:00 Intro
00:12 Clean into a Fender Twin Reverb Part 1
05:02 Clean into a Fender Twin Reverb Part 2
10:12 Overdriven Lazy J 20 set about half way on the bright channel. Tweedy!
14:20 Crunchy Lazy J sounds
16:21 Overdriven madness™