First Explorers
Gibson produced very few Explorers during the 1958 run of the original Korina wood model. Because production records are unclear, it is not known exactly how many were made, but the original run total has been estimated at less than 50.
After the first few guitars, the Explorer had a long drooping headstock with the tuners placed in a straight line on one side (referred sometimes as "banana" and "hockey-stick"). This design has been popularized by Grover Jackson, founder of Jackson Guitars and other electric guitar makers such as Kramer and Hamer 20 years later. However, the very earliest Explorers made between 1957 and spring 1958 featured an unusual "split"-shaped head with the tuners placed in a standard 3+3 arrangement, carried over from the Explorer prototype (better known as the Futura).
The 1958-59 korina Explorer is one of the most valuable production-model guitars on the market, ranked at #4 on the 2011 Top 25 published by Vintage Guitar, worth between $250,000 and $310,000. Only 22 were produced, 19 in 1958 and 3 in 1959.
Read more about this topic: Gibson Explorer
Famous quotes containing the word explorers:
“The forests are held cheap after the white pine has been culled out; and the explorers and hunters pray for rain only to clear the atmosphere of smoke.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Such were the first rude beginnings of a town. They spoke of the practicability of a winter road to the Moosehead Carry, which would not cost much, and would connect them with steam and staging and all the busy world. I almost doubted if the lake would be there,—the self-same lake,—preserve its form and identity, when the shores should be cleared and settled; as if these lakes and streams which explorers report never awaited the advent of the citizen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)