Explorer style guitars

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perceive

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okay I will start off by saying that I do intend to by any guitar I try first..
But
I am looking at getting a rock star guitar..
as the title says an explorer style..black or white..
I don't want an absolute top of the line i will never find it in the stores type.
I have seen the folowing types:
Epiphone explorer
Gibson Explorer (this is at the very peak of my budget after discounts at shops)
ESP explorer styles
Jackson Kelly's

I'd like to hear from people who have any of these guitars, and what they think of them for playing ,what they don't like ,and in the main anyone who has played multiples of these types...
(as an aside anyone from the US willing to sell one cheap so I dont have to pay tax that would be appreciated but not expected!) ::eek::D
 
A rock star guitar huh? I recommend the RR1 or RR5 Rhoads by Jackson, but if you want an explorer-style guitar Hamer and Jackson are probably the two best retail companies making those types of guitars. Gibson guitars are overpriced pieces of junk, and I'm not even going to get into Epiphone :rolleyes:. I think that Agile makes an explorer style guitar. From what I hear, they are phenomenal buys for the money, but I haven't tried one.
 
I've owned several Gibson explorers, a Kelly, and several other knock-offs.

I really like the older Gibsons, I haven't tried a new one. I'm very tall and need a guitar with a big body. (strats and les pauls look like belt buckles on me) I also like the thick baseball bat-like neck. They are warm sounding big pieces of wood. These guitars are a little cumbersome for smaller people. If you are under 5'5'', you will look silly with this giant guitar. They also really don't come with trem systems, and are not good "guitar hero" type of guitars because of the fat neck, big frets, etc... Not good for sweep-picking.

The Jackson Kelly: Much more managable size for the majority of people. most have trems. Thinner, more modern neck. Good for shredding.

Most of the others are just somewhere in between those two. Hamer is a big guitar with a thick neck and a trem, for example. The Epiphone is just a cheaper version of the gibson, but pretty much the same thing.
 
I used to own an Explorer. Full fat sounding git. Crazy "baseball bat" neck. Too big for my hands but suprsingly comfortable. I agree with Farview, if you are 5.5 or less you will look odd. I am a generous 5'9" and it still is proportionaltely large. But WTF? If you like it go for it. I have an old Gibby Rd 77 (large too). If you can find an old Gibby go for it; they sound great and play well. Best of luck. I believe the combination of its (explorer) massive body and killer pickups make those things rock and roll machines. My .02:D
 
To reply to some of the responses... I am not too tall - 5'10" but I figure that is enough.. a little too much weight for my liking these days i want to even out about 140).


I think and old explorer is out of the question - budgetary and they are not that common in .au. I suppose I ought to ask exactly what you mean by old though? 5 years? 35 years?

I have just found an old pre lawsuit ESP LTD explorer - i will try that though my hopes are not too high - I don't know what the LTD QC was like back then...
But its black which is a good thing ;)
 
perceive said:
To reply to some of the responses... I am not too tall - 5'10" but I figure that is enough.. a little too much weight for my liking these days i want to even out about 140).


I think and old explorer is out of the question - budgetary and they are not that common in .au. I suppose I ought to ask exactly what you mean by old though? 5 years? 35 years?

I have just found an old pre lawsuit ESP LTD explorer - i will try that though my hopes are not too high - I don't know what the LTD QC was like back then...
But its black which is a good thing ;)
Click to expand...

The guitarist in my band has 2 pretty standard strat-style ESP's and one LTD Viper. All 3 are fairly old, gigged regularly, and seem to be great quality. Try em out.
 
Greg_L said:
The guitarist in my band has 2 pretty standard strat-style ESP's and one LTD Viper. All 3 are fairly old, gigged regularly, and seem to be great quality. Try em out.
Click to expand...

What should i expect the action to be like? I am assuming a quite flat neck, bolt on, etc, can't see much in the way of historical references on the espguitars.com site so I will have to hunt down some info...
Thanks for the response!
 
perceive said:
What should i expect the action to be like? I am assuming a quite flat neck, bolt on, etc, can't see much in the way of historical references on the espguitars.com site so I will have to hunt down some info...
Thanks for the response!
Click to expand...

The action on all of his ESP's is fast and light. They're "shredder" guitars. The neck is very slim and his ESP's have 24 big frets, the LTD (a warped SG clone) I think has 22. His ESP's have bolt-on necks and the LTD's neck is set.
 
Greg_L said:
The action on all of his ESP's is fast and light. They're "shredder" guitars. The neck is very slim and his ESP's have 24 big frets, the LTD (a warped SG clone) I think has 22. His ESP's have bolt-on necks and the LTD's neck is set.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for that!
 
1. USA Hamer
2. Gibson Explorer
3. Korean Hamer
4. Ibanez Iceman(not sure if that counts, but my pal had a hotrodded Iceman, and it smoked!)
 
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