Guitar Gear Forum

I stopped by the local Guitar Center after work today and immediately noticed a new 80's Explorer in black. I have always wanted one being a Hetfield and Explorer fan but feel the $2500 new price is excessive. Lucky for me it was bought new by another customer and resold back after a few months of little use. Got it for $1600.
PXL_20230915_223245667 by Billy Coverdale, on Flickr

That’s bad ass !

Perfect explorer

Killer deal!!!!! I've been waiting for them to make a white one, I'd buy it immediately, even at full price. The black is cool too though.

I already ordered black tonepros bridge and SBTP, and Grover 18:1 minis. I already have a new 81/85 set sitting here so will soon be a Gibson version of Het's none more black ESP!

It is surprisingly light for an Explorer. Plays great and the 80's tribute pickups are good, sounds like a 500t/496r. I will keep all the old hardware as these reissue Explorers really hold and even gain value fast.

Nice. I really dig the 70s tributes. I really think this is Gibson’s attempt at the Evh style. A blend of the old and new. Especially considering the neck pickup is 16k, like the Evh neck pickups. And if you look at the product code for the aftermarket 70s pickups it has “EVH” in its code. That can’t be a coincidence. They have a PV Wolfgang pickup vibe for sure. And the dude who made the PV Wolfgang pickups, Jim DeCola now works at Gibson. Coinkadink? I think not! Hah

EndTime wrote:Nice. I really dig the 70s tributes. I really think this is Gibson’s attempt at the Evh style. A blend of the old and new. Especially considering the neck pickup is 16k, like the Evh neck pickups. And if you look at the product code for the aftermarket 70s pickups it has “EVH” in its code. That can’t be a coincidence. They have a PV Wolfgang pickup vibe for sure. And the dude who made the PV Wolfgang pickups, Jim DeCola now works at Gibson. Coinkadink? I think not! Hah

Interesting. I haven't plugged it into my own rig yet as Its getting too late to disturb the neighbors, but when I do I will report back about the pickups. I tried it in the store into an EVH Iconic full stack and the pickups seemed a little higher output than EVH but that could have been the Iconic as I just dialed in my almost exact settings stolen off you that I used into my 6505. It definitely sounded great for hotter passives.

Gorgeous!

Just got done giving it a run through my 1972 JMP/Synergy SYN1 IICP rig. The bridge pickup definitely sounds like a 500T. Wooly big lows, scooped mids with a nice top end. Not my thing though. My PRS S2 McCarty has the stock pickups which sound almost identical to the McCarty core pickups which sound like Duncan Custom Customs. Those are my jam. I just have to decide if I swap just the bridge hb, or go full EMG 81/85. Killer guitar and Can't believe it weighs a few ounces less than the S2 double cut!

Lol. Never looked at the serial number. The reason it sounds like 500T is because this is a 2020 model. So yeah, 500T.