Gibson Explorer Guitar Review

The Gibson Explorer line, when first introduced, was a shocking deviation from the style of most guitars at the time. Throwing away the traditional design with a curvature designed for comfort and practicality, Gibson made the Explorer based almost completely on looks with sharp design angles and sharper sound. In this article, I'll review Gibson's latest version of the Explorer.

Features: The body of the Explorer, like nearly every other Gibson, is made of mahogany. This assists in its fatter tonal range. There are three finishes available, including cherry, white, and ebony. All have a glossed finishing layer, and come with white pickguards and a black painted downward facing headstock. The finish colors combined with the sharp angles of the body make for a very edgy, now classic look. The neck of the Explorer is set into the body, and is made of mahogany as well. It has a fretboard made of rosewood with twenty two frets and pearloid dot inlays. All of the hardware on the Explorer, including the selector switch, tuning heads, and Tune-O-Matic bridge, is chrome. Electronically the Explorer has two Gibson branded humbucker pickups, two volume and one tone control knob, and a three way selector switch.

Playability: As great as the body of the Gibson Explorer looks, I honestly found it a pain to play. It rests okay in your lap when playing sitting down and is light for playing standing up, but the high extending fin on the upper end of the guitar gets in the way of your forearm invariably. It would take quite a bit of dedication to get used to this and play around it, though many have done it successfully and some don't even find it to be an issue.

Sound: The humbuckers on the Gibson Explorer are designed to make hard rock and metal. The clean tones are thick, but not especially pure. However it shines brightly with the distortion turned up. It can scream on the high end and deliver thick chords with a punch on the low end.

Overall: The Gibson Explorer is an amazing looking and well made instrument, as evinced by its price. There is no question. But it takes a player who is willing to work around some impracticalities in its design to play well with it. If you think that player is you, by all means go for it. You can find the Gibson Explorer in music stores for about $1,400.