It's funny that the Explorer has the heavy metal tag, while the Flying V has not (as much). Perhaps because there were more players of the Flying V in the late fifties, even bluesmen played them, and sixties (Hendrix) than there were Explorer players though they both appeared at the same time in the late fifties. But I cannot remember a pic of someone playing an Explorer shape guitar or bass that is older than the mid-seventies, though I'm sure there must be.
In contrast, the Flying V was omnipresent from a certain point in time onwards with hard and heavy rock bands: Scorpions, UFO, Judas Priest. But someone more in the songwriter vein like Tom Petty could still play it too (it's after all a rhythm gitar that never ever gets in the way). Or Andy Powell with Wishbone Ash.
Speaking of which: I first took note of the Explorer shape when Martin Turner began playing his Hamer Explorer with Wishbone Ash in the mid-seventies.
Now Wishbone Ash were hardly a heavy rock or metal band, but, let's put it this way, they found grace with most hard rock fans because of the dominance of their twin lead guitar work which so many harder playing bands copied, you could look mean and still play sweet thirds. I might also have seen one with Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd who played it a lot just like Rick Medlocke does with Lynyrd Skynyrd today.
But the Explorer really only became prevalent in the eighties when heavy metal/hard rock hit another one of its commercial peaks. Matthias Jabs of the Scorpions played one often, Rick Savage of the Def Leps and ex-SAHB Chris Glen with MSG did so in the bass department. That said, there were a lot more TBird basses to be seen with hard rock bands at any given time than there were ever Explorer basses, certainly in part because hardly anybody produced Explorer basses as a long-lasting series model, Gibson, who invented the shape, only did so for two or three years in the mid eighties and not again until today.
