Early Explorer

[Chris P.]

There's a quite new German bass magazine called Bass Professor. We had the april/may/june issue at the office and today I took it with me too see what our German competitors do:)

They have an ongoing subject called 'The story Of Gibson Basses.' This time Part 8, the eighties (that makes one wonder if they started in 1900... This time they have some short background information about the Flying V, Victory, Q80/90, IV, V and yes: the 20/20. It ends with a Zebrabird.

But it's the Explorer part that's interesting. They feature three basses. A cream one with two black humbuckers, a red Piezo-only one and an Explorer which they call early 60s and probably custom made.

It has a Korina body, kahogany neck, 3 + 1 banjo tuners, three controls (!), a bar bridge, an oversized pickguard and a chrome mudbucker at the neck. I think I've never seen that before. It looks like Uwe's, but I think Uwe's has T-bird pick ups?
And one mudbucker and three controls?

[Barklessdog]

This one?




I remember Daniel found this recreation somewhere?

[Chris P.]

yep, it's a nice colour pic of the one above. The one below has a four in a row headstock and the three point bridge.

[lowend1]

Years ago - probably 1979-80 - that bass hung in the front window of one of the vintage shops on 48th St in NYC. It might have been Stuyvesant Music. It was the real tiny place a few doors west of Manny's. Every time we went in to look at stuff we couldn't afford, that bass was there. It was either not for sale or ridiculously priced for the time ($3k maybe?)

[godofthunder]

 I think I remember reading in Guitar player Magazine in the mid to late 70's that Rick Derringer owned it and gave it as a gift to Randy Jo Hobbs. Also that hiding under the end of the pick guard you can just see a stud insert for a guitar bridge. Supposed to be a killer sounding bass. I remember the qoute about it. "It ain't no dog legged BBQ stick it's a Hoss ! "

[uwe]

Yes, the April 1984 issue of GP had an expansive history on this bass. I've got a copy of it. Someone back in Dudepit daze posted it, I don't remember who, but I printed it out at the time. Contents:

- Three of these basses exist, all stem from the fifties, all are korina guitar bodies (with routings partially filled), all have maho necks from fifties EB-2s with an Explorer headstock grafted on. Mudbucker with baritone switch, bar bridge. One was natural (and later refinned green and then metallic blue, but eventually stripped again), one was sunburst and the other one probably natural too. By the advent of the GP article, the fate of the latter two was already lost in the mists of time.

- Explorer bass no 1 was ordered by Roger "Jelly Roll" Troy (he later got the sunburst one though) in Kalamazoo in 1959, but he never picked it up so it fell eventually in the hands of Lonnie Mack's then bassist Wayne Bullock who played it on a couple of Mack's hits.

- In 1973, guitar historian Robb Lawrence bought the bass - by then metallic blue - from Bullock for a thousand bucks. It was worse for wear and Lawrence pretty much restored it to original state. He then let Chris Squire, JE, Jack Bruce and Larry Taylor (whoever that is!) play it and they were all enamoured by it, because it sounded well and was comfortable to play with the hand resting on the elongated back part of the body. 

- Come 1974, Lawrence sells the bass to Rick Derringer's manager - this is where Scott's part of the story comes in. It ends up a present to the late Randy Jo Hobbs, then Johnny Winter's bass player.

- A few years later, Hobbs sells it to Steve Friedman of Stuyvesant Music on 48th Str NYC. It can be heard on Lou Reed's Street Hassle.

- Subsequently it is traded to "We Buy Guitars", also in NYC, and encased in glass there. This is where lowend1's part of the story comes in.

- In late 1983, the bass is sold from NYC to Texan guitar collector Tony Dukes who actually plays it in shows with hs band "International Aces". Dukes gives the dog-legged BBQ stick/hoss quote in GP that Scott cites. 

- We have 1984 now and the bass is in Texas. This is where things get murky:

Around that time, a replica of the above bass is ordered at the Gibson Custom shop from a Texas store. As I bought that bass later on, I have an email from early 2005 from Mr Al Helm who kindly sheds a little light on the replica's history. Apparently, one of the natural original korina explorer basses got into the hands of another Texan guitar collector (I can't say whether it was the one Tony Dukes had, the dates don't quite match up if Tony bought his bass from NYC only in late 1983, because the replica was apparently built earlier than that, otoh, Al Helm writes that the replica found its way into a rare guitars calendar by Tony Dukes so there might be a connection after all), a Cadillac dealer by the name of Byron D. Goad. Goad loved the looks of the bass, but not the sound, thought it too muddy. And too valuable to play probably. So he orders a replica from the custom shop with different (TBird Bicentennial as it turns out) pups and while we're at: Please make the neck korina too and not maho, thus further brightening up the sound (korina sounds brighter than maho, imagine maho with a touch of alder and you're there). This is what Al Helm who owned the shop that ordered the custom shop work writes:

"Uwe,

It appears that you have the Gibson bass line at least as represented as did Entwhistle...

I managed Sound Vibrations in Corpus Christi from 1980--1984. Byron D. Goad was, at that time, a Cadillac dealer in Victoria, a friend, and a collector of interesting pieces. At his request, I contacted the Gibson Custom Shop and began the process of ordering a Korina Explorer bass to be fitted with Thunderbird pickups. Byron had one of the very few original Korina Gibson basses at that time (I don't recall the serial number, though) and we photographed the instrument and specified the differences that Byron wished to achieve. His original Explorer bass had a mahogany neck and four in a row tuners on the ladyslipper headstock. Initially, the Custom Shop boys were not interested in duplicating the Explorer headstock; they didn't have the right templates; they could just use the Victory bass headstock design; yadda, yadda, yadda. They finally agreed to use the ladyslipper headstock if they could produce in the 3 + 1 configuration. It seemed to be a reasonable request; they cited headstock strength versus string pull as their major issue. I requested a banjo style tuner for the G string so the headstock wouldn't lose its fluidity.

The instrument arrived about a year after the initial contact with Gibson and the dealer cost at that time was about two thousand dollars. I think that we received it in 1983. If it wasn't '83, then it was '82. It did appear in a rare guitars calendar produced by Tony Dukes; I may still have my copy of the calendar-- I don't know; I will look for it, though...

Obviously, an alpha-numeric serial number on a Gibson is a rarity--I don't know of any other Gibson instrument with a similar number. I am sure that you can guess what BDG means. 001 is a combination of two things: the instrument was to be the first of many and the 00 prefix was cool...like James Bond.

Byron, his spouse, and the IRS got entirely sideways with one another. The event continued for years, costing Byron his marriage and his entire collection of instruments. Byron asked me to hold that instrument for him until the smoke cleared. A few years into the event, he asked me to return the bass so that he could sell it; it was his last piece. It is my belief that if you paid the advertised price for the bass, you acquired it for a bargain!

Sorry about the flinging of opinion regarding the Victory basses, Uwe. I thought that they were too heavy and demonstrated no great step forward in either tone or feel over a typical Precision bass of the period.

The Korina Explorer is art that can be played like a Ferrari Barchetta is art which can be driven. That Korina Explorer is truly a one of a kind piece.

Sincerely,

Al Helm"

- And this, liebe Kinder, is where the story stops. A very evil man in Germany now has that bass chained to the wall. No idea where the three originals went and are currently.













Uwe

[lowend1]

Uwe, you are a wealth of information, as always. Great story - That Rick Derringer is always in the middle of things - he used to own one of the very early Explorers geetars with the "split V" headstock as well.

[godofthunder]

Thanks for the complete story Uwe ! What a find one of the original would be ! Hmmmmmmmmmmm a repro could be a fun build.

[Barklessdog]

Gratuitous Explorer Cheesecake photo #3

[godofthunder]

 Dimension wise my Ibanez Destroyer is real close. Note the Gibson mudbucker and Bart tbird pup. I'm thinking of going back to a white guard.

[Chris P.]

Cool story!

But what about the three controls on a one pick up bass? My Ricky 3001 (which i don't have anymore) had it. Volume and two tone?

[uwe]

In its earliest original state that bass had a baritone button according to Guitar Player with the choke underneath the bridge in true EB-2 style. Could be that that was changed to a push pull knob later on. It was fiddled around with quite a bit while Lonnie Mack's bass player played it, inter alia he had it refinned twice (green and blue). In the early sixties, an Explorer bass was nothing but an off-the-wall shape failed model, like all Ted McCarthy "Modernistic Guitars" initially. I guess Hendrix resurrected the Flying V, but who made the Explorer shape fashionable again? Lynyrd Skynyrd? I can't remember anyone popular playing it much earlier than them.

[Chris P.]

Let's not forget Dave Davies of The Kinks with a V.

[uwe]

Yeah, but then his brother always broke it in their frequent punch-ups!

[Chris P.]

Yeah, in that way Oasis is nothing new....