Early Explorer

[uwe]

Oliver B was kind enough to send me a pic of the fifties explorer - he had a contact in the nineties with the Texan Cadillac dealer mentioned in the above posts. Although a blurry affair, it shows how closely the replica tried to emulate it.

Uwe

[Chris P.]

Cool! Nice to see both in one mail!

[senmen]

Dear All,

at first let me introduce myself:
I am that Oliver Uwe talked about before and we got in contact through his Explorer bass.
I had provided him with the pic of the 58 Explorer bass and below find many more.
My main hobby is running a WHO tribute band here in Germany with name WHO ARE YOU
(www.whoareyouband.de)
In the 90ies I was on deep research on Gibson Modernistic guitars and basses as I had planned to write a
book on them.
Back then I also stumbled into the then owner of the original 58 Explorer bass, Mr.Byron Goad, who provided me with the pics below.
The picture mentioned before by someone published in the german Bass Professor magazine was courtesy of me, but they had used it without asking me. Anyway.
I remember also having had that sheet from that 90ies calendar with one page showing the 58 Explorer bass aside the one that is now owned by Uwe. Unfortunately, I don´t have this anymore.
I don´t know if the original Explorer is still in the posession of Mr.Goad; I tried to call him but the number is not working anymore.
Below you can also see pics of the bass hanging in the windows at Stuyvesant Music NYK, as someone told about before.
Well I would like to know where this bass is today.....

Many greetings
Oliver

[Dave W]

Hi Oliver, welcome aboard. Please check your My Messages folder.

[Chris P.]

Welcome, Who-tribute guys are always more than welcome! And thanks very much for the storu and the great pics!

[senmen]

Dave,
plse check your PM.

Chris,
many thanks mate!!!!

[sniper]

IF THIS IS TO POLITICAL PLEASE ERASE!!!

As we gather for this convention in these stressed political times it is important to know us Gibbyites are made of the mettle of solid playing unity among EBO-ites, Thunderbird-ites, Hollowbody-ites, Explorer-ites and even Fenderbird and Epi-ites, and other independents (even some of the low life Fender, Warwick, Dark Star and other players are ok) to bring together unity under a free and wholesome bass flag as godfather Ent-Cassidy Jamerson would have wanted.

Welcome Oliver and thanks for reminding us of our common history and please let us unite under our chosen Uwe, Dave and Mark the Am-BASS-adoress ticket.

Let us be proud but humble in knowing we are right in presenting good rock and roll, jazz, country and all denominations of music to the world as we understand it should be played.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

Thanks for the nice pics of a piece of history.

the ever cynical but always trying to be humorous Twain of bassdom......old pup

[hieronymous]

Hi Oliver! I enjoy your posts at the Alembic Club - thanks for sharing your Gibson experiences here!

[rockinrayduke]

God, I forgot all about Sound Vibrations in Corpus till now. it was always a regular stop for us traveling musicians back in the 70's touring Texas. Hadn't heard Tony Dukes mentioned in a while either. Small world isn't it?

Tony was always known for his eclectic collection........

[uwe]

Willkommen! I was just about to invite you to come here. Also thanks for putting up these great pics (and saving me the work to do it). This Explorer saga is coming along nicely.

Uwe

[Freuds_Cat]

Thanks for the pics and info Oliver. As a recent owner of an Explorer albeit an Epi I am finding all of this info fascinating. I would say welcome too, but you have obviously known these gentle-fella's a lot longer than me. 

[senmen]

Hey Guys,
sorry, been a real while since I was last in here.
Well, to be honest, I was on the hunt for the original Explorer bass and what shall I say:
I LOCATED IT !!!
I am currently in speech with the current owner, not Byron Goad anymore.
The bass is again restored, means has now the original bakelite pickup installed.
When I get the OK of the owner I will do some articles on this in the german Bass Quarterly and possibly in the Vintage Guitar Magazine.
And, I also found two ol pics of the bass played in the Lonnie Mack Band:

When you look closely you can see that the there are only two pots and the third one is the baritone switch.....

More to come.....
Oliver

[Stjofön Big]

The Lonnie Mack photo: What a nice bunch of solid senders!
Question: Who designed the Explorer? Did Dietrich come in that eary? Such a rockin and a-rollin design! Beautttifull!!!

[Freuds_Cat]

What an awesome photo, any idea what year that was taken? 

[senmen]

Think end 50ies to beginning 60ies....