Gibson Explorer Standard

[gorch]

I wouldn't.

Me too.

[GC Ron]

Never seen an E2 CMT in Natural!

I have seen two and both were all natural, nothing like the one at Rumbleseat with the black back.

[RichRS6]

The teaburst looks nice enough, I'd choose this one over the CS (if I had to ) as I'm not a big fan of pick guards on explorer shapes and with the CS one you don't have a choice of pick guard on or off as it will have the horrible route below the guard.

It is Gibson's design but I wonder where they got the idea to use mahogany instead of Korina (the 58's weren't Mahogany were they?) put on a flame maple cap, bind the neck and put crown inlays on it, rather surprised that they opted to put covers on the pickups.

I'd be interested to try one of these next to an Import Hamer to find out if the name on the headstock is worth all the extra money.

[greenfreak]

Guys (and gals), I hate to burst your bubbles but my custom ordered Standard which I placed in June 2012 (BTW....Kim Keller told me I got one of the last dozen made) had an m.s.r.p. of over $6,200.00 incl. hsc. The build sheet included: highly flamed bookmatched tiger striped top, bound bod and headstock, les paul style m.o.p. fret markers, original style headstock, original style Hamer logo, kluson tulip tuners and that's about it. Fortunately, being a KMC vendor I did not have to pay m.s.r.p. Would post a photo but the ones I have are to big to download for y'all to see.

So the $5k doesn't seem to be too out of line IMHO........Just sayin'

[RichRS6]

No, the price is not really too far out (especially once they're discounted in store) but more to do with our assumption that Gibson's recent efforts have been somewhat less well put together and finished off relying on the brand name to sell the product.

Greenfreak, don't be a tease, get some pics up, please.

[Disturber]

p. Would post a photo but the ones I have are to big to download for y'all to see.

You better find a way to post a photo of that one, of I will freeeeek Oooooouuuut!!!!

[greenfreak]

Crummy pic of my Stnd but better than nada.

gf1.bmp

[marcnorth]

Nice one! Green is cool.

The last 2 prices I got from Hamer were 5K or above. That was for nothing fancy, just plain jane basses. I passed just like I would on the Gibson in this thread.

Hamers have flaws too, it's not like they're all perfect. I've got 2 that have fuck ups on them. My Blue B4M was drilled for a bridge that they either didn't have or couldn't get so they covered it up with a giant ABM lock down that covered all the extra holes. I wanted to replace it with a standard Schaller but it won't cover the extra holes and would have to be redrilled for it. I found a NOS Gotoh bridge that the bass was drilled for and thought I would replace it with that one but it won't intonate with that bridge on it. So I'm stuck with this big ugly bridge that I don't like and didn't ask for.

I also have a 80's 8 string that the tail peice holes were plugged and redrilled and the bridge pushed over to the bass side of the studs to make the strings line up with the neck because it was not put on straight with the center line of the body and they had to offset the bridge a little to make up for it. No big deal but still a flaw.

So I agree the price is not that much out of line with the newer Hamers and Hamer has had a few issues with some their guitars. No one here seems to get a not perfectly built Hamer except for me. I've got some Gibsons and they're just as good as most of the Hamers I've owned. The only custom order out of 3 I got from them that didn't have a flaw of some kind was my white B4M. It came without that volute they started putting on them and is the best Hamer I own by far.

[RJoseph133]

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/61669-korina-vector-on-ebay-us/

Doesn't this say it all here, unfortunately?

This guitar is obviously far superior to anything that Gibson has punched out of Nashville for under $5000. The only reason that it will never sell for any more than $1500 max is because "Hamer" doesn't have the cachet of "Gibson," and one of the reasons is the fact that Gibson designed/built/etc. the original thing.

I own a boatload of Hamers. I bought most of them new, and paid accordingly. I ordered more than my share of expensive, goofy custom orders that are of the value I paid for them simply because I knew what I was going to get...guitars and basses that brought me much pride and joy rather than as an investment...which is why I still own all of them. Most of the posters bemoaning (not everybody, of course) Gibson and their market domination probably didn't...nor would ever...buy a new Hamer or have bothered to commission a custom. Since this unfortunate "market price chicken" has come home to roost, just why do you think this happened to Hamer rather than Gibson? Or Fender? Or PRS?

Economics is economics, and the fact is that Gibson will probably end up selling a few of these "Standards," and probably for a pretty penny. Offer the seller $350 all you want...

[Jack C]

Crummy pic of my Stnd but better than nada.

Love the Klusons on that.

[HSB0531]

I wouldn't.

Me too.

Me neither.

[cmatthes]

I'll take this one fore (NEW from Rocketeria) between 1/3 and 1/2 the cost of the Gibson.

[shredmeister]

Not a Gibson fan at all. However some of the best tones of the Scorpions were recorded on an Explorer. And I love those guitar tones.

[David B]

Crummy pic of my Stnd but better than nada.

How 'bout some more pics.

[mkadowaki]

I would trade my 4 digit for the sunburst model at Rainbow.

[RichRS6]

I would trade my 4 digit for the sunburst model at Rainbow.

If you want to do that then sell your 4 digit to me please, I'll give you more than they will in trade.

[mkadowaki]

I wasn't thinking about trading in my "used" Hamer for a new Gibson at a retailer. I know how that deal would go. I would trade those even tho.

[gorch]

This thread becomes interesting. Show your 4-digit. Pics please!

[mkadowaki]

on the left:

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/61058-four-digit-family-reunion/

[GusS]

For $500-1,500 more than what a Hamer custom order would have cost, you get the real thing, namely a Gibson Explorer / Gibson Les Paul Standard mashup made by Gibson, with a "4-digit headstock" and with actual resale value.

That being said, with that dough you could get a nice used Standard and a nice used car.

[BTMN]

[BTMN]

Derail:

Both of those are Cool!

I could Love the Gibber with a better top and will keep it on my radar. Hope by then perhaps I can order my first Hamer Standard custom order as they will be back in the jam by then.

[crunchee]

DGS has two in, one in natural, and one in cherry sunburst. Same price ($5165.00), but they call it Minimum Advertised Price (MAP). Perhaps they're open to negotiation? As time passes, perhaps there will be more flexibility in the purchase price?

Again, if it was me, I'd be looking at buying one used, eventually...IF I was in the market for one.

[mkadowaki]

Derail:

Both of those are Cool!

I could Love the Gibber with a better top and will keep it on my radar. Hope by then perhaps I can order my first Hamer Standard custom order as they will be back in the jam by then.

Left is 0215. Right is 0092.

[AdmiralB]

The CSB at Dave's is on the way to me now. I paid, well, significantly less than MAP. I've been looking for a Standard for a while, never saw anything that did 'it' for me.

I've been as vocal a Gibson critic as anyone, but I currently own six of them - four of them Historics - and they're all great guitars. More importantly, they're all alive, which is something that the Hamers I owned - probably ~70, give or take - rarely were, build quality notwithstanding.

I was as big a fan of Hamer as anyone, but that was mostly predicated on the fact that in the late '90s through about 2005, used Hamers were without question the best guitar value going. Since then, two things have changed - Hamers aren't as cheap as they used to be (well, they might be, I haven't looked, but they weren't five years ago), and I'm not as 'price sensitive' as I was then. And the few times I actually bought new Hamers, I usually got screwed in some way, however small (the two free AKs from MF notwithstanding).

I was also one of the biggest detractors of Gibson. But in the last seven years or so, they seem to have largely got their quality shit together. All the stuff I've looked at - and to be fair, it's mostly been higher-end stuff - has been very well made. I did buy and return an Oxblood 'Benchmark Collection', but not because there was anything wrong with it - it just didn't prime my pump as I thought it should have for what it cost.

By the way, the flametop Gibsons from the early '80s were "The Explorer" and "The V". The E2 was the walnut/mahogany sandwich beveled thing, like the V2 (with the v-shaped pickups). For some reason most of "The Explorers" came with E2 truss covers, but that's not the model name. GC in Indy has/had a CSB "The V" for quite a while, in really nice shape, double cream Dirty Fingers, but it wasn't worth $1750 to me.

The other guitarist I played with in high school had a "The Explorer". All I remember about it was it weighed a ton, the fingerboard was like an inch higher than the body top, and it (and every other example I've seen since) was marked as a factory 2nd, but with no obvious reason.