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Korina Explorers From 1983 With Names

Calgary Flametop

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Just thought I would start a new thread about this as the old thread I posted on is not getting much action. Does anyone out there own a Korina Explorer from 1983? Supposedly the guys who built these rated them with beautiful womens names written into the neck pickup cavity. I have seen Linda and Barbara and someone else told me they had Jayne. Years ago when I first heard about it I was told that their favorite one they labelled Marilyn. That is four different names so far and I would like to hear if there are any more.

The guitars I have seen so far have been the Limited Edition Custom Shop models, but maybe the Heritages have the names as well. It is possible, also, that it was done on just the first batch of guitars. Both guitars I saw with the names had 2 piece tops. Gibson only built a couple Limited Edition and Heritage Explorers with 2 piece tops and the remainder got 3 piece tops. In 15+ years of searching I have only seen 2 Limited Editions with 2 piece tops and 1 Heritage.

On a side note if anyone out there has a 2 piece top Limited Edition or Heritage Korina Explorer I would be interested in purchasing them. I track down guitars for a few collectors as a side job and I could offer a really good buying price for either of those explorers with 2 piece tops. There is a thread in this forum with an 83 Korina Explorer with a 2 piece that has the name Linda in the neck pickup cavity. It was the second of the 2 I mentioned above. I was too late in seeing it and it was sold, but if the buyer reads this thread please contact me.

Anyways, I don't want to take away from my main intention for this thread. I really want to see if there are any other names to be found in the neck pickup cavity of these guitars. So far there is Barbara, Linda, Jayne and Marilyn. According to Gruhn there is less than 100 of the Limited Edition Custom Shop models and only 100 Heritages so I realize that there is not a lot of them out there, but if anybody has one and could check the neck pickup cavity it would really make this thread fun.
 

Cody

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Sounds like they were named after old-timey celeb women.
 
B

bigsby'd

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I find something disturbing about reading the word "Sharon" so close to the phrase "neck cavity"......images of the Manson girls pop into my head.
 

Calgary Flametop

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This is really amazing then. So far we have Barbara, Linda, Jayne, Marilyn, Mae and Sharon in the Korina guitars from 1982/83 and Betty in a 335. All of these names can correspond to some very big sex symbols prior to 1983. There is no way Gibson had that many different people building the limited run Korina guitars and especially all women. I guess the info the Gibson employee gave me was true. Betty in the 335 is different in that it is in the bridge cavity. It is one of the nicest looking 335's I have ever seen, but I see that it is stamped as a second. I bet a Gibson employee wanted to buy it for himself at a reduced price. Keep the names coming. This could turn into a very historically important thread.
 
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Calgary Flametop

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I just wanted to add that so far there has not been a double. A double wouldn't take away from how interesting this naming thing is becoming, but so far it looks like the person or people who were doing this were trying to give each guitar its own personality.

Keep the names coming and post which cavity the name is in, if it is written in pencil or pen and if the name is painted over.
 

Calgary Flametop

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Which employee gave you this info? Was he in final assembly or a different position?


I never actually asked him, but I am pretty sure he must have been in assembly from the info I received. I met him in 1993 at a music store in Detroit while I was on a university summer work program in Toronto. He said that he had worked in Kalamazoo for long time and then got transferred to Nashville. He said things didn't work out very well in Nashville and that he eventually moved back to Michigan. The minute I found out he used to work for Gibson I started grilling him about guitars. I was mostly interested in the early 70's reissue Black Beauty and Goldtops. He is my only credible reference that Gibson used left over parts and wood on the 1973 54RI Les Paul Custom. Only a small portion got the wood, specifically the one piece mahogany bodies, but every guitar got a left over Alnico V pickup. Some even got necks that had been cut incorrectly back in the 50's. They had to offset the fretboard and cut slightly larger veneers just to make them work. You can tell those guitars by their inch and a half long heel. Norlin basically used that guitar as a mixing bowl for all the left over Les Paul parts they found when they took over.

Anyways, he mentioned the name thing only when I told him that I also owned a 1983 Korina Explorer. Maybe he and some other employees did it out of spite for not being happy in Nashville. Whatever the reason it is quite evident now that something odd was happening with these names. The three I have seen or been told about personally have been written in pencil underneath the clear finish in the neck pickup cavity. The other three are also noted as being in the neck pickup cavity, and I am going to assume that they were done the same. If the two people who posted in this thread with the Modernes can post that info it would be great. I am not sure about including Betty from the 335 yet as it was done in ink in the bridge cavity. What do you personally think about this, since you are asking?
 

Emperor-TK

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Sharon.jpg
 

Moderne

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What do you personally think about this, since you are asking?

I just found it interesting because when I worked for Gibson(final assembly) and wired up my first double neck, I put a personal mark in the control cavity which I'm sure my supervisor would have frowned upon had he known I did it.

Also, I like to talk to former employees for general knowledge of the history and processes at Gibson,especially the Kalamazoo factory.

Do you still talk to the guy or have his contact info? Do you remember his name?
 

Calgary Flametop

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No, I am sorry I don't. I doubt I would even be able to remember the name of the store even if I had a list of all the stores at the time. It was 20 years ago and I am bad with names even after 20 minutes. Funny, though, how I can remember his face and rough voice. Either that Gibson environment was not very healthy or he smoked a lot. He was easily over 55 so he would be well over 75 if he is still alive today.

I myself am a big history buff. I would love to have continued contact with someone who worked for Gibson for any of the years from the 50's to the 80's. A person would be very old if they worked there in the 50's, but those are the years that I find most interesting. I was just so happy to find out the info from the late 60's and early 70's that I did. I talked with the gentleman for a long time at that store. He started talking to me when I was looking at a Gibson guitar. He made some comment like I built that guitar or something.

Anyways, so far there are six names in these 1983 Korina guitar neck pickup cavities that look to be Sex Goddesses from the years prior to that. So far there are Barbara, Linda, Jayne, Marilyn, Mae and Sharon as well as Betty in the 335 and nobody has listed a double yet. Even with a double I can't see that many different women with names like that involved in the final assembly of such a limited run of guitars. Something very unique went down in 1983 by the look of things. Have you looked at the Linda Explorer in the forum. Just do a search for Linda Explorer Korina. It is one of the very rare two piece body Korina Explorers. I was too late to see that thread, but even though the guitar was a little rough I would have bought it in a second.

In almost 20 years of searching I have only seen 2 Limited Edition Custom Shop 1983 Korina Explorers with a two piece body and 1 Heritage 1983 Korina Explorer with a two piece body. I have easily seen 20 of each and the rest have all had three piece bodies. There was supposedly only a few pieces of the beatiful Korina Gibson found to build those guitars big enough to build them in two pieces. I read that info somewhere else and did not get that from the Gibson employee.

What years did you work at Gibson? Did you ever talk to any of the other employees about stuff that had happened in years prior? Also, I have two double neck SG's. One is from 2000 and the other I can't remember right now as the guitars are in storage, but I would find it simply amazing if I had that guitar that you marked. I am going to pull them out tomorrow and check.
 

Calgary Flametop

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Anybody ever try asking any of the guys at Heritage about old Gibson stuff? I know some of those guys are old timers from back in the Gibson days and I would love to find a bit more info about these womens names.
 

tspoon

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I have a 1982 Flying "V" in Birdseye Korina and it has Doris written in
the neck cavity.......I have heard Gibson employees writing a ladies
name in the neck cavity.......

Here is a shot of the "V"


2d99a73c.jpg
 
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corpse

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Interesting AVH-type thread. I am fascinated! Here is a description I happended to see after reading this thread . The guitar is a 1980 59 Heritage Elite LP, but there was no picture of mention whether it was pen or pencil.
"Neck cavity markings- HSB, 8-6-80. Bridge Cavity Markings 55,6, Doris. Control Cavity Markings- Elite 80, FL+ 80, EM 8-1, 12H B 110/H. 9lb 10oz"

Very cool.
 

Calgary Flametop

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Very nice. We are now up to 7 womens names from early 80's Gibson Korina guitars. We have Barbara, Linda, Jayne, Marilyn, Mae, Sharon and Doris. We also have Betty from a 1983 ES-335. I think it is pretty obvious that Gibson didn't have 7 different women involved in the final build stage of such a limited series of guitars. I guess as the list grows the big question will be if there was a purpose, or if it was simply to give the guitar a name.
 

VibroMan

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Calgary Flametop, shoot me an email if you want to discuss 83 Explorers. I'll send you my phone #.
 
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