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76 explorer

shuie

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Aug 26, 2005
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I've only owned two '76 LE's. I have no measurements for either. The first one had a large size neck. I'll say it was like an '01-'02 R8 since I have nothing else to compare it to. This guitar had no serial number (dated with the pots) since it had been refinished when I bought it.

My 2nd '76 LE was the former j45 guitar that Anje owns now. Before j45 had Dave Johnson shave it down, this particular guitar had the biggest neck of any electric guitar I'd ever held in my hands. It was ridiculous, unplayable for any length of time in it's original state.
 

j45

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Jun 14, 2002
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here's a 1976 with serial number. it had a nice full neck. Probably like most R9's but was a pencil compared to the LE below that i converted to PAF's.

ex3-1.jpg


ex2-1.jpg


ex7.jpg


ex1-1-1.jpg
 

j45

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I owned around 100 vintage Gibsons at the same time I had this '76 LE so I had dozens anof 50's necks to compare it to. By far the biggest neck of any Gibson I've ever played. I sent it to Historic Makeovers to have the neck sized similar to my '64 ES-345 that I loved so much. It also appears in the Historic Makeovers coffee table book. I think it's the only non-Historic Les Paul in the book. They also changed the fingerboard out to a darl chocolate Brazilian like vintage Gibson's have.

Explorer-Marshall-1.jpg


skinner4-1.jpg
 

Luke Gibson

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Jul 15, 2001
Messages
1,324
I've only owned two '76 LE's. I have no measurements for either. The first one had a large size neck. I'll say it was like an '01-'02 R8 since I have nothing else to compare it to. This guitar had no serial number (dated with the pots) since it had been refinished when I bought it.

My 2nd '76 LE was the former j45 guitar that Anje owns now. Before j45 had Dave Johnson shave it down, this particular guitar had the biggest neck of any electric guitar I'd ever held in my hands. It was ridiculous, unplayable for any length of time in it's original state.


I remember Kerry had Dave shave down the neck to a 60's ES type shape & install a Braz board. Does anyone know how it sounded after the mods? I'm wondering if shaving down the neck changed the tone of the guitar??
 

j45

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9,081
here's another original '76 LE that I had at the same as the others. You can see the serial number below. You can see I had them all at the same time so was able to compare the three 76's many times. This LE also had a big neck, much like a nice full Historic but still wass not neart as big as my other LE. all three necks were different profiles so it's pretty obvious they varied quite a bit of the course of the 1976 production year.

76ex1-2.jpg


76ex4-1.jpg


76ex11.jpg


76ex5.jpg


1976-explorers-1.jpg
 

Luke Gibson

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1,324
I owned around 100 vintage Gibsons at the same time I had this '76 LE so I had dozens anof 50's necks to compare it to. By far the biggest neck of any Gibson I've ever played. I sent it to Historic Makeovers to have the neck sized similar to my '64 ES-345 that I loved so much. It also appears in the Historic Makeovers coffee table book. I think it's the only non-Historic Les Paul in the book. They also changed the fingerboard out to a darl chocolate Brazilian like vintage Gibson's have.

Explorer-Marshall-1.jpg


skinner4-1.jpg

This is by far my favorite '76 Explorer! I'm wanting to do something similar to mine (sans the Bigsby) to make it look more vintage. Beautiful guitar Kerry!!
 

Luke Gibson

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Jul 15, 2001
Messages
1,324
here's another original '76 LE that I had at the same as the others. You can see the serial number below. You can see I had them all at the same time so was able to compare the three 76's many times. This LE also had a big neck, much like a nice full Historic but still wass not neart as big as my other LE. all three necks were different profiles so it's pretty obvious they varied quite a bit of the course of the 1976 production year.

76ex1-2.jpg


76ex4-1.jpg


76ex11.jpg


76ex5.jpg


1976-explorers-1.jpg

Great pictures, thanks for posting! IIRC, you mentioned that the fat neck LE had the best tone. Do you think that was due to it having such a large neck? ...just curious. Explorers and Marshalls what a great combo....
 

j45

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9,081
I remember Kerry had Dave shave down the neck to a 60's ES type shape & install a Braz board. Does anyone know how it sounded after the mods? I'm wondering if shaving down the neck changed the tone of the guitar??

I feel like it changed it quite a bit. It was a bit less resonant after the board change but MUCH more playable. The neck was so big it was miserably uncomfortable. I'm 6'4" and have never been bothered by a large neck but i'm serious when I say this thing was ridiculously big. Even though it lost a little of it's acoustic properties it really didn't matter because it was not something that anyone would be comfortable playing on a regular basis. It just wasn't practical to play. I've had some baseball bat 1930's Gibsons and they weren't as big. I've also some war-time banner-heads that were HUGE. Again, it was the biggest neck profile bar none of any Gibson I've played and I've played a lot. Reducing the neck at least made the guitar playable. If it would have been anything like my other 76's I wouldn't have touched it. I will say that even after I reduced the neck and changed the board it was still a better guitar acoustically than my other two 76's and neither could come close to the sound, even when I swapped to the same pickups. This old road worn LE just had something special about it. When I had the PAF's in it it could hang with my burst or any other PAF Gibsons in the tone department.
 

Luke Gibson

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I feel like it changed it quite a bit. It was a bit less resonant after the board change but MUCH more playable. the neck was so big it was miserably uncomfortable. I'm 6'4" and have never been bothered by a large neck but i'm serious when I say this thing was ridiculously big. Even though it lost a little of it's acoustic properties it really didn't matter because it was not something that anyone would be comfortable playing on a regular basis. It just wasn't practical to play. I've had some baseball bat 1930's Gibsons and they weren't as big. Again, it was the biggest neck profile bar none of any Gibson I've played and I've played a lot. Reducing the neck at least made the guitar playable. If it would have been anything like my other 76's I wouldn't have touched it. I will say that even after I reduced the neck and changed the board it was still a better guitar acoustically than my other two 76's and neither could come close to the sound, even when I swapped to the same pickups. This old road worn LE just had something special about it. When I had the PAF's in it it could hang with my burst or any other PAF Gibsons in the tone department.

Thanks Kerry! I'm really wanting to try a pickup swap in my LE. Unfortunately earlier this year I sold all of my pickups and my last PAF to a forum member. I still have a set of RS Fralin True 60's that didn't sell, I think I'm gonna try'em this weekend. Where did you get the knobs??
 

j45

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This is by far my favorite '76 Explorer! I'm wanting to do something similar to mine (sans the Bigsby) to make it look more vintage. Beautiful guitar Kerry!!

This (below) was my inspiration for converting my LE to PAF's and horsehoe Bigsby with Custom Made plaque. It sold at the Skinner auction house about 3-4 years ago and brought $750,000 with fees. To me the "Skinner Explorer" is the coolest gibson ever made. If I had my choice of any Gibson in existence, any famous burst or whatever, this would be my pick. My conversion is my own tribute to the Skinner. I knew that I could never afford it so converting my '76 LE was the next best thing to this:

Skinner-1.jpg
 

Luke Gibson

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Thanks Kerry, that's kind of what I thought, I think a lot of the tone come from the neck. I also noticed the other Explorers had the original tuners, that might have something to do with it??
 
Last edited:

Luke Gibson

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Jul 15, 2001
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This (below) was my inspiration for converting my LE to PAF's and horsehoe Bigsby with Custom Made plaque. It sold at the Skinner auction house about 3-4 years ago and brought $750,000 with fees. To me the "Skinner Explorer" is the coolest gibson ever made. If I had my choice of any Gibson in existence, any famous burst or whatever, this would be my pick. My conversion is my own tribute to the Skinner. I knew that I could never afford it so converting my '76 LE was the next best thing to this:

Skinner-1.jpg

Yeah, I love this guitar! I also think the V head stock Explorers are awesome! As stupid as it sounds I've even though about having a toggle switch cover routed in the back of mine because of this guitar. ....I wonder if Gibson did this because switchcraft wasn't making angled toggle switches yet or they were just using parts they already had on hand?? I also noticed Allen Collins Explorer had the round cover.
 

keef

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Jan 27, 2002
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5,006
I've read a lot of info here about the LE necks being huge. The neck on my guitar is full but I wouldn't classify it as huge (and I have small hands) Can we start adding neck size measurements to the above serial number list to see how much variation there is between guitars?

Please do...neck thickness at frets 1, 7 and 12, anyone?

BTW - the neck on my guitar is BIG, but I would not say it's huge either. It's actually very comfortable to me, more so than the neck on my 03 R7, which is also a biggie.

Maybe I must get me some calipers over the weekend...
 

sglp63

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Jun 29, 2007
Messages
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It would be interesting to compare serial numbers of the LE and non LE '76s to see if there is any logic to these.

My LE is 00229622 if I recall correctly. Big neck, natural finish.

0022333X is a LE, natural finish
00230001 LE
0023054X, LE, natural finish, stamped pat.no. T-Tops
002327XX LE, original black finish
00232789, LE, natural finish
00232856, LE (Fatneck's)
00232917 is a LE
00232926 LE, big neck, natural finish
00232986 LE (Melrock)
00233026, LE, nat finish (Lanman)
00233075 owned by Muzikman7 is NOT a LE, large neck, nat finish
00233345 is a LE, natural finish, big neck
00233552 LE, nat finish
00233772 LE, nat finish, big neck
J45's former '76 LE (now owned by Anje) is 00235058, natural finish, big neck (shaved later)
00239913, non LE, black (see pic), fat neck
Here's a black non LE with 0024XXXX:
http://www.oldenburger-music-station.de/Gibson Explorer 1976 black.htm
Drybone's is 00240891, not a LE, big neck
00241591, non LE, black

I found all these serial ## within half an hour on the LPF and internet - so don't expect your LE to be really exclusive. A few thousands made would seem feasible.

First impression is that all LE's have the big necks, and (at least) some of the non LE's as well. Plus LE's are not limited to natural finished guitars.

My natural finish non-LE '76 Explorer has the S/N 002411XX, with a medium size neck. I've always (well, at least since I started looking into these things) found it a bit puzzling that far more LE than non-LE Explorers appear to be on the market, as this is not what one would expect from a limited edition... The above serial numbers indicate that, sometime in between serial number 00235058 and 00239913 (apparently in the later part of 1976), Explorers were no longer designated LE, or the LE series was discontinued and replaced by an "unlimited" edition.
 

Anje

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Jan 3, 2002
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that could be it yes, even if having more non-LE data would be safer to do that assumption I think, since you especially have a non-LE in the 233xxx range.

btw, I take the occasion to post a recent pic of former Kerry's and Shuie's road worn LE, I'll second everything already said about it, fantastic guitar!

76explorerlepinstripest.jpg



It now has very nice exposed early 60's Pat# that sound real great in this guitar.
I'm still wondering from time to time if I should put the Bigsby back on, I love the Bigsby look, but it really sounds/plays killer with the stoptail..
 

Anje

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Jan 3, 2002
Messages
1,170
here's another original '76 LE that I had at the same as the others. You can see the serial number below. You can see I had them all at the same time so was able to compare the three 76's many times. This LE also had a big neck, much like a nice full Historic but still wass not neart as big as my other LE. all three necks were different profiles so it's pretty obvious they varied quite a bit of the course of the 1976 production year.

1976-explorers-1.jpg

Hi Kerry, this is great info thanks for sharing those details.
We often read / state that "LE necks are HUGE", but having this particular exemple where you've been able to compare 3 side by side is precious interesting factual data, especially when reading the "output" being that they can vary in quite significant proportion in the "huge" department :salude
 

Jignant

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Mar 28, 2003
Messages
452

Did the one on the left come with a black guard originally? I made mine to match the headstock. Lots of great examples from everyone here! Now I am jonesing to upgrade the electronics in mine...
 

keef

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Jan 27, 2002
Messages
5,006
Did the one on the left come with a black guard originally? I made mine to match the headstock. Lots of great examples from everyone here! Now I am jonesing to upgrade the electronics in mine...

Must be a replacement guard. No '76s came with anything other than white single layer guards, unlike the originals that had laminated ones. Some of the later reissues (the '83 Korina run e.g., came with a black guard.

I never felt the need to upgrade the electronics of the '76 BTW - those tarbacks, whatever they are, sound GREAT in my guitar. Pots work fine, too.
 

BurstWurst

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Jan 24, 2008
Messages
568
Anje, does that baby blue super lead have "white lightning" stenciled on the back side? Did you buy a 63 firebird V along with it?
 
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