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Korina Explorers From 1983 With Names

VirtualJazzbo

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Jan 17, 2005
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326
Not to hijack your thread and I don't know if this throws a wrench in your theory, but my 83 Les Paul Standard has the name Peggy penciled in the neck cavity. It isn't Korina or a Heritage Elite or Standard 83 or anything special, although it does have a fairly nice top given it's a regular Les Paul of that era.

NeckCavity3-No994.jpg


1983_Gibson_Les_Paul.jpg
 

Calgary Flametop

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May 11, 2010
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No problem with the Peggy on the 83 Standard. That top is particularly nice. It is actually amazingly nice. Better than most Heritages I have seen. I am really thinking that this naming deal might have had something to do with guitars that the workers, or worker, thought were amazing in 1983. The one other guitar that wasn't a Korina that had the name Betty was an ES-335 with the most amazing top I have seen on a 335. Another thing that is really amazing so far is that there have been no duplicate names. I am coming to the conclusion that they were naming the nicest guitars with prominent sex symbols, etc. from the 50's and 60's. I will keep up with the thread so we can see how far this goes.
 

Calgary Flametop

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Thought I better update as well the names we are up to in the 1983 Korina guitars. We have Barbara, Linda, Jayne, Marilyn, Mae, Sharon, Doris and Rita. That is 8 different names. We also have Betty in a heavily figured 83 ES-335 and Peggy in a heavily figured 83 Standard. I can't wait to see where this ends up a couple years down the road.
 

VibroMan

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Aug 2, 2012
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I have an early January of 83 Explorer named Liz. The name is in the bridge pickup cavity, not the neck. It also has a two piece body.
 

Calgary Flametop

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I have an early January of 83 Explorer named Liz. The name is in the bridge pickup cavity, not the neck. It also has a two piece body.


I just want to verify this name. Is it Liz or Elizabeth? I just want to make sure I keep the names correct. I guess yours would be Liz Taylor. Once we get a bunch of names I am going to make a list of the correlating Sex Symbols and post them to see if everyone thinks they are correct. Most the names are pretty straight forward, but a couple could relate to different women.

Also, you are lucky to have one of the 2 piece bodies. Only the first few guitars got them and they are pretty rare. There were also two different types of Korina on these. I don't have the time right now, but I will explain that at a later date. Do you have any pictures of your guitar? Do you have any plans on selling it in the near future?
 

AXE752

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I bought one of the Heritage series Explorers in 1984 in Corpus Christi, TX. I still have all paperwork that came with it and the receipt from the store. It's a very cool guitar. If I remember right (my memory is not always the best at times) serial # is "1 025." One piece of trivia that I have never been able to prove: I was told by the store manager--who kept the first Heritage Explorer he received (he got 2 for his store along with at least one V and one Moderne that I saw)--that the first few (maybe 8 or so) were one-piece neck. He told me his was one of these first ones, but I never laid eyes on it.:jim

As a side note: I think the pickups are also the "Shaw PAF's" for what that is worth. I will have to check to see if there is a name in either cavity. I never noticed. Great sounding guitar.
 
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VibroMan

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I just want to verify this name. Is it Liz or Elizabeth? I just want to make sure I keep the names correct. I guess yours would be Liz Taylor. Once we get a bunch of names I am going to make a list of the correlating Sex Symbols and post them to see if everyone thinks they are correct. Most the names are pretty straight forward, but a couple could relate to different women.

Also, you are lucky to have one of the 2 piece bodies. Only the first few guitars got them and they are pretty rare. There were also two different types of Korina on these. I don't have the time right now, but I will explain that at a later date. Do you have any pictures of your guitar? Do you have any plans on selling it in the near future?

Calgary- I mentioned shooting me an email in an earlier post...I guess you didn't catch it. I too have been following these for a while. I don't really plan on selling it anytime soon.

Yes, it is "Liz" and most likely in reference to Liz Taylor. The serial number dated it to the first few days of 83. I think the pots are mid 82.
 

Calgary Flametop

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Hey Vibroman. Don't know how I missed your earlier note. Most likely confusion from trying to keep up with so many threads. I will send you a direct message when I get a chance. Hey AXE752. Is your Heritage White, Black or Natural? Does it have a two or three piece body? Have you looked for a name yet? Do you have any plans on selling it?
 

AXE752

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Hey Vibroman. Don't know how I missed your earlier note. Most likely confusion from trying to keep up with so many threads. I will send you a direct message when I get a chance. Hey AXE752. Is your Heritage White, Black or Natural? Does it have a two or three piece body? Have you looked for a name yet? Do you have any plans on selling it?


Hey "CF,"
The wife has had me busy with projects and I haven't hauled it out yet to check for a name, but I will. If I remember correctly, it is a 3 piece body (very well matched and pretty grain.) It is a natural Korina and as Gruhn's guitar guide describes of the Heritage Explorer models, it has the "tulip tuner tips" and black volume/tone knobs. I actually tried to sell it in the late '90's trying to raise money to buy a '63 ES-335. I am now kind of glad I had no takers or I believe I would have been back in the Korina market again for sure. It has a little sentimental value as well since I have had it for nearly 30 years and it still looks about like the day I bought it! I guess that is the long way of saying I don't have plans to sell it if I don't have to (like others sacrificed in the past--'69 Les Paul Custom, '67 Rickenbacker 360-12, '65 Vibrolux Reverb, '65 Reverse Firebird w/P-90's, 1935 National Duolian, etc. etc. etc...) Rent, food and medical come first. We have all been there at one time or another.:jim
 

AXE752

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I was able to take it apart yesterday, finally.

I looked in the bridge position and just found a large ink stamped "A" and a small separate ink-stamped 3. I then looked in the neck position and found an ink stamped "ANT NA" and hand written over top of that was "Peggy" with an initial shortly after it. I think it is an "I." It is kind of loopy and in cursive so it could be an L, D, O, or maybe an R.

So it looks like Peggy was popular!

Mine is for sure a 3 piece body and you have to look very close, but a 3 piece neck I believe as well.

:jim
 

Calgary Flametop

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May 11, 2010
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Hey AXE752. Your Peggy is the first double used name. It is the first Peggy in one of the Korina guitars, but someone did have that name in an 83 Les Paul. If you look just a little bit back in this thread to the last picture it shows the Peggy in that Les Paul with the stamps just like you describe. Is the Peggy written in the same hand writting as yours?
 

AXE752

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The handwriting looks somewhat similar. Written in cursive. And as a side note I was incorrect on the serial #. It has another 0 in it-- "1 0025":jim
 

Calgary Flametop

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This is really cool now. We originally only had Betty in a heavily figured 83 ES-335 and Peggy in a heavily figured 83 Standard. Now we have both of those names in the Korina guitars.

The total womens names in the Korina guitars is now Barbara, Linda, Jayne, Marilyn, Mae, Sharon, Doris, Rita, Peggy and Betty. That is 10 different womens names. So far there has also not been a double in just the Korina guitars. It could be possible that the person or persons who did this also used those names in different runs of guitars.

Whatever the case it is now obvious that these names were in reference to Sex Symbols prior to the early 80's. There is no way Gibson had 10 women, all of whom have very obvious sex symbol names, working in the same position on such a limited run of guitars. There have also been no guys names, which if one came up now would be very weird, LOL.

These early 80's Korina guitars are turning out to have an even greater lore than was associated with the old Marshall amps. I remember people back in the day saying their Marshall amp was special because so and so had signed it. Those were real peoples names unlike these guitars that have names of 20th Century Sex Goddess's. How cool is that. Now if only I could find the Korina Explorer named Marilyn. It is supposed to have one of the rare two piece bodies to boot.
 

Calgary Flametop

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Hey Vibroman. I tried to send you a direct e-mail, but it said you do not accept them. Is there any other way I can get a hold of you?
 

TM1

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Jun 27, 2003
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8,349
I bought one of the Heritage series Explorers in 1984 in Corpus Christi, TX. I still have all paperwork that came with it and the receipt from the store. It's a very cool guitar. If I remember right (my memory is not always the best at times) serial # is "1 025." One piece of trivia that I have never been able to prove: I was told by the store manager--who kept the first Heritage Explorer he received (he got 2 for his store along with at least one V and one Moderne that I saw)--that the first few (maybe 8 or so) were one-piece neck. He told me his was one of these first ones, but I never laid eyes on it.:jim

As a side note: I think the pickups are also the "Shaw PAF's" for what that is worth. I will have to check to see if there is a name in either cavity. I never noticed. Great sounding guitar.
I bet you bought that at "Sound Vibrations" on Staples Ave. in the Six Points area of Corpus. Originally that was a store named "The Horn Shop" and when they moved in `80 to the south side of Corpus , Robert DeGraff moved into it. He had a smaller shop across the bay in Portland originally.
I remember seeing the Explorers and Modern's in his store.
 

AXE752

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I bet you bought that at "Sound Vibrations" on Staples Ave. in the Six Points area of Corpus. Originally that was a store named "The Horn Shop" and when they moved in `80 to the south side of Corpus , Robert DeGraff moved into it. He had a smaller shop across the bay in Portland originally.
I remember seeing the Explorers and Modern's in his store.


That's the place! I'm pretty sure it was Robert who I bought it from. I actually called him the other day just to compare mine to the one he had, but his memory was not that good about it. He told me he had sold it. If I remember right for over $7k. I was curious about my serial number being all numbers and was wondering if all the Heritage Explorers were like that. All the Modernes and V's that I have seen or heard of have serial numbers that start with a letter and then a three-digit number (I think.)

I used to come over and visit his shop every now and then when I had time--I didn't have much. I was a "student" at NAS Kingsville, TX at the time. The Explorer was the only guitar I looked at that he would not budge on the price. I paid top dollar for that bad boy--$1100!!! I guess it's obvious that I really wanted it.:jim


Do you live near there now or was that in "another lifetime?"
 
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