Epiphone #1 - '58 reissue Korina flying V'

Not a new purchase, I bought this before I even started the blog but it's been on loan to a friend for about 18 months.

I've always liked flying Vs and when I was a student in the late 80s I had one of those enamel guitar pin badges which I eventually lost at some gig or other. I'm pretty sure that was of a '58 Korina V because I remember the colour and V tailpiece.

There have been a few different generations of these with minor differences, this is one of the old Korean made models with Grover machine heads instead of Kluson copies. Nowadays they're made in China.

I did a bit of reading round the subject before buying and it seemed these ones had a really good reputation but were know for slightly iffy electrics.

When I collected it I could tell immediately the electrics were dodgy. It suffered from bad microphonics and the pots were nasty. Nevertheless it's a very pretty lump of wood. I've seen some that are made of three pieces and joined untidily but this is nicely done down the centre line. The grain runs roughly parallel to the sides of the V so meets attractively in the middle instead of being horizontal like some I've seen.

Due to the crummy electrics I rewired this with some Kent Armstrong alnico Rockers and decent pots. It now does the twin humbucker classic rock guitar thing very nicely. The pickups are lively without being out and out ceramic metal monsters.

How do you solve a problem like Explorer?

So, I've had this lump of wood over a year now without doing much with it. When I first got it as a pile of bits I roughly stuck it together and played it a little but the paint job done by the previous owner is nasty as hell. It's reacted badly with the paint underneath and is still sticky to this day.

I don't really need another black explorer and I bought this speculatively as a project so to just clean it up and put it together would be a bit pointless. My problem is that I don't have any idea what to do with it.

Obviously the badly done Pusheadesque scribbles have to go, but then I'm back at the aforementioned black explorer.

I was thinking that I could perhaps go for a full sheet of treadplate over the front as that's a common look for \m/ explorers.

Or convert it to a 'Holy Explorer', which was Gibson's mad explorer full of holes.

I've also been talking to a friend who paints leather jackets as a sideline and has been thinking he wanted to paint a guitar for a while. My problem is that I simply can't think of anything I'd want painted on it. It's also fitted with a scratchplate and an explorer without one would be better for painting.

What to do?

Explorer stripdown

The manky Goth Explorer I've had kicking around for a while needs refinishing so I've stripped it back to a lump of wood. This is the easy bit of the job.

Epiphone #2 - 'Goth Explorer'

This definitely falls into the 'project' category. I bought this for a pittance from an enthusiastic Metallica fan who had painted some Pushead-esque stuff on it then lacquered over the top. There's even a Metallica logo on the headstock.

Which wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't made a godawful job of it. The painting is an ill-defined mess and the logo looks like it's been cut out of a magazine then stuck on. The lacquer is all thick, blobby and seems to have reacted with the original finish so it's bubbling up. It's even all over the scratchplate.

It came as a pile of bits so I stuck in some Kent Armstrong Super Distortion pickups I had kicking around and set it up. It plays quite nicely even if it does look like shite. I really ought to do something with it, but there's always another project to fiddle with.

Epiphone #3 - '58 reissue Korina Explorer'

Well I just had to have one to match the Flying V.

The grain is not quite as nice and the body join is really obvious, but it's still a very pretty guitar. I think it's a slightly later one than the V so probably of Chinese origin rather than Korean.

With Korina being light it's not the giant millstone that my old Ibanez was, but it's still a big old lump.