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2016 Gibson Price Break - Flying V and Explorer Ltd Editions


Megafrog

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Thanks for the heads-up! I am not sure if I like that amber Explorer only for the front-mounted output jack and no case. It looks like it wouldn't be much work to relocate it to the normal location though and put another pot in its original location on the front.

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I am not sold on these due to the general plainness of them. The two knobs and no pick guard just seems out of place. If the price came down a bit more, then I would have to reconsider. I still think they are too high at $999

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Yeah, the front output jack jumped out at me as "not being right - this is not an SG". The finish is somewhat interesting. I do dig Explorers without a pickguard (but all of my Explorer do have a guard) but I go both ways on the pickguard discussion. Generally, I dislike pickguards on most guitars, especially over highly figured tops on LPs, but some guitars seem to need them for aesthetics.

 

On this amber Explorer, after looking at the pictures at different angles and the orientation of the control cover panel relative to the back side of the guitar, as long as the thickness allows a standard Explorer jack plate to be installed, drilling out hole to house the jack with wiring access to the control cavity should be fairly easy. Then the question becomes "What should I do with that hole in the front left behind by the original output jack location?" I think adding a pot or another switch there would do it, but then, rewiring it to be useful (as I wouldn't want a mock control there for just looks only). So, at $999, this is too much work to get it where I would like it. Maybe at $799.

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Umm... No.

 

I always wondered about the Dirty Fingers pickups, though. What are they like? Is there just one model, i.e., same for neck and bridge? (I'm apparently crap at using the search function.)

 

I have a pair of Dirty Fingers on and old '82 Explorer. Never checked to see if the neck and bridge are the same and now that you mention it, I've never really seen any distinction in writing between the two. Mine are out of the guitar at the moment, so I'll take some DCR measurements later today to see if they are wound differently. I do not have any experience with newer Dirty Fingers to know if they are different or not. I really like the tone of this old pair though. I replace the stock Gibson ceramic pickups that usually come on modern Explorers (e.g. 496R, 496T, 500T, etc.) because they sound to mushy for me. I like more articulate rock sounds, generally. The Dirty Fingers are definitely higher output than PAFs or Burstbuckers but still sound good for a ceramic magnet pickup.

 

-Wade

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Just took the DC resistance measurements from my old Dirty Fingers pickups: Neck Pickup DCR = 16.201 KOhms, Bridge Pickup DCR = 16.065 KOhms. They are basically the same from that measurement. I would guess that they are built the same. I'll do some sound/tone tests later swapping them both in the bridge location to see if there is any significant tone difference. Probably not. My old Dirty Fingers are the two-wire configuration and cannot be split coil like the reissues. Just straight-up hard rocking pickups.

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