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explorer vs LP studio


Roach

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More mahogany for sure but that can't be it alone. Mahogany is imported and likely has a higher cost than maple which is domestic. Maybe its the tooling at the factory. It could be that because LPs are WAY more popular than Explorers, they have invested in more tooling for LPs which allows them to be built at a higher scale than Explorers which would lower their manufacturing costs. I could be wrong. That's all I got.

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  • 3 months later...

The Explorer has more Awesome than the LP Studio that's for sure but its hard to put a dollar value on that. [tongue]

Seriously though, when I looked on line just now at Zzounds, the LP Studio T WITH CASE was $1,499.00 and the Explorer Studio T with case was $1,399.00. Both were ebony finish. Of course the Faded LP Studio with gig bag (no case) was a lot cheaper but there is a faded explorer with gig bag that was about the same so it looks like they are pretty close in price actually at least at Zzounds.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Explorer has more Awesome than the LP Studio that's for sure but its hard to put a dollar value on that. [tongue]

Seriously though, when I looked on line just now at Zzounds, the LP Studio T WITH CASE was $1,499.00 and the Explorer Studio T with case was $1,399.00. Both were ebony finish. Of course the Faded LP Studio with gig bag (no case) was a lot cheaper but there is a faded explorer with gig bag that was about the same so it looks like they are pretty close in price actually at least at Zzounds.

 

The 2015 explorers were like about 1500 at gc no case, and i paid 1000 for my 2015 studio with hardshell case. Now they have so many different types of LP's it is impossible to shop prices. GC caused this I am sure. Still I don't see the cost of the explorer being as high or higher than a guitar with maple. It totally raises the question of the finish being a photo on the top or actual wood grained...

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The 2015 explorers were like about 1500 at gc no case, and i paid 1000 for my 2015 studio with hardshell case. Now they have so many different types of LP's it is impossible to shop prices. GC caused this I am sure. Still I don't see the cost of the explorer being as high or higher than a guitar with maple. It totally raises the question of the finish being a photo on the top or actual wood grained...

Honestly, I don't think Gibson ever used photo tops.

 

The larger Explorer body blanks, glued together from two or more pieces of mahogany, clamping and tooling them is more special due to the large outer dimensions. The original hardshell case of my Explorer exceeds all of my long-scale bass cases in all three dimensions.

 

Cutting an Explorer body will also produce lots of scrap, meaning bigger loss of mahogany timber.

 

Finally, and also mentioned before, they have to set up the machines for making a handful Explorers only, compared to lots of Les Paul (and even more SG) bodies. This will increase the price per unit.

 

Just my two cents...

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Honestly, I don't think Gibson ever used photo tops.

 

The larger Explorer body blanks, glued together from two or more pieces of mahogany, clamping and tooling them is more special due to the large outer dimensions. The original hardshell case of my Explorer exceeds all of my long-scale bass cases in all three dimensions.

 

Cutting an Explorer body will also produce lots of scrap, meaning bigger loss of mahogany timber.

 

Finally, and also mentioned before, they have to set up the machines for making a handful Explorers only, compared to lots of Les Paul (and even more SG) bodies. This will increase the price per unit.

 

Just my two cents...

 

 

 

Yea I can see that logic

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