RockinRich8

Hens teeth

Greetings, So I purchased this modified 1983 Explorer a few years ago with the sellers claims it was a Custom Shop and also Korina. I liked the guitar and it played REALLY well so I bought it. But being modified with EMG's and diamond plate, I was skeptical about the Custom Shop Korina part. It does have the CS logo on back of headstock, but you know ebay.... I was curious the other day and opened up the top removing the full diamond plate pickgaurd and discovered a previous tremelo routing. (I assumed this since the headstock has locking nut screw holes). But to my surprise, the wood in the tremelo cavity appeared to be Korina! Now I know it's been modified with the trem, and a dozen small screws for the diamond plate pickgaurd, but this is really cool! I did a little research and verified my 80483566 ser# is just a few digits off of a known 1983 Korina Custom Shop Explorer. Great News! The setup and level of work done to this vintage Unicorn makes me a little suspect if this could be a "Hetfield" guitar or other known shredder? The frets are perfect jumbos, the action is tight, planet waves locking tuners, Tonepros bridge and saddle, and a real Pro setup. I know there are alot of fans making clone guitars, but nobody hacks up a guitar this rare. 100 total I think I read? My question? Should I try to restore it to original glory? or seek the Heavy Metal story behind this Unicorn? Thanks and Cheers!

Bart, This is such fantastic news to me as I have been skeptical about my 1983 Black custom shop explorer in Korina I purchased a few years ago. But when I looked at my ser# 80483566 I was stoked! Thank You! Rich