[1983 Korina Explorer Candy Apple Red with Kahler]

Hens teeth

[1983 Korina Custom Shop Explorer]

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!

[Explorer Korina 1983]

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