Anubis

Not entirely accurate. It is (somewhat) well documented that the design flaw of this tremolo system was actually that the pedestals attached to the base plate got bent by the force exerted upon them by the posts. Because the thread on the posts was too short and did not securely screw into the (very solid) base plate. Here'sa link to the fix. I recently bought a metallic black 1988 Epi S800 with this same exact tremolo system. After 22 years the posts were leaning forward at almost a 45 degree angle! I'll make it short here because I'm going to post a separate saga about my fix. The saddles in my guitar were half way broken off so I just snapped them clean off and then screwed the original posts securely into the base plate(see attachment). A brutish, risky, move but it worked flawlessly. Now they're sticking straight up and now the unit is rock solid as it should have been from the factory. Thanks for pointing out that these were made by Hohner. Very intriguing.

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm already familiar with that very informative site. I learned a lot about the specs of the guitar there but, what I was further interested in is cool stuff that's being talked about in this thread. Like where the guitar was manufactured(e.g.-what country, I know, I know Samick, in Korea). What do the numbers mean? My serial # is peculiar because it has nine digits with no letters. Does it mean that it was made in April of '88 and the run is 453? Stuff like that. Anyway,I also own an 1978 Les Paul Custom that I bought in 1979 at the Chicago Guitar Company. I am the original owner. I'll have to look at the serial tonight and see if I can discover something more about it.

I just picked up an Epiphone S800 at GC today(Labor Day). $99! (They wanted $150). They had it marked incorrectly as an Epiphone Extreme? All original black hardware. The color is metallic black so it looks very stealthy. It has the "hockey stick" headstock like your Explorer. What caught my eye was the pearloid inlay "Epiphone by Gibson" in a big, bold font. It looks elegant on a black headstock. All it needed was a little TLC with a Dunlop cleaning kit. Extensive research at other sites reveals that it was manufactured in 1988. It has the HSS pickup configuration with the split-coil bridge humbucker when you pull the tone knob. It also has the Steinberger KB tremolo. Anyway what piqued my curiosity is that my serial no. is very close to your's: 880400453. Can anybody here please shed some light as to details of this guitar. I have read this entire thread but it seems that these guitars go back before they started using letters.