year of production: 1984
model: Gibson Explorer
factory finish: Ebony
new finish: Nicotine
style of new finish: Played & Used
scope of work: fretboard change on Ebony; nut change; plug extra holes; refinish; bring back original parts
I got my hands on a real treat: the first factory-made Gibson Explorer without a pickguard, with knobs arranged in a triangle. This model premiered in 1984, and that’s the year the model I got from a client for a makeover comes from.
You can see right away that the guitar hasn’t been spared: three strap holes were added, all the hardware was replaced with black, including the tuners with additional holes. In the early 2000s, someone replaced the factory DirtyFingers pickups with an active EMG 81/60 set. Lots of dents, black varnish all covered in weather checking, permanent discoloration from stickers, abrasions with visible wood. The owner asked me to refinish it with Nicotine and replace the fretboard with ebony.
I started the work by removing the varnish. From under the black nitro, a three-piece alder body and a maple neck emerged. Attempts to remove the fingerboard with heat ended in failure: the rosewood was chipping, so I had to use a chisel. The new fingerboard was made of ebony with attention to detail: two sizes of dot markers on the front, reduced side dots and correction of the fret layout to better match the scale. The fingerboard was glued together with a new saddle. I pinned all the unnecessary extra holes. Now it’s time for varnishing.
First I applied a sealer, then Alpine White nitro, and finally I varnished the whole thing with many layers of clear nitro with a touch of vintage tint. Thanks to this I obtained a beautiful shade of nicotine, very characteristic of white guitars from the period. I varnished the front of the headstock with black nitro and glued a decal with the Gibson logo, the same one that Gibson used on Explorers at that time. I added abrasions, discoloration and patina – to make the guitar look its age, but not too damaged. Fortunately, most of the original hardware was included, so I only added the truss rod cover, jackplate, switch and all screws. At the owner’s request, I left the EMG set, which does a great job on this guitar.
