Explorer GT
Reviewed by:
eargasmicalist, on march 31, 2010 4 of 5 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 139
Purchased from: Andertons Music
Features: Made Indonesia, 2010 - these have just been released.
22 jumbo frets - rosewood f/b, bolt-on neck
Worn black matt finish.
Reduced size Explorer shape (but still full scale length) with V style headstock.
Tune-o-matic bridge; Epi neck & bridge humbuckers
1 x vol, 1 x tone (with built-in Shadow killswitch); 3-way switch. Stock Epi sealed tuners. Came with a cable & that's it! I'd give it a 5 (neither here nor there) but the inclusion of the awesome killswith on a sub-£140 guitar = 9. A licensed Floyd would be nice, but there isn't enough depth to the body to fit one...or maybe there is...anyone up for it? // 9
Sound: Pickups are pretty good, acutally. A bit 'soulless' and noisy on high gain as you would expect from a stock guitar at this price - sound very good distorted, and more than passable clean. Vol and tone are fairly useable to get a range of tones. Would be improved with better pups of course. The bridge can be pretty quacky, and the neck warm and bluesy, actually - you could use this for a great variety of styles, but rock and METAL will sneak in your back door and abuse it while you aren't looking...beware! Playing through my Ashton BlueTongue 50 tube amp with a range of pedals - Danelectro Cool Cat metal II, Fuzz and Transparent overdrive; Korg Pitchblack; Crybaby upfront (not in that order!) and delay/chorus/MXR 6-band EQ in FX loop. Sounds great for the price! // 8
Action, Fit & Finish: Needed tuning out of the box; came with factory 10-46's which aren't too bad (and at least they're not shitty 9's which I HATE). Truss rod needed a half turn to reduce a little bow, and bridge needed lowering a shade as action was high - now plays sweet with a medium-low action, very little fret buzz - I've heard bad things about Epiphone, this is my first, and I have to say it's actually very well made and finished. No dodgy frets, finish is spotless, everything works. The killswith is activated by pressing down on the tone pot - GREAT FUN and works as well as a 'normal' killswith, in fact a bit easier to use as you just have to tap it - this feature is pretty unique and makes this guitar a great choice for beginners/intermediate/advanced (although more experienced players will possibly think it feels 'cheap' - the body is really light, but that makes it really comfy for long playing sessions and jumpin aroond on stage!!). // 7
Reliability & Durability: Seems like it would withstand gigging, and seems like it will last - but time will tell on the killswitch (which is the obvious choice to wear out first). If it did go it would more than likely be as a consequence of use and so I wouldn't knock it down for that - I'm sure that such a Switch must be made to withstand constant use/abuse anyway...we'll see. Finish is great. I'll give it an 8 but consider I don't yet know! // 8
Impression: I play rock/blues/metal/thrash - anything. It suits all those styles apart from light rock & jazzy stuff really well (although it could do them at a push). Sounds great distorted; killswitch is top fun. My only reservation is that due to the reduced size it doesn't feel like a 'proper' Explorer - although I think this will turn out to be an advantage in the long run. I've had loads of guitars from Squiers to PRS and have been playing 25 years, occasional gigs but mostly home/bedroom. For the price this is a great guitar and it even feels like it should cost much more. Free delivery from Anderton's music - next day when ordered online - get in there while they last! It's great for me, and I'm sure it'll be thrashing away in my room for some time to come... I'm pretty chuffed with it. I'll give it an 8 to avoid offending the gearsnobs out there who rubbish any high review not for equipment that costs enough to require the sale of body parts to buy it...although for value etc., I'd give it a 10. // 8
Explorer GT
Reviewed by:
Hyks97, on october 07, 2011 2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 250
Purchased from: 4sound
Features: This is my first review ever. I think it's from 2008. It was made in China. It has 22 jumbo frets on a 24.75 inch scale and a very fat neck which is great if you wanna tune really low (drop B/A). The body is mahogany and so is the fretboard. It is completely black with a "XII" inlay at the 12th fret. It has a pretty standard Tune-o-matic bridge, that I really like, cause its very simple to change strings on and such.
I'm not sure what pick-ups are in it, all I know is that it has two humbuckers in it. There's a tone knob and two volume knobs, one of them also functions as a killswitch. There's non-locking tuners. There didn't come anything with it since I bought it in a store (I hope that was good enough). // 7
Sound: It suits my more extreme metal playing great! I play stuff like Whitechapel and Carnifex, really heavy stuff. I put some 11-46D'Addarios on it and it can even pull off drop A without flopping out.
I normally just play it through my Line 6 UX1 Studio with PODfarm 2.5, and its all I need so far. I would recommend changing the pick-ups though, cause they kind of pull it down a little. It has a very fat sound too, really metal, it can get a little too muddy if you you use too much distortion and bass in low tunings. I wouldn't recommend it to people who wanna play blues and pop-rock and such, it a metal guitar and that's what it should be used for. // 8
Action, Fit & Finish: I don't really adjust any of my guitars much, so I am usually pretty happy with how they come stock. As I said before, if you really want the full potential of this guitar you probably want to change the pick-ups, the stock ones doesn't really do it justice. Other than that it's pretty good, I didn't find any flaws with the paint of the hardware, the only thing is the pick-ups. // 9
Reliability & Durability: It is a heavy guitar, it can really take a beating! It's one of those guitars that will last MANY years, but I did have a little problem with the jack input, it was like it had been screwed out, but I just had to tighten it again and I had no further problems, the paint is really thick too, you really feel that it got a nice and thick coat, no chipping, cracking or any of that. // 9
Impression: If you really want a fat sounding, brutal monster of a guitar for metal, then this is good one for the price, its just an overall great guitar. // 9
Explorer GT
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on october 13, 2010 2 of 3 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 115
Purchased from: Thomann.ge
Features: As you may know, this is a newer, cheaper, smaller version of the classic explorer. It's prodominantly for beginners.
- Made in Indoniesia
- 22 frets
- Mahogany body
- Maple neck
- 2 Humbucker pickups
- Tune-O-Matic bridge
- Faded black finish
Do a search and you'll find out the specifics :P // 8
Sound: The clean tone is great; ambient if you need it, but with enough punch to pull of clean rock tunes. However, it really comes to life when you kick in the overdrive. High gain effects and distortion suit this guitar to a T. This guitar is built for Rock - it sings beautifully for such a cheap guitar, and easily suits anything from classic rock to death metal with very few problems. A nice little feature to this guitar is the killswitch-tonepot, which kills off the sound with a tap and is great for machine-gun effects, etc. I'm not aware of any other guitars that have this. Really can't fault it in this area. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: When the guitar arrived I was worried about factory defaults. I've ordered guitars online before and had terrible trouble with action and bridge set ups; however, when this arrived it felt as if it had just been set up. The action is really good, very low and comfortable, and the neck is one of the most comfortable I've played with (so smooth!).
I did need to adjust the truss-rod slightly, just to reduce the bow a little - but that takes about 5 minutes and would probably have to be done on most guitars bought online, and even some bought in store. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I have not used this guitar live, I only use it to practice with at home. It's very, very light and sits on your lap easily, standing is also fine; but it feels like it wouldn't cope too well with live performance - the pickups don't feel up to it. However, due to the guitar being so cheap you could easily throw in a couple of EMGs to give the sound a boost (I intend to do this). // 7
Impression: I am a bassist by nature, took up the guitar a while back to try and widen my musical horizen. I've played a lot of expensive Les Pauls, ESPs, Deans, etc. but this guitar can hold it's own against most of them. It is comfortable, beautifully made and is one of the best all-round guitars I've seen. If you're looking for a budget guitar as a beginner or for a back up, go for this one. // 9
Explorer GT
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on may 03, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: € 149
Purchased from: Thomann.de
Features: This guitar was made in 2010, in Indonesia. It has 22 jumbo frets, mahogany body and maple neck with rosewood fretboard. The guitar is completely black, much darker black than in the pictures. The body style is something like Futura with a Flying V Neck, which is really cool. The Bridge is a typical non-tremolo tune-o-matic. The controls are master volume, master tone, killswitch, and a 3-way pickup selector. The pickups are the 650r/700T humbuckers. The tuners are really odd, totally black. The guitar came with a cable, nothing else than that and owner's manual. // 9
Sound: Well, I like playing metal or punk or even funk rhythm guitar, so I'm not anyone who plays lead or solos, I don't relly know about how this suits that, but I can tell that this is probably a guitar for rhythm, not for lead. The body style in overall has been made for it, the 3+3 headstock with double humbuckers and mahogany body... Not very variable guitar, but suits my needs just fine. The sound of the neck pickup really sucks, and I'm planning to put a new pickup there. The Bridge is pretty ok... But it is also a bit worse. Even if this is a cheap guitar, I recommend putting EMG81/85's here. Then the guitar would be perfect... Almost. // 7
Action, Fit & Finish: The factory setup was pretty great, but it was out of tune. The action is just nice. The pickups were tilted worsely, so that the treble end was much higher, and I adjusted them. The strings were .010 gauge, which is ok. Not much flaws on this guitar... But it is really odd and bulky guitar compared to my previous ones. And the strings are really about an inch abowe the body between the humbuckers, which is really different from fenders. The nut is fine. The guitar is much more rounder and thicker, LOTS more heavier that you first think when you see the picture. The guitar body is two inches thick. The neck is thinner than on Squier, no doubt about that. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I think the first thing that will go broke in this guitar is the tone control. It works really poorly. In contrast, the volume control is perfect. The other hardware is very solid, and I have straplocks now in this guitar. I have dropped the guitar a few times, and the finish seems to take it all. You can play this live without a backup, but remember the STRAPLOCKS. // 9
Impression: Well, yeah. This is a good rhythm guitar. The only problem is that the pickups wont go to distortion very easily. I have used a HSS Stratocaster with 3+3 headtock, and it was almost the most perfect guitar I've ever had, but I can't say the same from this one. I'm a bassist, and I've played guitar only for two years. This is not a perfect guitar, at least as long as you wont replace the pickups. If the guitar would be stolen, I don't know if I would buy it again. It looks very stealthy, but that's all. It is BULKY. But not as bulky as a Squier Bullet. No fret buzz, but I really hate Epiphone necks, the shape is so bad. The inlay is very cool anyway. I like the killswitch, it is really cool. I chose this over a Epiphone Les Paul Special II, because this one is more modern. // 7
That's the worst-looking Explorer rip off I've ever seen. This Futura crap shouldn't exist. Neither should Gibson or Epiphone.
I fail to see how it's an "Explorer rip off," when it's a Futura. And the Futura came out in what, 1962? Not to mention that Gibson bought Epiphone back in the day when they made high-quality and awesome semi's and fully hollows. Then they started producing Gibson copies a few years later, I believe.
But you DO make a completely legitimate point. I mean, come on . The invention of the humbucker and the original LP made absolutely no impact on todays metal scene, whatsoever
Well, you guys are right in as far as that is a smaller futura shape, but unfortunately Epiphone are marketing this as an explorer (in the UK at least) ... I just hope this isn't their way of slowly bringing in the futura over explorer models. The prophecy series for example, perfect opportunity to make a bad ass explorer, and they went with the futura. Damn fools!
I have to admit that I enjoy reading the comments more than the reviews. If you truly want to see how idiotic people on UG can be, don't look to the Pit, look here.
I have to admit that I enjoy reading the comments more than the reviews. If you truly want to see how idiotic people on UG can be, don't look to the Pit, look here.
I sometimes find that there is more actual information in the comments.
r0ckth3d34n wrote:
RyanMetalMatthe wrote:
That's the worst-looking Explorer rip off I've ever seen. This Futura crap shouldn't exist. Neither should Gibson or Epiphone.
I fail to see how it's an "Explorer rip off," when it's a Futura. And the Futura came out in what, 1962? Not to mention that Gibson bought Epiphone back in the day when they made high-quality and awesome semi's and fully hollows. Then they started producing Gibson copies a few years later, I believe.
But you DO make a completely legitimate point. I mean, come on. The invention of the humbucker and the original LP made absolutely no impact on todays metal scene, whatsoever
That's the worst-looking Explorer rip off I've ever seen. This Futura crap shouldn't exist. Neither should Gibson or Epiphone.
I fail to see how it's an "Explorer rip off," when it's a Futura. And the Futura came out in what, 1962? Not to mention that Gibson bought Epiphone back in the day when they made high-quality and awesome semi's and fully hollows. Then they started producing Gibson copies a few years later, I believe.
But you DO make a completely legitimate point. I mean, come on. The invention of the humbucker and the original LP made absolutely no impact on todays metal scene, whatsoever
That's the worst-looking Explorer rip off I've ever seen. This Futura crap shouldn't exist. Neither should Gibson or Epiphone.
**** off. they have done more than u for guitarists than u ever will and if u play guitar than u have to at least recognize gibson as the 2nd best, or maybe even the best, guitar brand. epiphone is pretty much the same thing so dont hate plz!
Glad my review got y'all arguin, at least. I'd never even heard of the Futura - having researched it, it seems a smaller prototype of the Explorer? Epi explain on their site that this is INTENDED to be a smaller-bodied explorer, which I think aims it squarely at the younger market. It IS mahogany but feels more like a basswood or similar lightweight guitar when strapped on (oooer missus). I stand by my review that this is a really good instrument especially for the price. However I just want to thank many of the above posters for their just plain f**king stupid comments, which have made me chortle indeed - especially the one about gibson and epiphone...if'st thou hatest these two brands so much, why the fook art thou reading a review about one of their products? Guitarded.
That's the worst-looking Explorer rip off I've ever seen. This Futura crap shouldn't exist. Neither should Gibson or Epiphone.
This is what it is. A $200 starter guitar. I just ordered one and I'm sure it will be good. I bought an Epiphone Ace Frehley LP Custom a few years ago and it is great. The playability and sound are awesome. It is as good or better than any Gibson or Fender I have ever played. To say Epiphone shouldn't exist shows your ignorance.
I played this in the store expecting an absolute shit-show, and I was honestly pretty impressed. Sure the hardware should be dumped like a bad act, but the actual feel is surprisingly pretty awesome. Was a pleasant surprise
I bought this guitar thinking it would awesome, and it is pretty decent for the price. I only have 2 complaints. 1, sometimes there is a buzzing when I play certain strings and it pisses me off, this guitar is not good enough quality for anything other than practicing. 2, the volume knob gets in the way A LOT! Sometimes I'll be playing a solo and my hand starts rubbing the volume knob and before I know it the volume is at 0 and I can't hear anything. That is the biggest design flaw EVER! It pisses me off so much that I might just cut the volume knob off and mail it to Epiphone with an angry letter. I'm thinking of just upgrading to an ESP Explorer. Don't buy the Epiphone if you want to play live or record.
Great little guitar for the price, got it locally for $220 CAN at the Long and McQuade store. This is a reduced size version of the Explorer, its about 15% smaller then its big brother. The smaller body makes it look like a Futura but it ISNT. Pickups are USA made Humbuckers with a 650R in the neck and a 700T in the bridge (think Gibson PUPs). The kill switch is what drew me to the guitar, its a fun little addition to any play style and makes this entry level guitar an awesome value for what it is. Also to MetalAce420 to me it sounds like your guitar needs to be setup properly, before dismissing the guitar as garbage I would take it to a local tech/luthier and have them set it up properly and it will probably play ALOT better. Oh and to those complaining about the whole Epiphone vs. Gibson crap well just to let you know in 1940 one Lester Polsfuss (Les Paul) worked in the Epiphone factory before Gibson even starting making the Les Paul series guitar and in fact his original solid body guitar was made with a Epiphone guitar body in fact Gibson originally turned down the idea of a solid body guitar when Les Paul approached them with it, could have been there biggest mistake ever.
i have this guitar and i stuck a bare nuckle covered nail bomb in the bridge and holy shit, this thing can scream!!! going for a black bigsby and some grovers soon aswell XD
I have to admit that I enjoy reading the comments more than the reviews. If you truly want to see how idiotic people on UG can be, don't look to the Pit, look here.
I messed around with one of these recently at guitar center. I thought the body was rather small lol but it was kinda fun. The kill switch is pretty cool. If it was a bit bigger I might get it.
i have this guitar and i stuck a bare nuckle covered nail bomb in the bridge and holy shit, this thing can scream!!! going for a black bigsby and some grovers soon aswell XD
Dude, i put a set of nailbombs in mine and had a original floyd rose put on it, fricken insane!!!!!
Let's quit the hypocrisy. It's a cheap guitar, with smart looks and average sound. Its wood isn't the best for this shape, neithe is the bolt-on neck (a set neck would have been much better), but this axe wasn't intended to appeal to pros. It can be someone's 6th guitar, used at the end of the gig because of its cool looks.
But Epiphones aren't so badly built and, as previous comments have already stated, it's good for modding. Swapping its stock Chinese pickups could bring a surprising improvement.
Got mine as a zzounds blem for $130, already have a Gibson explorer. Forget comparing the sound, not even close. But it does just as good as any other epi equipped with the same pups. As for the size, I like it. i am only 5'9" and I always feel like my fullsize explorer blocks me out out too much. This guitar fits better and the neck is fullsize. It'll make you look bigger onstage lol! the tapping knob is very cool...quieter than toggle-switching but not completely silent. Mine came setup perfectly, I did nothing but tune it and play it. Frets were dressed better than my epi les paul standard. First experience with the Indonesia point of origin. Not bad! Totally worth a deuce or less but good luck finding one...they dont seem to be in any of the big catologs anymore.
My one is a Made in Korea small-body Explorer. It came with Zebra humbuckers and a Floyd Rose trem imitation. Perfect for going apeshit and probably not meant to sound like a Gibson at all. Anyway, it has a clear sound easy to make aggressive through a suitable pre-amp. The trem gives it a Jimi edge!
real lightweight!!
My Epiphone Explorer is hot.