I still have a cold trail as to what this beauty is. I’ve been playing the heck out of it and I really love it.
Through tons of internet searching I found this guitar looks nearly identical to it. Unfortunately it’s listed as ‘unknown’ maker and country of origin.
The headstock looks exactly the same build. With three pieces of wood seamed the same. It had the same tuner mount holes above each tuner (and has replacement tuners like mine does).
The truss cover is a 3 hole cover, with the truss rod cutout all the way down flush to the nut (like mine).
The Finish looks similar, back cover the same.
Seller lists it was ‘refinished in natural’ before by someone, but I think it’s possible that’s not accurate. It could be the headstock was sanded down to wood. And maybe the neck. It’s also a two piece body and the body extends to the 4th fret like mine does (most go to the 3rd fret and not as high).
Here’s a pic of that ad above, the headstock front and rear shots. The construction look the same.
SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
EDIT (2021):
The bridge I discovered thru the very helpful tdpri.com forum is a Schecter Kros-Lok brass bridge. I had no idea what kind it was and had been looking all over. I have yet to change strings and pull the cover and pups to investigate but I’ll have to get on that before year’s end. Maybe that will shed some light on the mystery although not holding my breath. Great comments from a reader below about similar guitar.
My luthier found this and sent it to me. I have the nearly IDENTICAL guitar! It came to me as the subject of a buddy’s refinishing project. Then he had to move from his then home to his current home. During the move, he lost every part of the instrument! The only metal on it was the truss rod and the frets. No serial, no identifying marks in any way, shape or form on the entire thing. Even my friend couldn’t recall what brand it was. As in the one picture, mine also had at one time what appeared to have been old style tuners and I used mini Grovers in the re-build. The bridge and tailpiece stud measurements were seriously off from the usual Gibson style measurements, so I had to take parts that didn’t fit and make them fit. It all worked very well, luckily. I put in fresh stud inserts and studs and got everything in place satisfactorily. I had to route out the pickup cavities to get standard hummies to fit. I had great help from my luthier and I installed a pair of stock Gibson pickups that are extraordinary in this wood. The grain looks like African mahogany and is very, very light and comfy to wear on the strap. The neck seems to be, by the looks of it, Honduran mahogany, however, the jury is still out on that.
My luthier took out the flat frets that were there and put a full compliment of EVO Gold frets on it and it has a sound unlike any Explorer I ever owned. Even my ’76 Gibson didn’t sound this good. I paid nothing for the carcass! After my buddy lost all the parts he also lost interest. Wow!
It’s a real deal gem, indeed! However, no idea what it was, but would love to know.
Wow! I’d love to talk more with you about that guitar. I saw a similar one posted for sale that I have the link on one of these pages. Similar issue, no ID, no label, no idea what it was.
“Magnum” Explorer.