It was 1958, and Ted McCarty was on a roll.

58 had already been a landmark year for Gibson. They had introduced both the Les Paul sunburst Standard model and the first commercial semi-hollow body electric guitar, the ES-335. Still, McCarty was uneasy. There was a feeling in some circles that Gibson represented traditional and conservative designs. The Les Paul solid body design was a thing of beauty, with its tight curves and revolutionary functionality. But the Fender Stratocaster, with its slightly more free-form body, was seen by some as more in touch with the new generation of musicians.

But it wasn't going to stay that way; not as long as Ted was running the show at Gibson.

See, Ted had a plan. Gibson had been doing plenty to revolutionize the inner workings of their guitars: The block of wood running through the ES-335. The Tune-o-Matic bridge. As of 1957, they even offered the new 'hum-bucking' pickups. It was time the outside of guitars looked as radical as what was going on inside. So McCarty put out a call to designers to reimagine what an electric guitar could look like.

By some reports, McCarty received close to 100 designs before whittling the contenders down to three. The first, the Moderne, never made it to the production stage, though there are legends and whisperings of a prototype Moderne out there somewhere, waiting to be found like a Holy Grail emblazoned with the Gibson logo. The other two models featured identical electronics, but radically different body shapes. Flying V and the Futura, later dubbed the Explorer, both rolled out in 1958.

And quickly failed.

In this case, failed may be too weak a word. Less than 100 Explorers were produced. Some estimate that as few as 38 Explorers were sold before it was dropped from the Gibson line along with its V-shaped counter part in 1959. McCarty's experiment was a flop. And, frankly, its not too difficult to see why.

I mean, just take a look at the Explorer. What were the designers going for here? Is it supposed to resemble a lightning bolt? The letter Z? We're talking 1958 here. The year the ES-335 debuted. Even today, the Explorer falls into the category of 'nontraditional' guitar shapes; can you imagine how it must have been received in 1958? Thousands of guitarists were left scratching their heads while 38 or so people thought it was pretty cool.

The Explorer and Flying V both sported bodies made of the African wood White Limba, which Gibson purchased under the brand name Korina. Though not often used as a tone wood, White Limba is actually a very plentiful and inexpensive wood. It also has the nifty characteristic of turning a goldish color when finished in a clear coat.

The Explorer story might have ended there if not for some enterprising young guitar builders in the early 1970s. See, a few of those original Explorers had survived, and the times had finally caught up to the design. A growing number of 70s rockers wanted to get their hands on an Explorer, but that initial run of 38 sold copies just wasn't going to be enough to go around. So other guitar manufacturers stepped up to the plate. Like Hamer, who introduced their Explorer-shaped Standard, in 1974.

Gibson caught the hint fairly quickly, and the Explorer was back in production in 1975.

It's been 50 years since McCarty's experiment, and the Explorer has firmly planted itself into the soil of guitar history. There have been hundreds of variations on the original theme, from smaller 'studio' versions, to less expensive Epiphone models, to an Explorer-shaped controller for the Guitar Hero. It's found its way into the hands of guitarists like The Edge, Clapton and Billy Gibbons to name a few.

So happy 50th birthday from Six-String Bliss, Explorer! Keep pushing the boundaries and try not to poke out any eyes.

We'll be back in May with our next Guitar of the Month.

Bliss on,
PT