Hits above its weight - a lot of bang for the buck
"Honestly, this was an impulse buy based on the color release for the Miami Gear Garage. A friend pointed me to it as he was enamored with the hot pink version. I was torn between the yellow and the blue. Ironically, I already have an Epi "Inspired by Gibson" Firestorm color flip on order I'm waiting for so I really didn't need this but I figured for the price, it was hard to go too wrong. It shipped FAST. Like order to arrival was two days total. It did need a bit of cleanup on arrival. It was sticky-ish and there were bits of what looked like grease in several spots. There was also a weird sticker/tag on the enclosing bag to get “valuable/important stuff in box” --> I never found anything other than the hangtag and such in the gig bag pouch and neither did my friend that bought the pink model. I've had doubts about Made in China guitars but I have to say that this Explorer seems to be better than its price tag. The neck is a little chunkier than I expected but it's not to 50s "baseball bat" size -- just not the 60s Slim Taper I would have expected. Fit and finish is good and definitely good for the money. Pickups are good (not great, but for the price, I sort of expected I might upgrade the electronics) but they really aren't bad at all. The finishes from the Miami Gear Garage release are just FIRE. I love them and have been struggling to not end up with one of the Gibson LP Specials in Miami Blue. That said, the yellow is not quite as vibrant as the photos, but it's still excellent. If this had been a $1200 or 1500 guitar, it might be a 4 star guitar. At $700, it hits the 5 star mark for value, IMHO. Overall, I've spent considerably more money for guitars of lower quality. I have no complaints at all and wouldn't hesitate to tell someone to pick one of these up if they wanted a capable guitar that might be a good mod platform if they had that in mind."