Single pickup left handed Explorer style guitar
Single pickup left handed Explorer style guitar
Black outline: Gibson Explorer. Silver outline: Gaskell Classic
Single pickup left handed Explorer style guitar
Left handed Explorer guitar - single pickup
For over 50 years Gibson did not make left handed Explorer guitars. As a lefty player myself, it was my own frustration and feelings of betrayal that drove me to build guitars in the first place. The absence of a lefty Explorer was a major motivator. Left handed Explorers were the first guitars I made, introduced in 2007. Legacy models were made from 2007 - 2012, including a PRO SERIES Custom line.
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No one makes single pickup left handed Explorer guitars, not even Gibson. The X1 was a variant of the Gaskell X2, available originally as a "PRO Series" model during the original run of Gaskell guitars from 2008-2012. I didn't make many.
I tried to introduce this model again in 2023 as part of the Hybrid Series and was surprised in the lack of interest.
These days it's risky offering any sort of production left handed Explorer after what Gibson did to Dean Guitars in 2022. They went after Dean for making Explorer and Flying V guitars despite Dean having made both models since 1977, so why now?
In any case, I am not going to go out on a limb for a guitar that no one is interested in. So the X1 goes back to being a Gaskell Legacy model.
Of course, I can make a single pickup left handed Explorer guitar in Custom Shop but that is different money. That buys you the best left handed Explorer guitar in the world .
That's where we are at today.