1957 patent application for the Gibson Explorer.
This stranger-looking version was later re-christened the Futura.
Even with the success of Alive! having opened up new vistas for the band, and the Gibson sponsorship still alive and kicking, Paul still bought his guitars from time to time. "I vaguely remember buying the white Gibson Explorer at Manny's on 48th Street. […] I put on all chrome hardware, black knobs, and one of those rhythm/treble rings from a Les Paul around the toggle switch." (Metal Edge presents KISS Alive, 1996) The Explorer began life as part of Gibson's impossibly "futuristic" batch of new designs in 1957, the other two models were the Flying V and the Moderne. The first two were introduced in the Gibson catalog in 1958, the latter didn’t see commercial release until 1982.
The patent application for the Explorer showed something we would probably think of as a child’s drawing of an Explorer, the angles and proportions are just a bit off. By the time it was introduced at NAMM in 1958 it had become the body shape that we know today. The Explorer, like its sibling Flying V, wasn't a success by any measure and it was quietly discontinued in 1963. Actual production seems to only have been in 1958-59 though and depending on who you ask the production total was either low 20s or just under 50. The lack of success was perhaps more due to the decision to omit it from the Gibson catalog rather than any flaw in its radical design. It did, after all, find favor with a few high-profile guitarists.
The Explorer was reintroduced in 1976, no doubt as a reaction to Ibanez’s Golden Oldie Electric Guitars leaflet, but for some reason Gibson still chose to keep it out of their catalog. The stock Explorer featured a mahogany body and neck with a rosewood fretboard and a Nashville bridge/tailpiece, the so-called Gibson Pat. No. humbuckers, and Kluson Double Line tuners. All the hardware was gold but as detailed in the quote above, Paul changed that to chrome. And when he did he opted for his preferred Schaller M6 tuners.
The Explorer first turned up during the rehearsals in Reading in November and as we can see it looks as if the pickups have also been replaced with Paul's favored DiMarzio. "DiMarzio custom-winds pickups for me; I like them very much. I don't go for super distortion. [...] My DiMarzios are like patent-applied-fors, but a little hotter." (Guitar Player, 1978) The replacement bridge was just another (chrome) Nashville, the rhythm/treble ring Paul mentioned is clearly visible as are the speed knobs that replaced the original gold ones. As seen in the third photo this was the guitar that was used for two of the songs on Don Kirschner's Rock Concert which were taped during the Winter Tour rehearsals (but not aired until May the following year).
By the time the Winter Tour began on November 24 the Nashville bridge had been replaced by Paul's beloved wide-travel Tune-o-matic and the guitar had assumed the look that it would have for the rest of its tenure. During this tour the Explorer doesn't appear to have had any particular role, it was just used whenever Paul felt like it. The following photos exemplify this.
I don't think that the Explorer fell out of favor in the second half of December but I have yet to see any photos of it after December 12. Chances are that the photographers simply failed to capture it.
The first photo here is the first one I've seen where the Explorer was used for capo duty (1st fret for "Makin' Love"). It was a role it would soon assume more or less full time, but for the majority of the Winter Tour it was just the main backup to the Flying V—and a very popular one at that. The Explorer also traveled to Japan and it can be seen in the video from Budokan.
When the band transitioned to wireless Paul (and Gene) decided to go all in and had the transmitters built-in to all the guitars they were planning to use during the CanAm Tour. (The lone exception was Gene's custom LoBue.) In this backstage photo from Kitchener, Ontario we see Paul's entire lineup—main and backup Flying V and the Gibson Explorer. Pay special attention to the fact that they are all plugged in with a special type of cord. This was to charge the 9 volt battery needed for the built-in transmitter circuit. (As noted in the section on the Dan Armstong you can actually see the Duracell battery through the lucite body.) Also note that the neck of the Explorer is capoed at the 7th fret.
For this tour the Explorer had a specific duty: it was the capo guitar. For the better part of the tour the band played a whopping five (5) songs from the new album and "Hooligan" required a capo at the 7th fret. Since "Makin' Love" was still part of the set that meant that there were two songs where Paul needed a capo. Thankfully they, at least initially, planned the setlist so that there was a couple of songs between those two, which allowed Paul's tech to move the capo backstage. You'll see the capo at different frets in the photos below. I've also circled the output jack in the photos where it is clearly visible to show that the Explorer didn't have any output cable.
The placement of the capo songs in the set changed slightly over the course of the tour. At the start of the tour there had been six songs that separated the two, but by mid-August there was just one song between them, "Christine Sixteen". By late August the songs were back-to-back and instead of moving the capo on one guitar they chose to use the Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck. Since it was no longer needed the Explorer was quietly retired. (Capo duty for the following tour was handled by a Gibson Flying V.)
"I dug [the Explorer], it was a good guitar and I used it quite a while." (Metal Edge Presents KISS Alive, 1996)
