Antoria Explorer

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dontfret!

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Hi has anyone come across one of these before? I was recently given one in pretty bad but definitely saveable condition. A search of the net brought up nothing about Antoria Explorers. I did find some Ibanez explorers though and given the close kinks between the companies assume it probably came from the same factory. It has an ash body which has been painted over horribly in matt black and green hammerite with a set maple neck and rosewood board. The tuners have a silver star on a black background on the rear which I thought was an old Ibanez trait and the serial number is H785990 which using the formula of my Greco SuperPower Les Paul Custom would indicate Aug '78. The wiring other than an obviously replaced Schaller bridge pickup is all metal braid type and the neck pickup says Super 70 and 280718 on the back. Super 70's were Ibanez pickups I think and are supposed to be very good paf replicas aren't they? It has had a Kahler Flyer trem installed though I assume it had an ABR1 type bridge and stop tail originally. I don't know whether to try and get back to the natural finish ( dont know how bad it is under all this crap!)and keep the Kahler or fill up the rout refinish vintage creamy white and refit an ABR1 and stoptail. I'd appreciate any info. Thanks
 
Antoria is a brand set up by Ibanez and an english guitar shop for the english market. I don't know about the antoria explorer but I've been looking for an Antoria J-200 copy like the one Bonehead used in Oasis. :D
 
Hi 20th CB thanks for the info.

:D I have an Antoria J200 copy I bought about a year ago off ebay after seeing one belonging to one of my set-up/repair customers. They are beautiful guitars and sound good too if only the headstock was bound and the sound hole end of the fingerboard had that little point you could mistake it for a Gibson!

There was one on ebay in the UK last week but it went for a lot more than I paid, either I was just lucky or the price is going up!

Good luck in your quest!!

Simon
 
Yes, you can check on the Ibanez Forum, but ? from about 1973 Ibanez began exporting electric guitars to Europe & at first their catalogues showed the guitars without any name on the headstock, because they couldn?t decide what name to use in Europe (presumably they thought the name Ibanez was unsuitable).

When the first examples came into the UK circa. 73 they had the name ?Antoria? on the headstock ? ie those early guitars are actually Ibanez (only the name changed), but at that date I think they were mainly the cheaper Ibanez/Antoria models with bolt-on neck. Then from about 1976 they began exporting more expensive models using the Ibanez name on headstock & mostly with set-neck. Afaik, the Antoria name continued for several years, but by then it had become associated mostly with the cheaper Ibanez range :-? .

Ian.
 
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