hi, i recently bought an epiphone gothic explorer from ebay with a custom metal plate on the body (hetfield style). Turns out the plate was a homemade job and was sharp and horrible. My dilemma now is do i take the plate off and restore the guitar with some improvements over the original or sell it on for about the price i paid and just get a different guitar.

As it is now the explorer has a body full of holes with no neck pickup or wiring for tone pots and pickup change switch (though i was sent the switch and tone pots) The guitar came with a Duncan Distortion in the bridge which is very cool. The way i see it i need to buy a scratchplate, a neck pickup, some tone knobs and then send it off to the shop to get it all totally rewired and setup properly. Not sure what i would do with the many holes created by the metal plate though! Any ideas on how much money it will cost me to restore the guitar?


If i decided to get it restored i may make some other modifications i.e fit some better parts, nut etc.

The other option of course is to just sell the epiphone and buy another guitar for the total sum of the epiphone sale money plus money i might have spent getting that restored. I could get around £150 + for the epiphone as it is now. I have £150 to spend getting it restored etc or £300 to get a half decent other guitar

What would you guys do? any suggestions?

Hope that wasn't all too confusing. thanks

fix it, unless you can find something better. It sounds like your happy with it/has what you want.....

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Surely you can remove the scratch plate, file down the edges so they are no longer sharp, and refix it and then problem solved? (except for perhaps the wiring issues you mentioned). I wasn't sure if you actually wanted the neck pickup? If so it wouldn't be that much work to cut the hole (or have it cut for you by a luthier) and put in a neck pickup and the appropriate holes for the new controls you want.

Refinsihing the guitar to fill all those new screw holes probably won't be worth it to be honest.

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yeah i am not actually that bothered about having a neck pickup, though it would be nice

I'd say if youve got £300 for a new guitar.. go for an Ibanez out of the Rg series.. Unless your really happy with your explorer.

You could just take off the scratchplate , and sand it down so the edges are smooth.

Sorting the scratchplate out shouldnt really cost that much tbh.

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Sorry to hear about the pickguard. I got that same guitar and I also made my own pickguard and other modifications. A good quality pickguard can be made at home if you just take your time doing it and use the right tools and materials.

For example...
And also...

All home made plates, stacked pots (2 vol/2 tone ), upgraded wiring and components, EMGs, string saver sadles, and 9V battery cavity routed on the back.

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Hey your home made plates look cool. How much did all the upgrades cost you? (take away the emg cost) I'll have to get all my electronics done at a shop though i feel unless i just go crazy and try to do all that myself and set the guitar up myself!

Whats so good about the ibanez rg series and which ones do you suggest?

I don't actually think that was particulaly good advice he gave you... it's like saying "buy a car!!!". There are loads of different RG models, and without explaining that there are good and bad RGs and varied levels of quality and price, it's a pretty useless suggestion.

I'm not sure that one of the cheaper RG models (£300) would necessarily be 'better' than your current guitar.

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If I remember right, the 25K stack pots and Carvin switch cost $12-15/component. Shielded wire wasn't much but I got tons of the stuff. The string saver saddles were like $30 but far better then the cheap cast metal saddles Epiphone put on it. The material for the plates ( paint, hex screws, and 1/16 aluminum diamond deck ) cost about $45 total, but I got enough diamond plate left over to make 4 more pickguards, plus backplates and truss rod covers. It did take several hours of work and planing to fabricate the plates though. Lots of measuring, cutting, filing, scoring the surfaces, and painting. I was about to pay for someone else to make me a custom pickguard.

The Epi Goths can actually be a great guitars, but they can be further improved with a few modifications. They are not all built the same either. Epiphones are kinda hit or miss. I played through about a dozen Epi goths before I found one that sounded and played really good.

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300 pounds is enough to buy a decent guitar. Well, over here at least. Explorer's are meh. RG's are much better, and 300 punds is enough to get a decnt model. Ibanez are good as they have good quality instruments for a much lesser price as compared to Gibson or Jackson. Epiphone is gay. Look into it man.

Also I don't see why you would need to do the extensive modifications you mentioned (changing tone, rewiring etc.) if youare just changing the pickups.

Well anyway, I don't think you'll be influenced by anyone really.

hey i am all ears. I am just trying to get a good instrument out of all this what i will enjoy playing and will enourage me to play more

dude explorers kick ass! keep it. file, grind, and sand the edges down or remake one. youd have a better guitar for 300 with the mods than a 300$ RG

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Well I wouldnt know much about the rest of the Rg series..
But the rg370 is by far the best guitar ive played yet.

I'd take it over most expensive guitars anyday.. including Jacksons and Fenders

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