Show Full Spec Comparison
| Epiphone Explorer | Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster | |
|---|---|---|
| General | ||
| Brand: | Epiphone | Fender |
| Year: | 2020 | 2009 |
| Configuration: | HH | SS |
| Strings: | 6 | 6 |
| Made in: | China | Mexico |
| Series: | Original Collection | Artist |
| Colors: | Black | White |
| Left-Handed Version: | No | No |
| Body | ||
| Type: | Solid Body | Solid Body |
| Body Material: | Mahogany | Alder |
| Bridge: | LockTone Tune-O-Matic | 6-Saddle Vintage-Style Synchronized Tremolo |
| Neck | ||
| Neck Joint: | Set | Bolt-On |
| Tuners: | Grover Mini 18:1 ratio machine heads | Fender Vintage F Stamped |
| Fretboard: | Indian Laurel | Graduated Scalloped Rosewood |
| Neck Material: | Mahogany | Maple |
| Decoration: | Dot | White Pearloid Dot |
| Scale Size: | 24.75" | 25.5" |
| Shape: | Slim Taper | Ritchie Blackmore U |
| Thickness: | 1st Fret: 0.82'' (20.8mm) - 12th Fret: 0.92'' (23.4mm) | 1st Fret: 0.83'' (21.1mm) - 12th Fret: 0.89'' (22.6mm) |
| Frets: | 22 Medium Jumbo Nickel Silver | 21 Vintage Nickel Silver |
| Fretboard Radius: | 12" | 7.25" |
| Nut: | Ivory Tusq | Synthetic Bone |
| Nut Width: | 43mm (1.693'') | 42mm (1.654'') |
| Electronics | ||
| Bridge Pickups: | ProBucker 3 (Humbucker / Passive) | Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Strat SSL-4 Flat Pole RWRP (Single Coil / Passive) |
| Middle Pickup: | Non-Active Dummy (Single Coil / Passive) | |
| Neck Pickup: | ProBucker 2 (Humbucker / Passive) | Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Strat SSL-4 Flat Pole (Single Coil / Passive) |
| Switch: | 3 Way | 3 Way |
| Knobs: | Speed | Bell |
| Pickup Mods: | None | None |
| Volume Controls: | 2 | 1 |
| Tone Controls: | 1 | 2 |
| Hardware | ||
| Strap Lock: | No | No |
| Hardware Color: | Chrome | Chrome |
Show Diagrams Comparison
Reasons to Get
Epiphone Explorer over Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster
Reasons to Get
Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster over Epiphone Explorer
Other Key Differences
Epiphone Explorer vs Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster
Shared Features
Epiphone Explorer vs Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster
Common Strengths
- High-Quality Nut
- Expensive Wood
Common Weaknesses
- Pickup Alter Switch/Knob
- Weight Relief
- Locking Tuners
- Stays in Tune (Evertune)
- High-Quality Frets
- Compound Radius Fretboard
- Luminescent Sidedots
- Strap Lock
- 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- Active/Passive Preamp
Price History Comparison
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Hand Size Comfortability
And after taking into account the scale length, nut width, neck profile and fretboard radius, we can conclude that the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster favors large hands more than the Epiphone Explorer.
Epiphone Explorer:
Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster:
Beginner Friendliness
The Epiphone Explorer meets 4 out of our 8 criteria items for beginner friendliness, while the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster meets only 3. This takes into account the type of frets, scale length, nut width, bridge type, fretboard radius, and neck profile to determine the easiest combination for new players.
New Player Friendliness
Epiphone Explorer- Comfortable shape
- Easy-to-use bridge
- Tall frets
- Comfortable neck
- Comfortable fretboard
- Narrow nut
- Short scale
- Locking tuners
New Player Friendliness
Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster- Comfortable shape
- Easy-to-use bridge
- Narrow nut
- Comfortable fretboard
- Tall frets
- Short scale
- Comfortable neck
- Locking tuners
Sound Quality Comparison
The wood used in an electric guitar or bass is not as important to determine the final tone. However, some people prefer specific wood types, so we'll take a look at those first. Then, we'll take a look at the electronics to determine the versatility and sound quality of each instrument.
Woods Used in the Epiphone Explorer
Mahogany is a fairly rare wood nowadays. It's used mostly for bodies due to its relatively lightweight. Gibson popularized it with their Les Paul guitars during their golden years, so this wood has a lot of good reputation behind it. The most expensive type comes from South America and it's still used by Gibson even today. Find out more about Mahogany.
There are many types of Laurel, but East Indian is the most common for guitar building. Its color can vary from dark to light brown with black lines. Many people find its tonality similar to Rosewood, which favors the warmer frequencies. Find out more about Laurel.
Woods Used in the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster
Maple is one of the most popular necks for good reasons. It is a strong wood that is relatively cheap to make and looks beautiful. The highest quality maple is the hardest that comes from North America. Find out more about Maple.
Rosewood is an almost purple-looking wood that is used mainly for fretboards since it's heavy, rare, and expensive. It's sometimes used on acoustic guitar bodies to create stronger warm tones. Find out more about Rosewood.
Alder is the most popular wood that Fender uses in most of their guitars nowadays. Even though they say it's because of its balanced tone with an emphasis in the upper midrange, it probably is because it isn't too expensive, and it's also pretty lightweight—more than Mahogany. Find out more about Alder.
Winner: Tie.
Pickup Configuration
The Epiphone Explorer has an HH configuration while the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster has SS pickups.
Double Humbucker (HH) is the choice for people who want a fuller, more round sound with tons of mids and lows. Humbuckers also get rid of the hum noise that plague single-coil pickups. They can work out for almost any genre going from Djent to even Jazz.
On the other hand, SS is the classic Telecaster configuration. It's used mainly for playing clean or with low-gain distortion, and it's very popular for the country genre because of their brightness. It doesn't give you as much versatility as a Strat SSS configuration, but you might like the cleaner look of a guitar body with fewer pickups.
Pickups Quality
The Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster pickups from a more specialized brand than the Epiphone Explorer. Its pickups should give you a fuller, richer sound, although it all depends on what type of music you're going to play. We recommend these pickups for Funk and similar genres.
We found the same or similar pickups to the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster's online:
Both use Passive pickups. This is what's used for most music genres. They have a regular output and will serve you for both high-gain and clean tones. The alternative (Active pickups) offer a higher output that is mostly used for heavy music.
Winner: Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster.
Versatility Comparison
Some instruments offer you more ways to explore your creativity than others. Below you'll find how both compare when it comes to versatility.
Switch Options
Both are equal when it comes to the pickup switching option.
Neither of them come with some kind of coil split or pickup mod option. This makes both lacking in terms of versatility.
When evaluating versatility, we also take into consideration bridge and neck joint type, number of frets, switch options, amount of pickups and more.
Winner: Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster.
Final Sound Quality Scores
Build Quality Comparison
When it comes to build quality, we like to take into account everything used to build the instrument. This includes materials, hardware and the quality control expected depending on the country where it was built. Let's see how the Epiphone Explorer compares to the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster.
Country of Origin
The manufacturing country can tell a lot about the build quality of an instrument. The Epiphone Explorer is built in China while the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster is made in Mexico.
China has a bad reputation when it comes to building quality. However, times have changed and now respectable brands use China's cheap labor to build good instruments for a lower price. Don't discount a guitar only because it was built in China, but also expect more quality from countries like Korea.
Mexico has been for a long time where Fender has built their semi-premium series. If you don't want to overpay for a wellp-built instrument, a guitar built in this country by a good brand always offers good value for the money.
Winner: Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster
Nut Material
If you want your guitar to stay in tune and sound good, you need a well cut nut. Nut quality can be inconsistent even when comparing two copies of the same model. The best way to make sure you're nut will be well done is by getting a nut made by an expert company like TUSQ or Micarta.
The Epiphone Explorer has a Ivory Tusq nut. Ivory used to be considered the best material for guitar nuts due to its beauty, durability, and the rich harmonics and sustain you could get from a guitar with it. However, the way to obtain it is simply unethical. Enter TUSQ ivory nuts, which are made synthetically to imitate ivory. Technically, it's better than ivory because it is consistent piece-to-piece, while natural materials can vary a lot, even if they're made from the same.
On the other hand, the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster comes with a Synthetic Bone nut. Bone is the best natural material for guitar nuts. However, its tonal properties can be inconsistent. That's the problem that synthetic bone fixes. This is much better than using a plastic nut because the nut is more slippery—which helps with tuning stability—, and it gives your open strings rich harmonics.
Winner: Tie.
Fret Material
Most fret wire is made of nickel silver. This material eventually wears down after a lot of use and most instruments end up needing a complete fret replacement. However, some expensive models come with stainless steel frets. This is what you should aim for if you can afford it.
Unfortunately, none of them come with stainless steel frets.
Winner: Tie.
Bridge
The perfect bridge for you will depend on your playstyle because they all have advantages and disadvantages. However, some bridges are more expensive—like Floyd Roses and Evertunes—and thus add more value to a guitar.
The Epiphone Explorer's brige is a Fixed. It's a simple bridge that is very beginner-friendly since it doesn't require any set-up. You can swap strings easily. It might also give more sustain since it doesn't have complex moving parts that make the strings lose vibration. However, it doesn't have the same versatility as a tremolo bridge.
On the other hand, the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster's is a Tremolo. Tremolo bridges give you more versatility than fixed bridges. They let you perform the intense vibrato effects that would be impossible with a fixed bridge. However, since the bridge floats and there's less contact with the body, the strings lose sustain slightly faster. They can also be a bit harder to restring and set up correctly than fixed bridges.
Since we need to be objective, the most expensive type of bridge will be the winner of this section. In the end, this doesn't matter if you're not going to use the bridge for its original purpose, so choose the bridge that fits your playing style better.
Winner: Tie.
Tuners
Both come with regular tuners. The Epiphone Explorer's are Grover Mini 18:1 ratio machine heads while the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster's are Fender Vintage F Stamped
Winner: Tie.
Neck Joint
Contrary to popular belief, the difference in sustain and tone that some neck joints give to a guitar is simply unperceivable—if they're all well built. However, some of them do have advantages over the others.
The Epiphone Explorer has a Set neck joint. This neck is tightly glued to the body. They give you the least versatility because you can't swap them for a neck that fits your hand better if you want to, unlike bolt-on necks. Some people think this gives more resonance and sustain, but there's no real difference if the bolt-on joint is well built.
On the other hand, the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster comes with Bolt-On neck joint. This neck is joined to the body by 4 bolts that you can simply unscrew. This allows you to replace the neck or take it off for travel. It's the most common and cheapest way to build a guitar.
Winner: Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster.
Here is the list of features that were considered when choosing the winner in the Features subcategory:
Epiphone Explorer
- Expensive Wood
- Ivory Tusq Nut
- Cheap Fret Wire (NS)
- No Locking Tuners
- Made in China
- No Top Brand Pickups
- No Neck-Through Build
- No Push Knob or Extra Switch Option
- No Weight Relief
- No Luminescent Inlay
- No Tremolo
- No Compound Radius Fretboard
- No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- No Strap Lock
Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster
- Expensive Wood
- Synthetic Bone Nut
- Top Brand Pickups
- Tremolo
- Cheap Fret Wire (NS)
- No Locking Tuners
- Made in Mexico
- No Neck-Through Build
- No Push Knob or Extra Switch Option
- No Weight Relief
- No Luminescent Inlay
- No Compound Radius Fretboard
- No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- No Strap Lock
Final Build Quality Scores
Playability Comparison
Let's now compare their playability. Bear in mind that the instrument will feel different depending on your hand size and play style. That's why you should always test before buying. But if you can't or want a second opinion on it, we can still take a look at each of the important measurements of the instrument for you. This way, we can predict how easy a guitar might be to play, or how different it will feel compared to the other.
Remember that, even though the difference might seem small, every inch counts when it comes to feeling of the instrument in your hands. Any variation can completely change how comfortable a guitar feels in your hands.
Nut Width
The nut width will affect the separation between strings at the nut. In this comparison, the Epiphone Explorer has the wider nut with 43mm (1.693'') vs 42mm (1.654''). This is a 1mm (0.039'') difference
This means that it will be more difficult to do bar chords on the Epiphone Explorer, especially closer to the nut. However, it's also easier to play without muting strings accidently. This favors people with big hands.
Scale Length
The scale length is one of the things that influences playability the most. This is the distance between the nut and the bridge and will affect everything from low action allowance, difficulty to perform bends, fret separation, and even tone.
The Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster has the longest scale: 25.5". The Epiphone Explorer is only 24.75" long. This is a 0.75'' (19.1mm) scale length difference.
This longer scale means that the strings need more tension to get in tune. This is good if you want to avoid fret buzz, which can happen when the strings are too loose and touch the frets while vibrating. This is especially important when playing in lower tunings. This will also let you reduce the gap between fretboard and strings (low action) to make them easier to press down. However, this higher tension will also make it harder to perform bends and vibratos as the strings will feel stiffer.
This also means that the frets have a longer separation between each other, so this will make it harder for people with smaller hands when playing some chord positions.
Another characteristic of a longer scale is that it makes the guitar sound 'snappier' or brighter. This is due to the extra separation between harmonics and overtones produced by the tension. This influences tone more than any other factor (except the pickups).
Lastly, remember that you can also affect the tension of the strings by changing your string gauge. You can use a thicker gauge for more tension and a lighter one for less tension.
Neck Profile
No single neck shape is better than others. However, most people tend to prefer a thinner necks because it doesn't get in their way when playing fast and most hand sizes can adapt to it pretty well. However, some people still prefer thicker necks for a better grip, especially if they have big hands.
In this case, both have different neck shapes:
The Epiphone Explorer has a C type of neck. This is what you'll find in most modern guitars. Most people feel like the thickness of a C neck is simply the less intrusive one for playing fast, while at the same time allowing you to grab the neck easily for resting if you want to.
The Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster, on the other hand, has a U neck. This is also referred to as ''baseball neck'' because of its shape. It's usually thick, which is why some people with big hands like it. However, they can also be thin, similar to a C shape, but with more shoulders for a better grip.
Fretboard Radius
Most guitar fretboards are not flat; they usually have a curve or arc across their width. A curved fretboard will make it easier to perform chords without muting strings, while a flatter one will make it easier to play single notes, which is good for bending and soloing in general. The best fretboards have a compound radius that varies across the fingerboard, but they're not common since they take a lot more work to build.
In this case, the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster's fingerboard radius is smaller, which means it's more curved than the Epiphone Explorer's. This extra arc will make playing chords easier in this model. You won't be as likely to mute the strings, especially if you have big hands. However, playing single notes and bending will be easier on the Epiphone Explorer.
Fret Size
The Epiphone Explorer has Medium Jumbo frets, which should be taller than the Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster's Vintage frets.
Some people prefer taller frets because they result in more sustain since the strings get pressed cleanly without interference from the fretboard. However, if they're too tall—like Jumbo frets—, you might change the pitch of the strings accidentally if you press too hard because you won't be touching the fretboard with your fingers. This is also why some guitarists with a heavy grip prefer smaller frets. They like to feel the fingerboard to avoid pressing down too hard and getting out of pitch.
