Jackson USA Custom Shop King V doubleneck

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Jackson USA Custom Shop King V doubleneck is an exercise in excess with its over-sized quilted maple topped body, dual through-necks, reverse pointy headstocks, gold hardware, mother of pearl sharkfin inlays, etc. I have to confess that I'm not a fan. I never did like the Jackson pointy headstock design - it just looks totally incongruous on just about any body design, and quilted maple I'm sure is supposed to imply opulence but to me it just seems like an unimaginative short-cut to tarting up a guitar's appearance. Many would be impressed, but I have to stifle a yawn.

Flying V? Flying W more like!

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $9,999.99.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

It's that cat again! This time on a Burny Flying V

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Following on from our piece about the Fernandes "Love Driver" Strat, I would like to thank Ralf Mutz from bringing this Burny Flying V LV-115KK Ken model to my attention. Like the Fernandes Love Driver it has an ultra-sparkly finish, and there at the 12-fret is the very same black cat inlay. The Burny brand was produced by Fernandes, but the Fernandes name was initially reserved for Fender replicas with the Burny brand being applied to Gibson replicas.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

A Flying V for jazzers?

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's a Flying V-styled guitar with a difference - it's an archtop! This guitar was handcrafted by Personal Guitars of Washington, USA, and was recenrly offered for sale on eBay Australia. Thanks to Liam, who spotted this one.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Greco Tusk "V"

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've looked at a Greco Tusk with an Explorer/Star-shaped body before, and here's another from the Tusk series with Randy Rhodes-esque V-style body.

Ken Shima, who found this guitar on the Yahoo Japan auction site, comments "totally awesome tuners, how do they work?"

Well, I think it's effectively a headless system with the tuners on the bridge, while the three "tuners" on the headstock are actually just string clamps.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Gibson Flying V limited edition

guitarz.blogspot.com

You won't see this every day! 

Here is a limited edition by Gibson of Rudolf Schenker's trademarck black and white Flying V dedicated by the members of Scorpions, on an east-german flag background, it's unique and it's on the Guitarz blog!

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Dean Flying V

guitarz.blogspot.com

Lately I started to work on a project that would likely require a Flying V style guitar (I do music-based performances for which the visual aspect is very important), and I was wondering what brand I should get since I can't afford an original Gibson model, and I wouldn't be happy with a mere copy - and it has to be a good player enough.

Also I've always felt that the Flying V has kind of perfect proportions: you can do variations on a strat or a Les Paul but any change on a Flying V would spoil it - that's the price of minimalism, the slightest detail matters...

So I've been looking around and scratching my head for a while, and I reached the conclusion that the Dean V is the only one that respects the Flying V while being very specific with its characteristic headstock that mirrors the body.

Then I found this pic (here) of a retrofitted Dean V with the coolest natural finish and I knew I was right, stripped down to the simplest, this guitar is at its best (I wish I could have found a photo of the guitar only, but it came with the lady, whose face I pixelated).

bertram

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

Gibson Flying V II

guitarz.blogspot.com

The SG zoot suit that you can see a little lower on this blog was not the first laminated wood solid body produced by Gibson. Here is an early 80s Flying V II, made of 5 layers of maple and walnut (you had 2 versions - maple top and walnut top).

This is not the only characteristic of this guitar made between 1979 and 1981, look at its contoured body - 30 years before the current trend - and the remarkable boomerang pickups - I couldn't figure out if this shape brings anything to the sound, but I heard that they made the Flying V II one of Gibson's most expensive guitar since they were produced exclusively for this model.

you can find more info here.

Bertram

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

Flying V Bass

This Flying V bass is an oddity. The headstock bears the Gibson name but it has a bolt-on neck. You'd suspect that someone had applied a Gibson decal to a bass made by another manufacturer, but actually the logo tells no lies. It IS a Gibson. Sort of. But it wasn't always a Flying V.

The bass started life as a Gibson Grabber and was customised by KGB Musical Instruments for Noz Easterbrook of 60s psychedelic band The Klubs, using as many of the original Grabber parts as possible.

Whether the body was re-styled and re-used, I do not know, but I'd like to think so, otherwise it's just a Gibson neck and hardware on a new body.

The other thing that strikes me is that it's not as HUGE as genuine Gibson Flying V basses. Apparently it was styled on a Flying V guitar body which is, I believe, smaller than that of its bass counterpart.

a couple of questions about some guitars...

Isn't it very arrogant to post for a guitar blog and offer to the world some information that mostly I got myself a few hours before? Now I will humbly ask our readers to help me solve some guitars mysteries (mysteries only for myself of course)...

On the cover of some French guitar magazine, there is a picture of James Hetfield (yes, the guy who said that he's proud that Metallica's music has been used to torture people in Guantanamo) holding a Gibson SG with this strange vibrato, could anybody tell me more about it?

Question 2: in the same magazine there is a picture of Robb Flynn (Machine Head) with a Gibson Flying V and it's said somewhere that it's a baritone. Does such a thing exist or is it a mistake (never heard of a baritone Gibson Flying V, but it would be so cool)?

Thanks for your answers!
bertram

We Need Your Help: What Is This Mystery Guitar?

Guitarz reader Paul Alvarez has contacted me with a mystery, and it's one dilly of a pickle. It concerns a mystery guitar that he'd like identified. The photo to the left shows an exhibit at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Please note, that the mystery guitar is NOT Kurt Cobain's Fender Mustang in the centre of the picture. That one we can identify.

No, the guitar we are interested in is the one on the right-hand side of the picture. It appears to be a Gibson SG equipped with a Bigsby and a Flying V neck - check that pointed headstock. Does anyone know the identity of this guitar and the story behind it? Is it a one-off, or was it part of a limited edition? Also, who played this guitar? Anyone we should know of? The fact that it's on display in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame would imply that it's a famous guitar or was at least owned by someone famous.

If anyone could tell us what the plaque beneath the guitar in the display cabinet actually says, we'd love to know! There must be a story about the guitar - look - it's got much more info on the plaque than Kurt's guitar has.

Is there anyone in Cleveland who can help, or perhaps someone who's recently visited the exhibit?

More Flying V Madness!

This Flying V shaped banjo was built by Moon Guitars for Babydaddy from the Scissor Sisters. (Via GuitarNoize)

Flying V Madness!

As many of you will know, this year Gibson has been unleashing Guitar of the Week limited edition guitars upon the world, as the title suggests, one week at a time. The most far out example so far, is the above pictured Reverse Flying V. It's an idea that's so simple that I'm amazed that no-one has thought of it before, and it does make me wonder what some other guitar designs might look like in reverse formation. Yes, there's the Gibson Firebird and Reverse-bodied Firebird, although the reversal here is more-or-less a mirror image, as opposed to flipping the body over front-to-back and putting the neck at the opposite end! Similarly, some Mosrite models were based on a flipped-over Strat body shape.

Of course, also from the "putting the neck at the other end" school of design, there is Dewey Decibel's Flip Out guitar, which takes a Strat body and puts the neck at the wrong end, and which I find quite disturbing. There's an empty neck pocket in the place you'd normally expect to find it, so it's a bit of a joke guitar and doesn't work anywhere as nicely from an aesthetic point of view as Gibson's Reverse Flying V.

Meanwhile, here's some more Flying V madness... make of this what you will!

Marc Bolan's Flying V is a 21st Century Buy: Kerry Morgan forks out £37,000 at auction for Bolan's guitar, which he's going to display in Wales' only private club for smokers. I hope he's going to put it in a glass display cabinet - imagine the discolouration it'd get from all that nicotine.

Please be on the lookout for some stolen Flying V guitars, ripped off from a guy called Roger Bleck. Here are the details in his own words:

Due to a theft that happened last week, it doesn't look like I'll be recording for a while.... My recorder & 6 of my guitars were stolen.... People get what they deserve, I'm counting on that.... I try to be a good person, so I believe that in the long run, good things will happen to me.... People thet set out to do evil, well, I hope they get what's coming to them....
I know it's a long shot, but if anyone hears of the following items out there, let me know, they're mine...

- #229 Medallion Gibson Flying V, cream-colored
- ESP Gibson-style block marker Flying V, white
- 1975 LE oval-serial# Gibson Flying V, natural finish
- 1989 '67 re-issue Flying V, w/ a custom neck (no serial#), white
- 2001 Faded Red Gibson Flying V, w/ crescent-moon inlays
- 1970's Ibanez Flying V, bolt-on neck, cherry finish
- Fostex VF80EX-8 multitrack recorder

If you do see some suspect guitars for sale and want to compare them, check out the pics on Roger's MySpace page. Please feel free to copy this post. Thanks, and keep 'em peeled!

Guitar Center announces Gibson Jimi Hendrix Psychedelic Flying V guitars sell out in seven days

Epiphone Musical Instruments - Three New Models Available Now: Ltd. Ed. "Black &White" '67 Flying-V (set-neck), Wildkat-Deluxe (TransWhite with Gold Hardware) and SPECIAL-II "Zebra".

Gibson Custom Shop Announces "Inspired By" Series Guitars: Hendrix's psychedelic Flying V is the first.

The Flying V ukulele!

ZZ Ryder introduces Renegade V6 Guitar: it's like a Flying V with several extra chunks taken out of it!

Epiphone recreates Hendrix's Psychedelic Flying V guitar: where's the photo? I wanna see what it looks like!