50 Years of the Flying V

Epiphone’s Korina Flying V 1958 was created to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the original Gibson Flying V. The Flying V was originally issued in 1958 as part of a futuristic guitar line-up that included the Gibson Explorer and Moderne and is one of the most easily recognisable guitars ever made, thanks to its v-shaped body and pointed head. Despite being adopted by no less than Albert King and Lonnie Mack, the Flying V proved less than successful and was discontinued in 1959.

Click here to see a list of Epiphone Flying V guitars on eBay

Throughout the early sixties the V was adopted by players as diverse as Dave Davies and Jimi Hendrix and the resultant surge in popularity persuaded Gibson to re-issue the Flying V in 1967. The re-issued version had a funkier pickguard and replaced the original bridge and string-through tailpiece with the stopbar tailpiece used by Gibson on most of its other electric guitars. Some re-issued models also had a Vibrolo Maestro Tremelo arm.

There have also been a handful of signature versions of the Flying V, including Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack versions.

The Epiphone Korina Flying V 1958 has, like its namesake, a body made from Korina, a brand name for Limba, a wood with similar characteristics to mahogany but which is significantly lighter. The Epiphone has a mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard and the string-through tailpiece featured on the original 1958 model. The pick-ups are Alnico Classic Humbuckers. It’s available in a natural Korina finish and an ebony finish.

The imuso.co.uk website reviewed the Epiphone Flying V and described it as ‘the kind of guitar that Birds of Prey would play if they had fingers. If you think you are cool and you haven’t got one of these, you were wrong about being cool. It’s that simple.’ Now, the reviewers idea of ‘cool’ and mine would appear to be somewhat different. But that doesn’t hide the fact thet the Korina Flying V 1958 is a fitting tribute to a great guitar.

Gibson Flying Vs by CasinoKat and licensed under GNU Free Documentation License.