2021 3.14Kg Aged Gibson Custom Shop CS ’67 Flying V Sparkling Burgundy Maestro

The Flying V and the Explorer are two of the most iconic guitars of all time. Dave Davies, Allen Collins, Jimi Hendrix, The Edge, Neil Young, Albert King, Brent Hinds, Gary Moore, Matt Heafy, and so many more have used these classic guitars on-stage and in the studio to create their music. Though these guitars are now beloved legends of the guitar world, they weren’t always so popular...

The story of the Flying V and Explorer begins in the early fifties, years before they were ever put into production. In the early fifties The Gibson company understood that they had to continue competing with their archrival Fender, otherwise Fender would continue to grow and take over the guitar market. So in 1957 Gibson went to the drawing board to come up with something extraordinary... They put together a team consisting of Ted McCarty, Jon House, Larry Allers, and Rendall Wall to create three new “Modernistic” guitars to compete with Fender: the Explorer, the Flying V, and the Moderne. They wanted to introduce these guitars at the NAMM and make waves in the industry. After creating these three designs, Gibson filed patents for the guitars’ designs. This was an unusual move for Gibson, as they typically only got patents for tech focused things like pickup designs. It was likely a response to Fender since they applied for patents for the Telecaster and P-Bass designs. It’s unsure which of the three guitars actually made it to NAMM. There is a photo of an unfinished Explorer at NAMM, but no confirmation exists of the other two guitars being there. However, it’s likely that the other models were there, as the event was used to gauge interest and enthusiasm for the designs. The Explorer and Flying V were both eventually put into production, but the Moderne did not—suggesting that all three guitars were viewed at NAMM, but the Moderne didn’t do well enough to make it to production.  

In February of 1958, Gibson put the Explorer and Flying V into production and finally Gibson’s new rivals to the Stratocaster were hitting the market! There was one issue though: they weren’t selling.... Only 81 Flying Vs and 19 Explorers were produced in 1958, meanwhile 434 sunburst Les Pauls were sold the same year. And while the Flying V had some success, both guitars failed miserably at competing with the Stratocaster. Gibson hoped sales would improve the following year as more people would know about the guitars, but that was sadly not the case. Sales of the Explorer and Flying V were even worse in 1959, selling respectively 3 and 17 guitars. Combined, Gibson only sold 20 Explorers and Flying Vs in 1959... By the end of the year, Gibson stopped producing both the Explorer and Flying V. Though the guitars were great instruments worth thousands now, the guitar world just wasn’t ready to embrace the wild designs. They simply were ahead of their time. Thankfully, 1959 would not be the end for these two incredible designs!

Fast forward to 1965 (which is basically only 6 years later...). Dave Davies of the Kinks walks into a local music shop when a Flying V catches his eye. He loves it, buys the guitar and starts using it on stage. Surprisingly, people were very interested in Davies’ guitar and wanted their own. As demand started to build for more Flying Vs, Gibson was reluctant to try again since the guitar failed so spectacularly last time. However, the demand would eventually be too much for Gibson to resist and by 1967, Flying Vs were back in production!! Soon, some of the most popular artists in the world like Jimi Hendrix, Allen Collins, Albert King and many more could be seen using the Flying V. At this point guitarists finally understood what an incredible guitar the Flying V was. As the years went by, the Flying V was released and re-released countless of times by Gibson. Now, Gibson and Epiphone both make a variety of Flying V models and they are still popular guitars. 

These days the coveted and hyper rare originals from '58 and '59 command absolutely MASSIVE prices and the 67 models are catching up fast as well fetching 60k and more. What is left for us mere mortal souls are the Custom Shop recreations. They are both accessible and accurate at the same time! Every profile, contour and detail has been rendered in exceptional excellence and the look and feel takes you back 60 years easily. 

That look and feel was taken to another level as this particular Flying V was aged to perfection by Auge Guitars in Germany. Besides a lovely aging and fading of the Sparkling Burgundy nitro finsh to this stunning Gold/Burgundy you also see on tyhe originals, it is fitted with underwound Alnico 3 Gibson Custombuckers, aged nickel Maestro Vibrola and ABR-1 hardware, aged black reflector knobs, matched 550k VIP pots, luxe Bumblebee capacitors and a hand wired harness. The solid mahogany neck has a real smooth typical '67 V-ish shape that feels super fast and smooth and hide glue was used to set it into the long tenon neck joint into the solid mahogany body.
 
And with only 3.14Kg this lightweight V is an absolute featherweight to be rocked all night long! 

The guitar comes with the original Gibson Flying V case, COA Certificate Of Originality, paperwork, case candy and an Augeguitars certificate of aging the guitar.