SOLD! - 2023 2.9Kg Epiphone 1958 Korina Flying V - Gibson Custom Shop

Amazing recreations of the models that launched the Golden Era of electric guitar design into the Space Age!

Epiphone has announced the launch of a new Limited Edition run of instruments recreating two of the most recognizable and valuable vintage guitars ever produced. Made in partnership with the Gibson Custom Shop, the new Limited Edition 1958 Korina Flying V and 1958 Korina Explorer bring the authentic details of each original model to today’s guitarists!

Although Gibson's first solidbody electric guitar—the Les Paul Standard—has come to represent the pinnacle achievement of design in the instrument category today, by 1957, sales of the company’s flagship solidbody guitar were not as high as Gibson President Ted McCarty had hoped. So, ahead of the NAMM show that same year, he put together a team of employees at Gibson to design the what would come to be known as the “Modernistic” series, with an aim to shake things up at the show, by coming up with guitar shapes that were different from anything else on the market.

Far ahead of their time, the resulting futuristic designs—which included the Flying V and Explorer—achieved McCarty’s goal, shocking the guitar world with Modernistic series’ sharply-angled shapes and supremely resonant Korina bodies.

While the Flying V was adopted by a few players from the start, like bluesman Albert King, the Modernistic series models produced from '58-’59 were seen largely as novelties, with only an estimated 98 Flying V's having shipped, overall, while just a mere 22 Explorers are known to have been produced, making the surviving instruments from both models’ initial production run even rarer and more valuable finds on the vintage market than even the fabled Les Paul Standard Bursts from the same years!


LIMITED EDITION 1958 KORINA FLYING V

Recreating what is arguably one of the most distinctive and beloved guitar shapes ever produced, the Epiphone Limited Edition 1958 Flying V features a solid 2 piece Korina body and neck with a long neck tenon and 1958 Flying V neck profile. Equipped with an Indian laurel fretboard and gold hardware, it also features Gibson Burstbucker 2 and Burstbucker 3 pickups wired to individual volume controls and a master tone control with CTS potentiometers and a Mallory capacitor. An Epiphone x Gibson Custom logo is proudly displayed on the back of the headstock, and a cool rectangular brown hardshell case with pink plush lining is also included, as well as the paperwork, hangtags etc.