Gibson Flying V Custom

For the longest time I wished they made this guitar. A flying V with all the classy appointments of a Les Paul Custom. This is the highest level of Flying V you can get at the moment. With this guitar what you get is a 58 style Flying V body thats fully bound front and black like a Les Paul Custom. The body is solid mahogany. Up top you get the pointed V headstock with a mini split diamond Les Paul Custom inlay in it. The neck is a fully bound piece of mahogany with an ebony fretboard. The fretboard has 22 frets and the big block inlays like a Les Paul Custom. All the hardware is gold. You get the gold tuners up top and the gold bridge down at the bottom. The bridge is your standard tune-o-matic with a string through 58 V style stop tail which gives great sustain. The example I tired out was slightly modded. The one I had included the pickups I think Gibson should have put in these guitars stock. The one I demoed had a set of 57 Classics.

UTILIZATION

The Gibson Flying V is a classic design that Gibson made worse by trying to fix it. The 58 design is a better playing and sounding design overall than the 67 reissue design. They changed the design for the reissue for ease of manufacture. With the 58 design like what this guitar has you get much better upper fret access. The string through body stop tail provides excellent sustain and resonance. The ebony fretboard on this custom model feels great under your fingers and the big block inlays are impossible to miss.

SOUNDS

With the 57 Classics this guitar sounds like a true classy Gibson. The stock pickups this guitar comes with arent any different than what you get on a standard Flying V. The 57 Classics make this guitar sound as good as it looks. The Classic 57 pickups are modern day imitation of the classic PAF pickup that Gibson made famous. With the Classic 57 PAF style pickups this guitar is a blues and rock machine. The 57's have just the right amount of sag in the tone so you can really work the dynamics like you would with a set of real vintage pickups. The neck pickup is super smooth and when you throw in some tone knob you can get that sour tone like you have a parked wah on. The bridge pickup has a little more bite and spank to it. With some gain you can get good classic rock tones from the bridge pickup. These pickups can handle more gain than a set of PAF's could. Because of their modern design they retain their composure longer than a set of old pickups could and are more consistant from set to set. Back in the day it was true that some pickups made on one day might sound totally different than some pickups made the next day. If you can afford to pay the price of this guitar you can easily afford to swap out the pickups to the ultimate Gibson set.

OVERALL OPINION

This guitar is for the true Flying V enthusiast. For the longest time the Flying V was not seen as a classy guitar. It was just a guitar for people who wanted to stand out or something. Now it finally gets the classy treatment that the Les Paul and SG has gotten for decades. With this setup you can play a Flying V in a suit and not look like a total fool. If you are a flying v enthusiast and have the means this Flying V Custom model is the ultimate edition of the design.