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Gibson Flying V 1969 Walnut
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In the mid-1960s, Dave Davies of the Kinks appeared on British television armed with a curiously shaped guitar that immediately piqued the curiosity of the learner guitarists of the time. Faced with this new demand, Gibson finally reissued the Flying V in 1967, in a version that differed in several respects from the original ‘58: the body was made of mahogany rather than korina, the control knobs were arranged in a triangle rather than in line and it had a tremolo instead of the original Tune-O-Matic.
In all, five batches were produced between 1967 and ‘70, when this model was discontinued. Among those batches, it is estimated that about 35 guitars were given a walnut finish, a colour that was much more common on some of the brand’s other models, like the SG or the ES-335 from 1969. Lastly, of those guitars, only three have the head painted black rather than having a walnut finish to match the body. Two of the three black-headed walnut rarities are owned by Leslie West, the lead guitarist of Mountain. And the last one is right here!
This real needle in a haystack comes from the fourth batch, and is all the rarer because it still has all its original parts! The jack input has been resoldered, that’s all!
Whether in the hands of Marc Bolan (T Rex), Albert King (who had a model from 1958, another from ‘67, and a version hand crafted by an artisan luthier), Jimi Hendrix (who used it almost exclusively for the blues), KK Downing (Judas Priest), or Mick Ralphs (Mott The Hoople), the second generation of Flying Vs was as popular, if not more so, than the first. The shape offered an exciting alternative to Gibson’s more classic models, a strong visual message that cannot go unnoticed
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