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Ever since its introduction the Flying V electric guitar has gained numerous admirers all over the world. It’s V designed body became ideally suited to the countless guitar players who like to stand out and who also like to pose on when performing live.

This guitar has existed much longer than some people realise, though it has experienced one or two design adjustments in the process. These instruments are still produced today and are as popular now as they ever have been.

Here are 10 facts about this legendary guitar:

1. The Gibson guitar Company first commenced manufacturing prototypes of the Flying V in 1957.

2. The original guitars were made from a wood called Korina. This wood resembles mahogany although lighter in colour.

3. The official Flying V product premiered in 1958 and only 81 instruments ended up shipped that year. An extra 17 ended up shipped in 1959.

4. Whilst these initial models are really valuable and collectable nowadays, the earliest versions were priced at $247.50 with a further $75 required for the standard hardcase.

5. To put in perspective how collectable these unique models are in the present day, a 1958 or 1959 model happens to be the 5th most collectable electric guitar around and is worth in the region of $200,000 – $250,000.

6. There have been a lot of well-known users of this kind of guitar throughout the years including: Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Marc Bolan, Tom Petty and the Schenker brothers.

7. Gibson made a style and design change in 1967 when they introduced mahogany as the wood of choice for the instrument. There were also subtle modifications to the shape and also the introduction of a new scratch plate, another type of bridge and tailpiece configuration and also a different control system. The 1967 product had become the standard Flying V guitar and still is to this day.

8. Between 1979 and 1982 a V2 model was released. This instrument had completely different carvings in the body and even had two boomerang shaped single coil guitar pickups as standard. These pickups would not prove a big success and many guitar players over the years chose to replace these with humbuckers.

9. The Flying V grew to be synonymous with heavy rock as a result of its ability to fit over the guitarists knee when being played live on stage.

10. The 1967 mahogany variation of the Flying V is manufactured in much the same way as the Gibson SG model, apart from the noticeable variations in the shape.

So that’s the Flying V electric guitar. It Is not necessarily every person’s cup of tea and it undoubtedly seems to be a fairly genre specific model, having said that in 1957 this guitar was certainly a hugely ground breaking design.

You may want to check under your bed just in case you have an authentic 1958 model lying there.

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