WHEN THE FLYING V’s original patent appeared in 1957 alongside the Futura/Explorer and Moderne, it might have been argued that Ted McCarty’s heady 1950s sci-fi-style brainstorming sessions in the Gibson boardroom were a little too far out in the modernist field. As it turned out, these guitars were way ahead of their time and took many years to catch on. The Flying V stuttered, stalled and got off to a few false starts before it really began to fly. Fender’s Stratocaster and Telecaster models consistently captured the guitar-buying public’s imagination by embodying the modernist design principle that “form follows function.” But for the Flying V, function appeared to follow its form, as it eventually took off and found its wings as an archetypal hard-rock statement.
“It’s very much a rock guitar,” says Mike Long, proprietor of ATB Guitars (atbguitars.com) in Cheltenham, England, where the 1969 Flying V shown here was taking up temporary residence. “And that’s probably dictated by its shape as much as anything else. It evokes a certain kind of playing style. You can’t exactly sit down and play folk music on it. You’re more likely to strap it on, stand up and rock out with it. The pickups are very raunchy-sounding mid-’60s humbuckers with lots of bite and sustain. You won’t see many of these being played through clean Fender amps, but they really come into their own through something like a Marshall stack.”
This story is from the June 2020 edition of Guitar Player.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2020 edition of Guitar Player.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MY CAREER IN FIVE SONGS
\"La Grange\" aside, these are the songs Billy F. Gibbons considers among his finest achievements.
TIP SHEET
He's played with and learned from the masters. Here are Christone \"Kingfish\" Ingram's best practices for performance.
How I Wrote..."The Story in Your Eyes"
Justin Hayward reveals the story and hidden message behind the Moody Blues' timeless 1971 hit single.
TWA
Krytical Mass KM-01 Reactive Octave Fuzz
FENDER
Tone Master Pro FR-10 Powered Cabinet
TWO NOTES
Special Edition Limited Run Torpedo Captor X
FENDER
Tone Master Pro Floor Modeler
AMERICANA AMBASSADOR
David Grisman details the historic mandolins, guitars and banjos he played on the Acoustic America album, as exhibited at Arizona's Musical Instrument Museum.
CAN'T STOP THE BOP
He's a bebop originator who's played with everyone from Charlie Parker to Jimmy McGriff. Now 96 and fronting a new album, Chicago guitarist George Freeman shows no sign of slowing down
DIRTY DEEDS
Looking for fresh musical inspiration, Kenny Wayne Shepherd left Nashville for Alabama's FAME Studios. The result is Dirt on My Diamonds, Vol. 1, the first half of a new album project that continues his blues-rock evolution.