V INTAGEVAULT
DAVE ROGERS & LAUN BRAITHWAITE
1959 Gibson Flying V
Competition from other companies always
pressed Gibson into coming up with some
of its most innovative designs. The rivalry
with Epiphone in the twenties and thirties spurred both companies to produce
the finest acoustic archtop guitars of all
time.
By the 1950s, amplified guitars had
gained prominence, and a new company had entered the fray – Fender. Its
founder, Leo Fender, had developed
the first mass-produced solidbody
electric guitar. Gibson president Ted
McCarty took notice when Fender’s
Telecaster sales became significant
and developed a fancier solidbody
for Gibson with the help of guitar
wizard Les Paul. The classy looking
Les Paul Model in turn inspired
Leo to come up with his futuristic
masterpiece, the Stratocaster.
When Ted McCarty saw how
well the Fender
Stratocaster
was selling, he
decided that
Gibson needed
to come up
some wild,
exciting designs
of its own to
shake the company’s conservative, old-fashioned image.
After examining
the designs of
several artists,
McCarty choose
three designs
to submit to the
patent office in
June of 1957.
These were the
Explorer, the
Moderne and
the Flying V. The
patents were granted in
While prototypes of each were
made, only the Explorer and
the Flying V made it into pro-
duction. The Flying Vs and
Explorers of the late fifties
were made of a light colored
African mahogany called
Korina. McCarty chose this
wood due to the popularity
of blonde hued furniture at
the time, and because no
additional bleaching or tint-
ing was required.
These “modernistic” gui-
tars initially created the
excitement that McCarty
intended, but ultimately
didn’t catch on with the
guitar buying public
until years after the
small initial run had
been discontinued.
More information
on these guitars
can be found in
Gibson Electrics
- The Classic
Years by A.R.
Duchossoir, Flying
V: The Illustrated
History of this
Modernistic
Guitar by Larry
Meiners, and
Gibson Guitars:
Ted McCarty’s
Golden Era:
1948-1966 by
Gil Hembree.
Dave’s
notes: I
purchased
this guitar from
the late Pete Alenov
(Pete’s Guitars) and
as I recall, this one
