How did the Gibson Flying V came into production?

The mid -50s saw the wave of Gibsons Les Paul models flood the market and this caused Gibson to expand its solid body line. Since 1952, the sales of solid bodies increased and the shape of the Les Paul guitar was copied by many guitar competitors. It was in 1956 that Gibson began to develop new solid bodies that were more aggressive and modern in style.

Three new designs were brought in - the Explorer, the Moderne, and the Gibson Flying V. The Flying V and the Explorer became the official basis for new designs.

1958 saw the birth of good vintage Gibson classics. There was also much modifications being done to new guitar designs and it was a benefit to the company. Newer guitar were introduced to meet the demands of the market and the former models were either altered or discontinued.

At the front of the new wave of products was the Modernistic guitars. Gibson got together a team of engineers and craftsmen who looked into the whole entire collection of electronics and all the fretted instruments, went thoroughly through all the ideas and developments that was being employed at that time. They managed to use some ideas, abandoned some and put the best ideas into Gibsons products.The Gibson Flying V's were made from the best West African korina wood which had only been used for Gibsons Hawaiian models.

On the 21st April of 1958, the Gibson Flying V together with the first production of the ES-335 were sent to dealers. The Flying Vs beautiful design was meant to take out the old-fashioned image of Gibson products. It was the 335 and its other similar designs that brought in the bucks and made a name for Gibson. The best original designs were the double cutaway thin lines made by Gibson in 1958.

The beautiful graceful shape of the Gibson Flying V's was the in thing at that time and this caused other guitar designers to copy Gibsons designs. The most important feature of the thin lines was the semi-solid make. It was Gibsons intentions to make a guitar that would combine the solid and hollow body electrics types and thus appeal to the masses.

The first thin lines to hit the market in 1955 were sensational but tone wise sounded more like the hollow bodies than solid bodies. To rectify this, Gibsons decision was to use a solid block of wood fitted inside the body. Their thinking was that a solid body guitar had a sustaining tone and to get this sustain, they used a solid block of maple which was inserted all the way through the body and by doing this, the guitar was lighter in weight.

The pickups, bridge, and tail piece were supported by the Maple block and this improved the sustain. The term solid fitting neck was used to illustrate the neck heel which was inserted into the block to strengthen the neck to body junction. Although this worked there was another problem and that was to isolate the two acoustic chambers and prevent unwanted noise.

To settle this situation, a piece of spruce was used. It was glued to the top and the back and this was cut. The spruce piexes were put inside the arch top and back which flattened the arch for the solid maple bar and the instrument was glued together. The double cutaway shape and well fitting neck made playing the higher registers easier. The hollow bodies and the thin liners had the upper body edge flushed at the 14th fret or 16th fret. The latter part of 1957 saw the development of the double cutaway semi-solid guitars.

Gibsons Flying V had an arrow shape, which was a great attraction for many rock guitar players and because of its shape, it also was a les ideal choice for players who wanted play sitting down.

The Gibson Flying V was described as a valuable asset to the guitar player and it sure had a flair for showmanship. On the earlier models the Gibson logo was placed on the head stock while later models had the logo placed on the truss rod cover. The 1958 Gibson Flying V proudly displayed a V shaped tailpiece.

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