Gibson Custom Shop '58 Flying V Korina

The 1958 Flying V is one of the great stories in guitar history, and it starts with a complete failure. Gibson put an instrument on the market that looked like it had come out of a science fiction film, and the music world simply wasn't ready. Only a little over eighty were built before the model disappeared again. Today those originals are among the most expensive guitars traded anywhere.

The reason for the cult isn't only the shape and the rarity, though, but above all one material: korina. For this series Gibson used white limba, an African wood that's lighter than mahogany, moves considerably more openly and gives a tone with a presence and sustain you really have to hear. Play a korina guitar and you notice the difference in the first chord.

This reissue from the Gibson Custom Shop takes that template seriously. Korina body and neck, the classic V tailpiece with the strings running through the body, the slim shape language of the originals. And because the Custom Shop knows what matters, the details are right too: the grain comes into its own under the transparent finish, the hardware suits it, and the instrument is built balanced.

It sounds somewhere between a Les Paul and an SG, but more open and airier than either. The korina body responds fast and directly and genuinely sings once you get it moving. The PAF-style humbuckers are moderately wound and leave the wood enough room that the instrument's own character survives. Clean you get surprisingly bell-like tones, with some drive comes that creamy saturation and endless sustain, and wide open it's a rock machine.

On a strap the V is unbeatable anyway: free access to the last fret and a stage presence hardly any other shape can match.

A collector's dream and a stage guitar at once, from Ede's Private Stock. Ede has played this one at Wacken Open Air, among other places.