My Pile of Guitars & Basses

Here a Gibson Flying V2, an 1980 model of experimental design V design with boomerang shaped Tim Shaw inspired humbucking pick ups.

When Tim Shaw arrived at Gibson in 1978, one of his first assignments was to help with designing a companion Guitar to the newly designed E2 Explorer Guitar. This companion guitar would be the new Gibson V2. The V2 looked on the face of it like a V, but the new V2 sported a new 5-layered sculptured walnut and maple body. Initially, these guitars came in a natural finish to accentuate the layered effect, with either Maple or Walnut for the top and bottom layer. This layering was known at Gibson as the “Sandwich” and the sculpted body gave the layering a 3D effect.

Knobs were moved off the pickguard, and a Pearl Gibson logo was inlaid into the black headstock, along with gold Gibson Tuners. Two solid brass 5/8 studs known as the “Sustain Sisters” were fitted into the body to anchor the “Tune-o-matic” Bridge along with a brass nut and brass V-shaped tailpiece. It was thought this would aid sustain and tone of the V2.

The 1979 through 1981 models used the “boomerang” humbucker pickups, designed to sound like single coils with lower noise. Beginning in 1982, the pickups were changed to the “Dirty finger” pickups that were available on only a few models in the early 1980s, including the Explorer, ES-347, ES-335S and the Flying V. The V2 with case retailed for US$1,199 in 1979 (equivalent to $5,033 in 2023), Gibson’s 3rd most expensive guitar. Only 157 V2’s were shipped in 1979. Besides the high price, some players complained about the non-traditional sounding humbucker pickups and the weight of the guitar. Sales were poor for the first 2 years of the V2’s availability, and Gibson was scrambling to find ways to increase demand for these guitars from the dealers.

It became apparent by the early 1980s that the maple top version wasn’t selling as well as the walnut top guitars. To move the maple-top inventory, Gibson began to offer various colour finishes to supplement the initial offering of natural finishes. Custom colours included Pearl white, Blue sparkle, Blue sparkle metallic, Candy Apple Red, Sunburst, Goldburst, Silverburst, Black, and Black Sparkle. The majority of these finishes were applied to maple-top inventory between September 1980 and April 1981.

Generally, the  V2 model has the general shape of previous Flying V’s but the V2 sported a 5-layered sculptured walnut and maple body. Initially these guitars came in either Maple or Walnut for the top & bottom layer known at Gibson as the “Sandwich”. This model is less pronounced “Walnut” than the other V2 in the collection but nevertheless a great guitar.

Also here Vol/Tone Knobs were placed off the pick guard, and with a Pearl Gibson logo. Two solid brass 5/8 studs known as the “Sustain Sisters” and an ebony fret board with low and fast frets.

Here a Gibson V2, an experimental design V style model, loosely based on the original 1967 V. One of the Tim Shaw inspired designs after he arrived at Gibson in 1978, and also one of the experimental designs along the E2 Explorer Guitar and aptly named V2. The general shape of previous Flying V’s was retained by Gibson, but this V2 sported a new 5-layered sculptured walnut and maple body. Initially these guitars came in either Maple or Walnut for the top & bottom layer known at Gibson as the “Sandwich”. The Vol/Tone Knobs were placed off the pickguard, and a Pearl Gibson logo was put on the black headstock. Two solid brass 5/8 studs known as the “Sustain Sisters” were fitted into the body to anchor the “Tune-o-matic” Bridge along with a brass nut and brass “V” shaped tailpiece for sustain. Like this 1980/1, from 1979-1981 these models used the “boomerang” humbucker pickups that were designed to sound like single coils with lower noise whereas later in 1982, the pickups were changed to the “Dirty finger” pickups. The V2 with case retailed for US$1,199 in 1979, Gibson’s 3rd most expensive guitar. Allegedly only 157 V2’s were shipped in 1979. Besides the high price, some players complained about the non-traditional sounding humbucker pickups and the weight of the guitar. Despite all the bad press this guitar sounds cool and can do either grungy and smooth clean etc, the neck is quite slim with Ebony fretboard.