Anyone know more info on this V

[Fitz]

Hi

 

I am new to this forum. I have a Heritage black flying v from 1982/3. I am trying to find out more info on this guitar and when I check the internet I can't get the info I am looking.

 

I had been looking for a korina flying v for so long. I was searching magazines and phoning vintage shops in London and eventually I found one. "1982, factory black, gold hardware, very good condition and excellent tone" the guy said on the phone. "Original case and it is one of twenty they made in black."

 

I told him it sounded good but what I really wanted was a Natural korina 82 v and not really the black. He sent some photos to me in the mail and I had a chance to look at the guitar. I left it for another month or so but still couldn't find the v I wanted. They seem so hard to find so I called the guy and they still had it and afew days later my "new" 1982 korina flying v arrived.

 

What a guitar! Stunning! Now, the guitar had been used, afew dings but they add to the character. I just found myself staring at the guitar, she is so alluring. The serial number also gave more credibility to the wiff of BS 1/20 I was told by the salesman trying to make a sale. G 012 Painted on the back of the headstock and made in USA stamped.

 

I have trawled the internet looking for anything to back up this one of twenty story.

 

1981 to 1983 Heritage Flying V's

The guitars have an inked serial number preceeded by a letter

 

Serial Number

Annn 1981

Bnnn 1981 - 1982

Cnnn 1982 - 1983

Dnnn 1983

 

It goes on to say that in 81 on red and natural were made 83 nat red blk and white. so is mine an 83 because in 84 only white was available.

(http://www.flying-v.ch/numbers/numbers.html)

 

Any help would be great.

Thanks for reading

[cjsinla]

Hi

 

I am new to this forum. I have a Heritage black flying v from 1982/3. I am trying to find out more info on this guitar and when I check the internet I can't get the info I am looking.

 

I had been looking for a korina flying v for so long. I was searching magazines and phoning vintage shops in London and eventually I found one. "1982, factory black, gold hardware, very good condition and excellent tone" the guy said on the phone. "Original case and it is one of twenty they made in black."

 

I told him it sounded good but what I really wanted was a Natural korina 82 v and not really the black. He sent some photos to me in the mail and I had a chance to look at the guitar. I left it for another month or so but still couldn't find the v I wanted. They seem so hard to find so I called the guy and they still had it and afew days later my "new" 1982 korina flying v arrived.

 

What a guitar! Stunning! Now, the guitar had been used, afew dings but they add to the character. I just found myself staring at the guitar, she is so alluring. The serial number also gave more credibility to the wiff of BS 1/20 I was told by the salesman trying to make a sale. G 012 Painted on the back of the headstock and made in USA stamped.

 

I have trawled the internet looking for anything to back up this one of twenty story.

 

1981 to 1983 Heritage Flying V's

The guitars have an inked serial number preceeded by a letter

 

Serial Number

Annn 1981

Bnnn 1981 - 1982

Cnnn 1982 - 1983

Dnnn 1983

 

It goes on to say that in 81 on red and natural were made 83 nat red blk and white. so is mine an 83 because in 84 only white was available.

(http://www.flying-v.ch/numbers/numbers.html)

 

Any help would be great.

Thanks for reading

 

Here's mine but I thought mine was made in 84. I got it when it first came out so it could be 82 I guess. I heard about some of the other colors and saw some kid playing a thrashed black one at a gig a few months ago. Mine came with a black guard but they did make some with white.

 

 

 

As you can see, mine has the A XXX number. I was always of the impression that the flying V and the explorer were initially made mostly in the natural finish because that was the way they made them in 1958. I never heard of the one out of 20 story before.

 

I believe that these guitars were made with the Shaw pick ups. I haven't taken mine out and looked at them but I took one out of my 82 Les Paul recently and as you can see by the picture, there is actually a date stamp on the pick up. The 682 means June 1982

 

[Fitz]

Hi

 

That guitar is lovely looking. I always wanted the natural. But I think it might be a 81 because the A although Im not 100% sure on that. It would be interesting if you looked under one of the pick ups to see.

 

I took a look under the bridge pickup and the number is 154683 so that should be june 83 but the guitar s/n is G 012. Which I've been told is a 1984 number.

 

I have also been told that its probably Mahogany and NOT korina, which would make sense to paint it black and not leave it natural. The person that told me this said the way to check if its mahogany or korina is to check under the pickups. So i did. Would you know if this is mahogany or korina??

 

Thanks for getting back to me

[Fitz]

is this a bigger photo

[cjsinla]

Hi

 

That guitar is lovely looking. I always wanted the natural. But I think it might be a 81 because the A although Im not 100% sure on that. It would be interesting if you looked under one of the pick ups to see.

 

I took a look under the bridge pickup and the number is 154683 so that should be june 83 but the guitar s/n is G 012. Which I've been told is a 1984 number.

 

I have also been told that its probably Mahogany and NOT korina, which would make sense to paint it black and not leave it natural. The person that told me this said the way to check if its mahogany or korina is to check under the pickups. So i did. Would you know if this is mahogany or korina??

 

Thanks for getting back to me

 

It looks a little light to be mahogany. Fender used to paint some guitars solid colors because they used multiple pieces of wood, wood they wanted to use up. It might still be korina.

[Fitz]

I've been in touch with the service department from Gibson. Just waiting to see if they can shed any light on this.

[cjsinla]

I've been in touch with the service department from Gibson. Just waiting to see if they can shed any light on this.

 

I'm going to have to pull the pickups on mine to see what date is on them. I'm still curious about when yours was made. Post more pics. Get a Photobucket or Flickr account, upload pics to that account. You can then post links here.

[Fitz]

Post more pics. Get a Photobucket or Flickr account, upload pics to that account. You can then post links here.

 

Will do thanks for your help

[Fitz]

[Fitz]

 

[Fitz]

 

[cjsinla]

 

 

What is that tan thing?

[cjsinla]

 

Looks like the real deal. Hardware looks like mine. Played mine at rehearsal yesterday They are very nice guitars.

[Fitz]

The tan thing is to connect the strap. It came with the guitar when I bought it So I have just left it on

[Fitz]

Gibson Europe have got back to me and confirmed it is a Heritage Flying V but said the following

"The serial number would place the guitar around 1982 I think (the serial number is sequential and therefore difficult to date exactly), but I cannot confirm that there were only 20 made; we don’t have this info available as it’s considered as confidential information."

 

A helpful guy, here on the forum and works at Gibson, replied the following

This does indeed appear to be a Flying V Heritage model, likely made in 1983. From what I was able to find, this was only shown on the Gibson price list from 1981-1983 and only came with Korina woods. We have no records of production totals from this time, but there were likely more than 20 made in Ebony finish between 1981-1983.

 

This is all great help but I emailed the guy from http://www.flying-v.ch/ and am hoping he might shed some light on it

[cjsinla]

Gibson Europe have got back to me and confirmed it is a Heritage Flying V but said the following

"The serial number would place the guitar around 1982 I think (the serial number is sequential and therefore difficult to date exactly), but I cannot confirm that there were only 20 made; we don’t have this info available as it’s considered as confidential information."

 

A helpful guy, here on the forum and works at Gibson, replied the following

This does indeed appear to be a Flying V Heritage model, likely made in 1983. From what I was able to find, this was only shown on the Gibson price list from 1981-1983 and only came with Korina woods. We have no records of production totals from this time, but there were likely more than 20 made in Ebony finish between 1981-1983.

 

This is all great help but I emailed the guy from http://www.flying-v.ch/ and am hoping he might shed some light on it

 

My A series V has the date of May 1982 on the pickups. The volume pot is 1980, the tone pot is 1979 I assume mine was made in 1982. I would go by the date on your pups, too. 1983 sounds about right.

[cjsinla]

I found this little article on a site about dating pots.

 

http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/gibson/FlyingV.php

 

Flying V

[Fitz]

how do you date the pots is it the same as the last 3 numbers on the pickups?

[Fitz]

I found this little article on a site about dating pots.

 

http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/gibson/FlyingV.php

 

Flying V

Thanks

[cjsinla]

Did you figure it out yet?

 

 

CTS pots have a 7 digit code that usually starts with 137. The next two digits are the year. The last two digits are the week of the year. I've provided a picture of the pots and my V. It can be hard to read them because of the soldering. However, sometimes you can figure it out by looking at several of the pots. The other numbers, two numbers, a – , followed by three additional numbers, are the Gibson part number. I was able to read 137802 on one of the pots. The 80 was the year but I could not make out the week but it really didn't make much difference to me. The part number on the pot is 70–031. The link on that site with the information about the guitar says that pot is a 300 K pot. If you look closely in this picture you can see some of the numbers.

[Fitz]

where would be the best place to sell this guitar

[cjsinla]

where would be the best place to sell this guitar

 

Didn't you just buy it? If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for that guitar?

[Fitz]

Didn't you just buy it? If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for that guitar?

No I bought it years ago in 98 was thinking of selling

[Eric Thompson]

On 12/20/2013 at 12:12 PM, Fitz said:

where would be the best place to sell this guitar

Your not going to believe this. I was the origanal owner of that guitar. I bought it from Mahoney music. In Las Vegas Nevada wear i still live ive been searching the internet for years trying to find it. A girlfriend (pyscho) pawned it while i was in jaili will send pics if this forum allows if you ever want to sell it im down and anything you want to know about it just ask . does it still have. Emgs or has someone switched thoae out? 

[Filbert]

Holy necro Batman!