Albert King's Lucy

[sammc]

Dear Custom Admin,

 

Has the Gibson Custom Shop made a tribute of Albert King's Gibson Flying V, Lucy?

 

Thank you for your time,

 

Sammc

[barry2001]

Is the 50th anniversary Korina V they about the come out with the same thing ?

[sammc]

No, not exactly. The appearance of the 50th Anniversary Flying V was never associated with Blues players of the late 1950s to the early 1960s. Lucy was more simple in design until the later years when she was seen with pearl embroidery along the fret board (see

). Also, the 50th anniversary description from gibson.com claims to have a hybrid neck of the 50's and 60's Gibson guitars - a cross between a round contour neck and a slim-taper neck. When Albert bought his guitar, it was not the 1960s yet. Therefore, the 50th Anniversary edition would have a different feeling then Lucy.

[barry2001]

I watched the youtube clip . That V is a doubled binded V, some tricked out custom thing . I thought he played a korina V ? Im sure you know better than me, Im not really up on them but I do love the old korina ones . Isnt that the way the new 50th anniversary ones will look ?

[L5Larry]

The V in the video you posted, the one with his name inlayed on the neck, is not a Gibson. It's a custom built job, supposedly made in Nashville by Tom Holmes and given to him by Billy Gibbons. I got his info off the web, but I do remember when he turned up playing this guitar, and at the time it was common knowledge that it was a custom built guitar, not a Gibson. I can make a phone call this week and verify this information.

 

From '60 or '61, until he started playing this custom guitar, he did play a standard right-handed original Korina V. One afternoon in the mid to late '70's I walked into a guitar store here in St. Louis minutes after Albert had just walked out. The store owner said Albert was in there trying to sell his V, but wanted too much money for it. I always wondered (and didn't seem to have asked at the time, or don't remember, it was the 70's you know) whether it was the original Korina one or the custom. And if it was his original Gibson, I wonder what was "too much money" at the time.

 

I also got to paw a '59 one time kind of by accident. I was in a friend of mine's store one day and there was a V on the workbench. I walked over and just picked it up and started checking it out. I asked if this was one of the '80's reissues, and he said "no, that's a '59". I said "a real '59", as I very gently put it back in the cradle on the bench.

[sammc]

Hey, cool story. I have always wanted to try the original Gibson's. Such age and tone would be incredible to play. Thanks for all the information. Do you know a web page where I can listen to the different sounds of the Flying Vs? I would really like to compare the 50th anniversary edition to one of the older Korina's.