Morten M Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 When I was lucky and found the Reverse V I bought it from Frank, Woodstock Guitars, Aarhus, DK. In a later phone conversation about the Reverse I ask him about GOTW 40 and get 'oh yeah, I remember that one. It's already ordered'. So offer him a '78 Fender P-bass fretless + a Fender Japan J-bass fretless in trade for this '84 Reissue. And receive a mail that says his motto is: The trade must never stop. Both he and I know that Gibson's newest stuff arrive last at this outpost in the distribution system called Denmark. So patience is a key word involving anything who supposed to arrive anytime soon. The V arrived at the store Friday 18. Jan, - 18 weeks after week 40. I went to pick it up Tuesday some 105 miles away from where I live. At Woodstock the V was hangin' on the premier exhibition spot on the wall next to the sofa and newly brewed cofee and ashtray ready. First let me point out that this guitar isn't a correct reissue as I have serious doubts the original '84 was made in mahogany at all. I have a suspicion also based on pictures of broken V's from that period that the '84 without scratchplate was alder with maple neck (and please correct me if I'm wrong!). This one is definitely made of Mahogany! First inspection: It's a silverburst. The first edition of this colour in almost two decades (if we ignore the ’07 Custom Shop edition) with a price tag reachable for normal mortals. 400 made. The finish looks thin. Gloss black headstock and black trussrod cover with silver lettering. Neat Sitting in the sofa looking up at the guitar I noticed in the mirror reflection that the surface of the V was uneven and judging from the waves I'd say the body is made of 4 - 5 pieces glued together. I was quite pissed off when noticing it. Haven't been able to catch this on camera so it's very little but mostly get worse with time. Unplugged the tone is quite nice but with low volume/resonance. It doesn't have Dirty Fingers pu's as the original '84 and thank god for that. The tuners seems more stable than tried on other Flying V's. Gibson's sealed tuners. A nice touch. The ebony fretboard is also there to add a touch of class that I until now haven't tried on a Gibson Flying V. Very neatly done. Apart from some almost invisible blemishes that maybe will show up after using Gibson's fretboard cleaner (I don't trow away a perfectly new set of strings until they're played dead so that'll be known later). The layout of the controls is only the most necessary volume, tone and 3-way switch. The jack output is situated in a place where my wireless transmitter doesn't collide with anything the placement is ok with me. The volume control is hard to reach with my little finger and have strong friction and no noise. This is of no consequence in my setup as I mute the signal with a Morley Triplex. Second inspection: After taking the V out of its case at home I began wondering if this was one to many and discovered the big difference to my other V's I've never tried a Flying V with raised frets before. These frets are mountains! And as such it beats my Korean Dean Michael Schenker Custom in being the easiest V for tapping techniques ever! Brilliant. Plugged in the tone is very full compared to other factory pu's I've thrown into the spares box. The pu's although with bit higher output than to my normal liking sound good and different than in the normal '67 reissue. Probably because the pu's are sitting in their rings instead of a pickguard and get a better transmission from the body. There's no need to adjust action or intonation. Everything is spot on. That's rare. Conclusion: I'm gonna keep this Flying V as it is. It has its own sound and oozes of class plugged in. The finish is disappointingly what I've come expect from Gibson. Maybe some Danish organisational know how and skill around Quality Control could come in handy in the future. It has raised frets, silverburst finish, sealed tuners and ebony fretboard that sets it apart from other 'runs of the mill'. But the feeling of raised frets on a smooth ebony fingerboard are probably what the Silverburst Flying V '84 reissue will be remembered for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVinci13 Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Thank you for the review. I also have this guitar and I am very pleased with it. Coming from playing a Fender it is definitely a different beast to play. I personally love the ebony fretboard. I work in a laboratory and I have access to a very good balance. My guitar weighs 3.4645kg, which is 7.6379 lbs. My strat is 8.51425lbs and the Epiphone is 9.07423lbs. My guitar case broke in 4 days of receiving the guitar, the handle pulled out of the body of the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morten M Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 Thank you for the review. I also have this guitar and I am very pleased with it. Coming from playing a Fender it is definitely a different beast to play. I personally love the ebony fretboard.I work in a laboratory and I have access to a very good balance. My guitar weighs 3.4645kg' date=' which is 7.6379 lbs. My strat is 8.51425lbs and the Epiphone is 9.07423lbs. My guitar case broke in 4 days of receiving the guitar, the handle pulled out of the body of the case.[/quote'] How on earth did that happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVinci13 Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Well, you have this guitar and its case. The leather handle is quite large, and the guitar + case is fairly heavy. I was carrying it from the house to my car and one of the rivets on the U-shaped part that holds one end of the handle to the guitar case body pulled right out. The rivet was actually quite small (short) and the wood in the case itself is really not that thick, so the rivet pulled right out. The Case dropped from my hands and hit the floor. No damage to the guitar thankfully, but the case is scuffed up. I have a fairly well stocked woodshop and happened to have a correct length bolt with locking nut and replaced the rivet with the bolt. I then quite easily removed the remaining 3 rivets from the handle with a flat head screw driver and replaced them all with the bolt/locking nut configuration. I don't think the handle will be pulling off now. Being from Canada I was very disappointed in the Canadian made case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydra26 Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Congrats guys. New toys are fun. Does it have the regular 500T/496R set or did I actually miss out? The specs I read indicated it had the same specs as a stock flying v and I thought I'd rather have the extra volume knob to blend the sound of the pups better. Couldn't justify buying another V just for the looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morten M Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 Congrats guys. New toys are fun. Does it have the regular 500T/496R set or did I actually miss out? The specs I read indicated it had the same specs as a stock flying v and I thought I'd rather have the extra volume knob to blend the sound of the pups better. Couldn't justify buying another V just for the looks. I think it's the 500/496 combo. It's always tempting to modify a guitar but I've got plenty of those already so I'll leave it as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVinci13 Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Here are some more photos of my 84' reissue, GOTW 40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibis Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 They both look very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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