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Flying V Mayhem


Southpa

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I'm just not sure. I'd like to ask some of the guys on the Gibson forum but I can't relocate my password in time, got it written down somewhere...dayum.

A guy in town is advertizing a 1975 Gibson Flying V made of korina, gold hardware, in mint condition..for $1500 Cdn. Unfortunately, he posted no pictures. I look in the 2010 Vintage Guitar Buyer's Guide and all V's from 1975 should be made of mahogany. So I phone him up and ask for the serial number so I can do a little research, now it gets a little weird. The SN begins w/ 99050xxx. OK, it might indicate that the guitar is actually a 1990, but that doesn't quite jive. 1st and 5th indicate the year but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th denote days of the year by the Julian calender, so it can't be more that 365. However, 1975 was the first production year for the Gibson Nashville plant and all guitars built in that year DO in fact have serial numbers beginning with 99. But there is still the korina / mahogany dilemma.

The reason why I'm looking into this is because the price offered for a mint 1975 V is pretty damn low. The 1975 mahogany is listed at $3100 to $3600. There is also the Flying V '58 (Historic/Custom shop)which lists at $4500 to $5100, this guitar fits the description of the guitar in question to a tee. But they were made from 1991 to 2005. Too good to be true? Does anyone smell a rat? They guy seemed pretty honest on the phone, he'd only owned the guitar for a year and paid $1400, but does not have the original case.

I just need a bit of help on establishing this guitar's pedigree. The price is pretty good for this guitar if its authentic but its still a large chunk of change regardless. I will be calling him again later this morning about the nature of the SN. The 1975 was ink stamped or stickered and said "Made in USA" on the back of the headstock. Where the Custom shop models' SN was stamped right into the wood. If anyone knows that there were korina V's produced in 1975 that aren't listed in my book then I'll bite.

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if its 75 its before the 8 digit YDDDYRRR which i think was introduced a little later that decade. a 99 start does indicate 75 but they should be 6 digits iirc and you may see a letter before that by 1975.. i think it should be stamped too

it would be a good price but it does scream to good to be true...you need photos and you need to check them out with an expert either way.

ther are always odd ones with gibson which can make this stuff difficult. I had a genuine 335, which some said was fake, some said was very old and some said was very new and it took me ages to get gibson to confirm the provenance and weird serial numbers were all correct and genuine. they were no help till i had figured out the secret code!!

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