The History of Gibson’s Flying V Guitar
It was 1957, and Gibson had a problem.
Specifically, they were losing ground to Fender, whose new-fangled Stratocasters were taking the guitar world by storm. Fender’s flagship guitar sported a space-aged name and a futuristic and innovative body style. In the height of the Space Race, this resonated with the public.
By contrast, the Les Paul seemed like a throwback to the older Spanish and archtop guitars from the previous half-century. While now we view Les Pauls as iconic, Gibson felt that consumers saw the design as outdated at the time.
The guitar of the future…except it wasn’t (yet)
Gibson CEO Ted McCarty gathered together a team of designers to create their own line of futuristic guitars to level the playing field. The team designed and prototyped three different products: the Moderne (which never made it into production), the Explorer, and the Flying V.
The Flying V body style was the brainchild of Seth Lover, who was also responsible for designing Gibson’s first humbucking pickups. He sketched out several designs that were a departure from previous guitars. When he showed McCarty, the Gibson head laughed and said it “looked like a flying V.” The name stuck, and after prototyping, the guitar went into production in 1958.
