In this section there are several pictures of the guts of some late 1960's Flying Vs, including the body cavities, wiring, pickups and pots. In several of the below pics you can clearly see the factory hand-routes at the corner of the pickup wiring cavity channel to allow for the pickup wires to reach the pots. The pickup wires were cut to short when some of the pickguard assemblies were put together. Some guitars have a brass noise shield in the control cavity and some do not. Some of the pickguards have the red inked QA inspection stamp some have black. This section also includes information and pictures of the various neck joint shelves that were used on the 5 different batches of Flying Vs. It also includes info on the various knobs, pickups, Vibrola tremelo units, the case, tuners, schematics, etc.
There is also a section called "Custom Order" on this web page that is dedicated to the few known late 60's Gibson Flying V guitars that were custom ordered from the factory in the late 1960's. ___________________________________________________________________________
Control Cavity, Electronics & Pickguard
Notice in the control cavity of this guitar that the white Ground wire from the pots connects into the side of the body and goes to the Vibrola plate for Ground. This is how the Ground wire was connected on all of the Batch #3 through Batch #5 Flying Vs. Also notice the hand-routed pickup wiring cavity channel just above the brass noise shield. The brass noise shields were also installed randomly. Some Flying Vs from various batches have one and some do not.
Also notice the silverish- grey EMI coating on the back of the pickguard around the pots and the red inked QA stamp and .
Notice the rounded corners on the pickguard by the two front mounting screws. Replacement pickguards will never look exactly like this.
Notice in the control cavity of this Batch #1 or #2 Cherry V that the yellow Ground wire goes to the ABR-1 bridge post. This is how the Ground wire was connected on the Batch #1 and Batch #2 Flying Vs. Notice the hand-routed pickup wiring cavity channel.
All 1960's Gibson Flying Vs came with the standard PAT # STICKER humbucking pickups as shown below. However, a few Vs had a single early "PAT APPLIED FOR" PAF humbucking pickup. Every now-and-then other Gibson guitars from the mid-1960's would show-up with an early PAF pickup. There were probably some PAF pickups left over from the early 1960's that were just "laying around". They would eventually all be used up.
Notice the brass noise shield.
Here is a Batch three Control Cavity and electronics. Notice the .02 capacitor.
Here is a three layer pickguard with a black ink QA stamp.
Here is a rare four layer pickguard with a white ink QA stamp.
Here is a three layer pickguard with a red ink QA stamp.
Notice the pot date code of 1376630. This is the most common date code I have seen on a late 60's Flying V. This makes me think that most of the 175 pickguard assemblies were made at the same time. I have only seen about five cavities that were not hand-routed. Other common pot codes I have seen are 1376620 and 1376640.
Control cavity of a 1967 Sparkling Burgundy Flying V. Notice the hand-routed pickup wiring channel with exposed bare wood. This extra hand-routing was done so the pickup wiring harnes wires could reach the pots. The two pickup wires were actually cut too short. As a result, this area needed to be hand-chiseled so they would reach.
Notice the Ground wire on this Batch #1 guitar. It also goes to the ABR-1 bridge post.
Another Batch #1 wire harness. Notice the two green wires connecting from the toggle switch to the two pots and one gray wire connecting from the toggle switch to the pot ground case...... This seems to be the most common color combination for these connections. Sometimes the gray wire is white on the later Batches.
The pickup cavities of a '69 Walnut V. Notice the hand-routed factory mods in the upper right hand corner. The hand routes even appeared on the 1969 models.
The control cavity of a 1969 Walnut V.
Many 69 Walnut Flying V's', but not all, have all yellow wiring which was another departure from Batches 1-4. The all yellow electronics wiring in the control cavity was typical of many 1969 Gibson guitars.
Most of the Batch #1 Cherry Flying Vs that have surfaced over the years have additional pickup cavity hand routes as shown below. It appears the cavities on most of the Batch #1 Vs were not machined low enough into the wood and the pickups would bottom-out when lowered. As a result, the cavities had to be hand-routed to remove more wood.
There are two early Batch #2 Sunburst Flying Vs that have serial numbers that start with 005xxx that have surfaced over the years. Both of them have additional hand routing in the pickup cavities just like some of the cherry Vs from Batch #1. This was done to lower the pickups . The V shown below is 005102.
Another Batch #1 Cherry V with cavities that had to be hand-routed to remove more wood. All of the Batch #1 Cherry Flying Vs had these mods.
Black Top Hat Knobs. These were commonly used on the Flying Vs from Batches #1 and #5. They were also used sparingly on a few guitars from Batches #2 and #3.
Witch hat knobs with gold lettering and gold inserts. The gold trim Witch hats knobs were used on guitars from Batch #4.
Top Hat Knobs, gold. These gold knobs were only used on a few guitars from Batches #3 and #4. Also, notice the more common longer Vibrola Tremelo base plate. The longer base plate was used on most Gibson Flying V guitars from all five batches.
Witch Hat Knobs with white lettering and silver inserts. This is the most common knob that was used on the 1960's Gibson Flying V guitars. They were used on Batches #2, #3, #4 and #5. Also, notice the less common shorter Vibrola Tremelo base plate. The shorter base plate was only used sparingly on Batches #3 and #4. Only two of the 1960's Flying Vs are known to have the shorter Vibrola base plate.
Pictured below is the Vibrola Tremelo unit that was used on all of the 1969 Walnut Flying Vs from Batch #5. It has the more common longer base plate. However, the screw plate that the Vibrola bar mounts to is not as wide as the other screw plates shown above. Thus, the Vibrola bar is mounted further away from the three control knobs. This smaller screw plate was only used on 1969 Flying Vs.
This section shows the various neck shelves that were used on the 1960's Flying V guitars. The 35 earliest Flying Vs from Batch #1 have the short neck shelf. All but 1 of the 35 are Cherry. The Sunburst and Cherry Vs from Batch #2 have the longer U-shaped neck shelf. This also includes a few sparkling burgundy Vs. The neck shelves used on Batches #3 and #4 were the longer, tapered, V-shaped neck shelf. The Batch #5 guitars from 1969 have the very short neck shelf. Certain neck shelf and serial number combinations help pin-point the specific production batches that many of the guitars came from. Pictured below are several neck shelf examples.
Batch #1: Short neck shelf. All 35 Batch #1 serial numbers are 0009xx and have the Cherry finish except the 1966 Sunburst prototype which has the serial number 811197.
Batch #1: Short neck shelf
Batch #1: Short neck shelf
Batch #1: Short neck shelf
The Sunburst Prototype from Batch #1. This is the only Sunburst Flying V with the short neck shelf.
The Batch #2 larger, U-shaped neck shelf. This style of neck shelf was also used on a few Batch #3 Flying Vs. The serial numbers from Batches #2 and #3 are 0002xx, 001xxx and 005xxx.
Batch #2 and early Batch #3: Larger U-shaped neck shelf. The picture below is from a Sunburst flying V with a 005xxx serial number. It is most-likely from Batch #2 or early Batch #3 I have also seen one Sparkling Burgundy Flying V with the same serial number series (005xxx). It also has the U-shaped neck shelf. The delema is that the Sparkling Burgundy finish was not used until Batch #3. This is one of the mysteries of the Sparkling Burgundy finish and when it was first introduced on the Flying V.
Batch #3 and #4, tapered "V-shaped" neck shelf. The later Batch #3 and Batch #4 Vs have serial numbers 920xxx, 930xxx, 932xxx, 940xxx , 954xxx and 955xxx.
Batch #3 and #4, tapered "V-shaped" neck shelf.
Batch #3 and #4, tapered "V-shaped" neck shelf
Batch #5, short neck shelf (1969). All Batch#5 Flying Vs are Walnut and have serial numbers 906xxx, 907xxx & 908xxx. All of them have the very short neck shelf pictured below.
Pictured Below is the huge, custom-built factory 1245 Faultless yellow plush-line case that was issued with all of the Flying Vs from Batches #1 - #4 and most of the Vs from Batch #5. These large square cases were prone to falling apart. As a result many of the 1967 -1969 Gibson Flying Vs are missing their original cases. The dimensions of the case are: 46 1/4 x 18 1/4 x 4 1/4. The cases for the Batch #5 Walnut Vs were identical except they had the stenciled Gibson logo gold lettering on both sides of the case and did not have the inner compartment lid.
The yellow-lined tear drop case pictured below is not a Gibson Faultless case. It is an Ibanez case that was sold with the Ibanez nock-0ff Flying Vs from the mid-1970s. This Ibanez case was copied from the design of the Gibson Flying V Medallion purple-lined tear drop case. Over the years, V players have acquired one of these cases to store their V in. I have seen a hand-full of 1960s Vs that used this after-market Ibanez case.
Pictured below is the Faultless case that was used for the thirty five Batch #5 Walnut 1969 Gibson Flying Vs. These Faultless square cases have the Gibson logo on the front and back of the case. Gibson stared putting their "gold letter" logo on all of their cases in 1969, including the cases for the Les Paul, SG, ES-335 etc. This same case was used for the last 15 Flying Vs from Batch #4 that were built in 1967 and actually shipped in 1970. Thanks Johnny.
KLUSON DELUXE tuners: The double-lined Kluson Deluxe tuners first appeared in the late 1950's and were used until they were phased out in late 1968 - early 1969. All of the Gibson Flying Vs from Batches #1 - #4 were fitted with these tuners at the factory. In the late 1960's and 1970's, many Flying V owners removed these tuners in favor of Grover tuners due to tuner slippage and looseness of the Kluson tuners. Notice the KLUSON DELUXE inscription on the Batch #1 Cherry Flying V shown below.
GIBSON DELUXE tuners: After the Kluson Deluxe tuners were phased out in late 1968 through early 1969, Gibson started using the double-lined Gibson Deluxe tuners. They are identical to the Kluson tuners with the exception KLUSON was replaced with GIBSON on the back of the tuner. These tuners were used on all Gibson guitars starting in early 1969 and were phased out in 1974. GIBSON DELUXE tuners were used on all of the 1969 Batch #5 Walnut Flying Vs as pictured below. Notice the inscription.
Gibson used two different types of screws to mount the arrowhead shaped Truss Rod Covers to the front of the headstocks. Most of the screws were the larger nickel, pan head Phillips type. However, many of the guitars from Batch #3 have the smaller, black, flat head Phillips type. Examples are below.