Gibson Faded Flying V Guitar Review

The Gibson Flying V is a brand legendary among hard rock and metal fans. Its distinctive hard edged look and feel are both easily recognizable and well known to anyone into the genres. The design, when it first came out, made huge waves for its near complete separation from the look of traditional guitars. Today, Gibson offers several different types of the Flying V, including the Faded Flying V. Let's take a closer look at it to see if the quality lives up to its long history.

Features: The body of the Gibson Faded Flying V is made of mahogany wood. Gibson uses this wood almost exclusively to help achieve the brand's storied sound quality. There are several finishes available on the Faded Flying V, including ebony and cherry. The reason "Faded" is in the name is because the finish is designed to give a vintage, natural look. All models come with a white plastic pickguard as well. The neck of the Faded Flying V is set into the body, and also is made of mahogany wood. It has a rosewood fretboard and twenty two regular frets with pearloid dot inlays (Most likely to save a bit on production costs.) The hardware is varied a bit to match quality specifications. The tuning heads, chrome on some cheaper copies, are genuine Gibson plastic to make tuning very easy. Additionally, the the Tune-O-Matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece are chrome, completing a nice vintage look and locking the strings tightly. Electronically, the Faded Flying V has two humbucking pickups with two volume and one tone control knobs, and a three way selector switch.

Playability: With the unique style of the Faded Flying V comes some pretty interesting give and take in the playability department. The slim, small body makes for easy playing standing up, but when sitting down the slanted bottom will slide right off your leg. It definitely takes some getting used to, but once the body is mastered, playing it is downright easy. String action is near perfect, neck shape and finish is designed for fast movement up and down, and the fact that it's set into a body with absolutely no part of the body over it means high fret access is a breeze.

Sound: Although the pickups aren't particularly well known, the consensus is they perform with great versatility. They can do what the Flying V is known for, which is screaming solos and deep, crunchy rhythm with distortion, and can also pump out very rich clean tones. There are few genres the Faded Flying V, in the right hands of course, can't compete in.

Overall: For the experienced musician and/or Flying V enthusiast, the Gibson Faded Flying V is a great looking, great playing, and great sounding choice. If you can get past the inherent problems with the body, there are few guitars in the Faded Flying V's price range on its level. You can find the Faded Flying V in music stores for about $950.