Perhaps too radical for its time, the initial run of Flying V guitars was not very successful and fewer than 100 were manufactured and sold.

Gibson president Ted McCarty pushed for a line of modernist guitars in the mid-1950s to compete with the newly designed, and highly successful, Fender Stratocaster.

[4] They eventually used the wood of the limba tree,[5] which the company marketed as "korina" (a term Gibson invented).

This Flying V had two sister models that were developed alongside of it, and debuted at the NAMM Convention that year, the Futura, and the Moderne.

[8] Due to the rarity of the initial run and the later popularity of reissued models, the 1958–59 Korina Flying V is one of the most valuable production-model guitars on the market, ranked at No.

Gibson reissued the guitar in mahogany in 1967, updating its design with a bigger pickguard, and replacing the original bridge, which had the strings inserted through the back, with a short Vibrola Maestro Tremolo.

Flying Vs later became a popular heavy metal guitar due to their aggressive appearance and were used by guitarists Paul Stanley, Rudolf Schenker, Andy Powell, Michael Schenker, K. K. Downing, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Dave Mustaine.

These models have a "half" pick guard and are available in Natural, Aged Cherry, Ebony, and Alpine White, depending on the year.

The general shape of previous Flying V's was retained by Gibson, but the new V2 sported a new 5-layered sculptured walnut and maple body.

The 1979 through 1981 models used the "boomerang" humbucker pickups,[12] designed to sound like single coils with lower noise.

Besides the high price, some players complained about the non-traditional sounding humbucker pickups and the weight of the guitar.

Sales were poor for the first 2 years of the V2's availability, and Gibson was scrambling to find ways to increase demand for these guitars from the dealers.

The boomerang pickups were more expensive to produce and required more costly routing to the guitar body, and a "V" groove to the fretboard.

Gibson covered the laminated bodies (usually Maple top) of the second variant V2 "Dirty Finger" humbucker versions with Candy Apple Red or White finishes.

A final cost-cutting measure eliminated the inlaid Pearl Gibson headstock logo with a gold decal.

To achieve the "reverse" style, the body of the guitar is rotated 180 degrees relative to the original Flying V. It features a single color, a vivid Trans Amber finish with gold-plated hardware, and a string-through tailpiece.

The guitar features a solid Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard, a pair of hand-wound '57 Classic pickups, and a single volume knob.