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Gibson flying v bass guitar
- Thread starter CRONOS
- Start date
I've got one that I have had since 1986. It is my trademark bass. I did switch out the pickups for passive EMG's and it sounds wonderful! I constantly get comments on both the look and the TONE. This bass rocks!
hi there.... i have a gibson flying v bass...it is a white, 1982 gibson... ive owned it since 1987.... never used it live. its a great bass to own only because it is rare and its pretty cool to own one... but not the best sounding bass and just dont feel comfortable. i always use my bc rich warlock when playing gigs. the flying v looks great on stage as a back up bass 
it is rare and valuable... but thats about it
it is rare and valuable... but thats about it 
lowend1, did you ever hear "mind bender" by stillwater...?
"my daddy was a gibson, my mamma was a fender"
or was it vice-versa?
"my daddy was a gibson, my mamma was a fender"
or was it vice-versa?
there were only like 350 of them ever made i guess.only made them in the early '80s.but yeah,i hear the tone is horrible.they go for around the same price as,believe it or not,a wal!!!
(yes,i've seen them go for around 4 grand!)
(yes,i've seen them go for around 4 grand!)
always wanted one in silverburst. theres only a handful of production V basses out there..crap sound or not still a sick bass
There's one on Gbase.com last I looked.
Of all the Gibsons it was probably the least impressive instrument the company produced. It's more of an "eye catcher" on stage than anything else. Short scale (30") as I recall, or a 32" like the Explorer, which I believe has much better tone.
For the most part they are over priced ($4-$5 K in really nice condition from a legit dealer) and a dissapointment.
Your money would be better spent on a T-bird, EB3, Ripper, or even an Evplorer.
Of all the Gibsons it was probably the least impressive instrument the company produced. It's more of an "eye catcher" on stage than anything else. Short scale (30") as I recall, or a 32" like the Explorer, which I believe has much better tone.
For the most part they are over priced ($4-$5 K in really nice condition from a legit dealer) and a dissapointment.
Your money would be better spent on a T-bird, EB3, Ripper, or even an Evplorer.
I just picked one up and the sound is amazingly Horrible. It is so cool looking I am going to retrofit a P pickup config with a EMG and A BTC and Vari mid hopefully that will do the trick.
Sorry about the Picture it is a Cell phone camera
Sorry about the Picture it is a Cell phone camera
Attachments
I've got a transparent blue one that I bought for £300 about 20 years ago. I am surprised when I hear people slagging them off - mine sounds great especially for heavy rock stuff, and with a suede strap neck diving isn't a problem. And it looks as cool as anything. I also have an EB3, Fender Japanese Jazz, and the 'V' is the one I'd rescue if my house was burning down.
my gibson v bass i never use. its white and would maybe like to get rid of it. not many out there, but dont want to ebay it, rather sell in person.
Out of curiosity, does it play good with the new pickup? Problems of neck dive?
Oh man I knew I was gonna regret looking this up... The Gibson flying V bass was my first bass. Identical to the one in lowend1's picture. I got it when I was about 13 and I remember *begging* my grandfather to buy it for me. It came with black flatwounds on it. I'd been playing guitar for a couple years so I wasn't totally new to the instrument. When I got it home and really started messing with it it played so bad that I remember having that sinking sick to my stomach feeling that I had made a mistake getting this as it didn't look or feel nearly as cool as I thought it would and the neck dive issue made it unuseable for a 13 year old. It ended up just being the bass passed around to all of my friends in local bands who needed a "bass player" for a gig and just grabbed a random friend and let them borrow this bass. I remember it had these really cool "boomerang" (well I guess they were "V") strap buttons. Everyone hated it though because of the neck dive thing and how enormous and uncool it actually looked. At that point I didn't really have enough experience to comment on how good or bad it sounded. I have no idea what happened to it but I haven't even thought about it in nearly 15 years. I never really looked up any info on it until now and my fear has come to light as it indeed appears that it's worth a bit of money. I think my grandfather paid $500 for it, this was in the late 80's so that wasn't exactly cheap then. Well so there's my first post!
Slade:
Gene Wilder - Lead vocals, guitar
Jim Carrey - Guitar, backup vocals
Howard Stern - Drums
Donny Osmond - Bass, keyboards
