By the mid-1950s, the success of the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster was making Gibson look like “a fuddy duddy old company without a new idea in years”. To silence such comments, McCarty urgently needed to come up with some fresh, bold designs.

By 57′, he had devised modernistic body shapes for three radical-looking solid electrics, the Moderne, the Futura (soon to be renamed the Explorer), and the Flying V. The Flying V and Explorer were unveiled to industry insiders at trade fairs in 57′, and went into production in 58′.

Initial sales were disappointing, and the Flying V was temporarily dropped from the Gibson catalog only a year later. This example is from 2002.

On earlier Flying V’s, the “Gibson” logo was placed on the headstock; here, it has been moved to the truss rod cover.