Few companies can resist creating a super-deluxe version of a successful model, and Gibson’s Flying V, with it’s radical but simple design, was a perfect candidate.

In 1979, Gibson went far beyond the typical cosmetic upgrades of hardware, bindings, inlays, etc., and gave the V a complete redesign. The mahogany or walnut body featured a contrasting layer of maple that, when the edges were beveled, created a sort of accent stripe that added curves within the straight lines of body outline. Reinforcing the V-shape were a pair of pickups whose coils had been split and angled to form a V; they were quickly nicknamed “boomerang” pickups.

Gibson introduced the new model as the Flying V II (or V2, as the truss-rod cover says) in 1979, but as it turned out, the basic model needed only a boost, not a make-over. Gibson changed the body of the standard model from mahogany to alder, put hotter pickups in it, and renamed it the Flying V I in 1981; the V II was gone within a year.