something similar, it’s well worth the £2.50
(including three replacement blades).
To highlight the cut lines, I apply solvent-
based Colron Jacobean Dark Oak dye,
allow it to wick into the cracks and then
wipe the lacquer clean using naphtha
lighter fluid. The stain also creates the
illusion of dirt inside the dents and
simulates the grey look of oxidised wood.
Colron altered the formula of its wood
dyes a few years ago and has relaunched
them in new ‘refined’ incarnations.
Unfortunately, the new product is nowhere
near as effective for our admittedly
somewhat specialist purposes, so when
my tins of stain eventually run out, I’ll be
looking for alternatives.
REAL VINTAGE
Even in this day and age, there are
occasional bargains to be had. The pickups
earmarked for this project are a case
in point, as they recently popped up
unexpectedly on a Reverb listing for a
1970s Greco Les Paul copy.
The guitar itself had a bolt-on neck and
was of no great interest, but while taking
photographs for the listing, in an attempt
to illustrate the body construction, the
seller had lifted the pickups out and
exposed their undersides.
Gibson Patent Number decals were there
for all to see and they looked bang-on. The
owner of our Flying V decided to take a
punt and as a result, he managed to score
a set of late-1960s Gibson Patent Number
humbuckers with chrome-plated covers
(and a free 1970s Greco) for just over £200.
This prompted a rethink about the
end goal for this project. It’s common
knowledge that the original Flying Vs
were made in 1958 and 1959, but it’s less
well-known that Gibson continued making
custom-order Vs all the way through
to 1966. The Flying V was reissued the
following year, in much-modified form, but
the earlier 1960s examples were made from
bodies and necks left over from the 1950s.
Gibson used current production parts,
so some ended up with Patent Numberpickups, later potentiometers and wired
bridges with nylon saddles.
Since this guitar’s owner already has
a few 1960s pots, tuners and bridges
stashed away in his parts box, we decide
that this conversion will be done to 1966
specifications – a year when Gibson is
reputed to have made just two Flying Vs.FERRULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN
Much of the finer work on this guitar had
to be based on internet image searches.
My hands-on experience of 1958 Flying
Vs is limited to a sneaky strum in a London
guitar shop about 20 years ago and I don’t
know anybody local who owns one.
One detail I notice during my research
is that 1950s Vs don’t appear to have
string ferrules.
Digging a little deeper reveals that there
are ferrules, but they sit well inside the
string holes and are barely visible. The
wood around the edges of the holes ends
up looking quite dark and you can see edge
marks where countless strings have been
pulled through. Sourcing suitably short
ferrules of the correct diameter proves
impossible, so I decide to shorten the
Epiphone ferrules by sawing their ends off.
In addition, if you look closely at Flying
V photos, it becomes obvious that the
V-shaped tailpiece plate behind the bridge
is made from brass. Frustratingly enough,
all the supposedly vintage-correct
replacement parts seem to be gold-plated.
I can’t say whether Flying Vs left the factory
with string plates that were gold plated or
simply polished brass, but if you want to
achieve a vintage-correct look, oxidised
brass is a must.
I manage to source a raw brass plate
from a luthier friend and I use an antique-
restoring trick to age it. I pour a small
amount of ammonia into a container and
put a jam jar inside with the tailpiece plate
on top so it’s above the liquid. The lid goes
onto the container and I allow the plate to
sit in the ammonia fumes for a few hours.
It’s best to clean metal parts thoroughly
before starting this procedure to remove
any dirt and grease – and take care, because
ammonia is nasty stuff. Wear goggles and a
breathing mask, work outdoors and check
the plate every hour or so to monitor its
progress. After three hours, the plate is
looking exactly as I hoped.
Ageing gold-plated parts is relatively
easy. The gold will dull, or even rub offDO IT YOURSELF
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