Epiphone, Gibson's Custom Shop, and the Jimi Hendrix family estate have come together for a brand new “Love Drops” Flying V in honor of “a player who took the instrument to places no one else had ever gone before.”
The six-string is an Inspired by Gibson recreation of the instrument that Hendrix frequently wielded between 1967-69, and arrives on the market with a $1,499 price tag.
Hendrix had customized what was originally a Sunburst model that had been re-finished Ebony, adorning it with hand-painted psychedelic graphics. Those Hendrix originals have been carefully recreated.
They decorate a mahogany body and one-piece mahogany neck, sculpted into a C-profile and topped with a laurel fretboard. It comes stocked with 22 medium jumbo frets.
Hardware choices include Epiphone Deluxe tuners and a short Maestro Vibrola bridge, while an Inspired by Gibson custom logo and Hendrix’s signature can be found on the back of its headstock.
Epiphone has talked up its “first-rate” electronics, with a pair of Gibson Custombucker humbuckers – rather than cheaper Epiphone-branded pickups found in standard issue Epiphone Vs – making for a fairly premium appointment.
They are wired to CTS potentiometers, a Mallory tone capacitor, and a three-way pickup switch, and the guitar also comes with a hardshell case that sports Inspired by Gibson Custom and Authentic Hendrix logos.
There have been a number of legendary guitar replicas produced under the Gibson brand umbrella in recent years, from Jeff Beck’s 1959 ‘YardBurst’ Les Paul Standard to Jason Isbell's "Red Eye" Les Paul, formerly owned by Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ed King. Those guitars, released as Gibson Custom Shop models, fetched $10,000 and $22,000 apiece so it's nice to see this Hendrix replica coming in at a more accessible price, via the Epiphone family.
It also comes in at a fraction of the $10,000 a Gibson Custom Hendrix V cost players when it was released in 2020.
Of course, Hendrix was famed for his employment of a right-handed Fender Stratocaster that he played left-handed, but he was known to pick up other instruments. His early '60s-Era Japanese Sunburst guitar, which returned to auction in 2022, and his love for a Gibson Flying V are two fine examples.
The new Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Jimi Hendrix Love Drops Flying V costs $1,499 and is available today as right- and left-handed versions.
Head to Epiphone for more details.
Earlier this year a rare recording of Jimi Hendrix playing with Little Richard, akin to “discovering a musical holy grail,” was sold at auction in May. Hendrix was part of the blues great's band long before becoming a household name.
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