Gibson Limited Edition Michael Schenker Flying V

Fifty People Get to Own the Blueprint. Ask Kirk Hammett what hangs in his collection and you'll eventually get to Medallion #56 - a 1971 Flying V that started life Cherry Red, went Black, then landed on the black-and-white scheme that launched a thousand imitators. Michael Schenker recorded the first three UFO albums with it. Hammett and plenty of others consider it the most influential V ever built.

Gibson Custom didn't approach this reproduction casually. They 3D scanned the original guitar and worked from that data, which explains why the neck profile feels like nothing else in the current catalog. That thin artist carve with volute came straight off Schenker's actual instrument, not from a spec sheet someone estimated from photographs.

The Murphy Lab aging matches the original's wear patterns rather than applying generic distressing. That white pickguard with its blacked-out upper half, the half-white half-black truss rod cover, the headstock continuing the theme - every visual detail traces back to specific decisions Schenker or previous owners made across five decades.

Those uncovered T-Top humbuckers with Alnico 5 magnets deliver exactly the voice that made those early UFO records cut through. Hand-wired to individual volume controls with a master tone, all running 500k CTS pots, Switchcraft selector and output jack. No modern shortcuts hiding under the pickguard.

Mahogany body, three-piece mahogany neck, one-piece rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and cellulose dot inlays. Schaller M6 tuners and a Corian nut complete the period-correct package.

Each of the fifty carries Schenker's signature on the back of the headstock, arrives in a replica flight case with Michael Schenker Group graphics, and includes a #56 Medallion mounted on commemorative mahogany plus a Certificate of Authenticity in matching black-and-white folio.

Some guitars influenced a generation. This one has the paperwork to prove it.