Re: Gibson limited edition faded vintage amber V and Exp. Tried one?
I have played one of those, in that color & everything!!! To be completely honest I wasn't very impressed at all. I was in the market for a Flying V not too long ago & I tried several of them ranging from a 90's 58 Korina Reissue to much cheaper Epi.'s & several other brands. The stripped down V had rough & jagged fretting, awful tuning instability due to a poorly cut nut, & it just felt cheap compared to even the regular modern faded V's sitting next to it. After playing/trying everything I possibly could & going to about a dozen music stores I ended up settling on a Reverend Volcano!
It just blew anything else I tried out of the water that didn't have a $3,000+ price tag on it! It had everything I wanted from a V (Korina body/neck, great player, solid tuning, Etc.) & all the stuff that I don't really like about traditional V's had been addressed, like not having the jack in front of the guitar & a headstock that doesn't have such a drastic string angle!!!
When I bought it I had thought to myself "since it only cost me half of what I was originally planning on spending, I can easily afford buy some new pickups for it" but much to my surprise the stock Humbuckers sound fantastic & work perfectly in it!!! It's literally the only guitar I own that still has stock humbuckers in it, although I did change the harness because I prefer vintage Gibson Flying V wiring to the single volume/tone/bass layout Reverend's come with. It's saying a lot because other than the Volcano all I own is a couple very nice Tele's & a pile of very nice, & very expensive, Gibby's!!!
As for the pickups in that guitar, Dirty Fingers are one of those "Grateful Dead Humbuckers" as in you'll either absolutely love them or absolutely hate them with little in the way of wiggle room!!! For me it's the latter, I've just never gelled with them but of course that is a 100% subjective statement & you might land in the first camp? It's also probably worth mentioning that there's a big difference between Shaw era Dirty Fingers & the Dirty Fingers that would come stock in that guitar. There again it's a matter of preference, some guys think the vintage Shaw era Dirty Fingers are great & the modern ones suck, others say that they couldn't stand the originals but they really like the newer ones....
We all know what Gibson's Q.C. is like (Getting better but still not great) so I can't say they are all like the one I tried. If you do decide to go after one just be sure you can either play before you pay or they have a good return policy in case it's not everything you expect.....
Good luck!!!!
