Re: stripping a 1981 gibson flying v
I don't own a real spray gun, but I would have just done that burst freehanded with a hobby airbrush (after lots of test runs on scrap). I wouldn't finish a whole guitar with one, but for a burst, especially a simple two-tone one so close to the edges, it'd work fine. Rattle can bursts are extremely hard to get looking decent. An airbrush would allow you such excellent control.
I have a Paasche V and a Paasche H. The V is dual action, and that's great for things on which you need to be able to very smoothly change your spray pattern as you are spraying. But for this purpose, something single action like the H would be preferable IMO. For this purpose, you want to pick a spray pattern and have it fixed, not worry about accidentally changing the spray pattern as you press the spray button (which is very easy to do on the dual action V). I believe there are also gravity feed models as well, which would probably be preferable for painting bursts. I just don't know the model names off hand.