Time Guitars Flying V

This is a Time Flying V Artist model guitar. It features a distinctive slightly offset orange painted Flying V patterned solid body and a fixed three piece laminated neck, maple with a center strip of mahogany. The asymmetrical headstock is bound in white celluloid with distinctive checkerboard purfling surrounding a rosewood headplate with the Time logo and two diamonds inlaid in mother of pearl. A two ply truss rod cover, six black mini Schaller tuners and a Floyd Rose locking nut in black round out the headstock. The fingerboard is ebony with white celluloid binding, black side dots from the first to the twenty fourth frets and diamond fretmarkers at the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, twenty-first and twenty fourth frets. The frets are the original medium size fretwire often used by Time in the 1980’s.   

Paul Languedoc, who is now famous for his Languedoc guitars, recalled that he was involved in the build of this particular guitar while he worked at Time in the 1980’s. This is important because there are features on this guitar that have much in common with his more recent instruments. The construction of the three piece neck and the seamless join between the body and neck on this Flying V are features retained for his current production. 

The body is bound in black celluloid, with checkerboard purfling and a four ply guard assembly which mounts all electronics save for the output jack, which has been thoughtfully mounted on the bottom edge, rather than the more awkward traditional position on the top face of the treble wing of the V. The body is finished in a particularly bright orange. This guitar is loud before you plug it in! On the back, there is a strap button mounted at the heel and a recessed tremolo spring cavity. If the cover for the spring cavity is removed, a comic book image of Batman is revealed. 

The electronics start with a pair of Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups with black plastic surrounds. A pickup selector and three knobs, volume, tone and tone are complemented with a coil drop switch and a series parallel switch. A black Floyd Rose tremolo adds to playing options. 

The scale length is 24 ½” and the nut width is 1 11/16.” 

Overall, the guitar is in excellent condition with only a few signs of light play here and there, most notably a few light press marks on the back and a few more near the jack plate. It weighs in at ten pounds, lighter than many modern Flying V’s, but not as light as the Korina models that Gibson introduced in the late 1950’s. It comes with a 1990’s era Gibson Flying V case.