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Epiphone 58 Korina Flying V

 

Epiphone 58 Korina Flying V reviewed by The Man in the Jar

This guitar is Sex on Stalks. Ok, I admit it - that is based on the first, cursory glance. But, hell, how wrong am I likely to be. I mean. Look at it.

Features of the Epiphone 58 Korina Flying V

Tuners - Sealed Grover units with a gold finish. Smooth and accurate.

Headstock - The classic "pointy" headstock. I swear that the designers of Concorde had one of these guitars in the lab with them. Because this headstock was the original design for a V body it is the only design that will ever look truly at home on a V. The Epiphone logo is in gold to match all the hardware, the fact that it is slightly raised in profile adds a touch of luxury. The ebony finish makes the whole thing especially classy.

Nut - The white plastic nut is neat and tidy. I like the visual contrast of the white nut against the ebony finish, echoed in the white scratchplate. 

Neck - The black lacquer finish of the headstock extends all the way down the fixed neck. I like the old-fashioned lacquered necks as much as the new "sanded clean" feel of modern designs. If you're used to one type it will take you a few minutes to get used to the other type. That's all.
The profile of the neck is quite chunky in the hand, most noticeable down in "Farmer's Corner" (the first three frets). This is part of the vintage vibe of this guitar designed (gasp!) before even I was born. 

Fretboard - Rosewood, dark and smooth, with traditional dot inlays and side markers (God bless tradition). 

Frets - Medium, rounded profile with a nice polished finish.

Action - Good straight from the box. Slap your favourite strings on, adjust accordingly and this is gonna' be one fast cookie.

Body - The V is a very comfortable shape to wear and play. The more you wear and play one, the more you wonder what Leo Fender could possibly have been thinking about. Once you're acclimatised to the freedom of playability a V offers, you'll wonder why all guitars aren't this shape.
And then you'll sit down with the thing.....well, in an effort to make the V playable in a seated position Epiphone have added a serrated rubber strip to the lower edge. Expect to strap this guitar at all times.

Bridge - The floating bridge is standard Gibson fare and has worked perfectly from the day it was invented. The difference here is the tailpiece. The strings dive down from the bridge through a V shaped gold plate to end in the ferrules at the back of the body.

Pickups - Two gold plated humbuckers with Alnico Classic Magnets.

Controls - Standard three way pickup selector in what I consider to be the most useful position. But given the lack of traditional upper body bouts I suppose this is a happy design accident. Two volume controls (this should be enshrined in International Guitar Law) and one tone. 

Pickguard - Three ply white-black-white. The angular shape of the V pickguard defines the classic look of this guitar. Simply gorgeous. 

Strap-buttons - Adequate. The one situated at the top front edge of the body offers limited space so you may need to trim the leather at the end of your strap to achieve the best fit. The other button is situated on the lower edge of the upper wing. (The position of both buttons is clearly visible on the picture above.)

Output Jack - Situated in its own circular piece of scratchplate on the face of the lower wing.

Finish - The ebony finish on this model is absolutely lovely, pure Motorbikin' class. The natural finish model is also a thing of some beauty.

 

Sound of the Epiphone 58 Korina Flying V

Plugged up into a vintage valve Roost the Epiphone V delivered lovely classic rock tones, a sound I'd be happy to take out and gig all night. Moving over to a Line 6 Flextone I took care to go where the guitar led me. It was no surprise that we settled on the Marshall models, the JCM 800 and JCM 2000 being the favourites. Dropping into the AC30 model revealed a real vintage depth to the Epi's pickups recalling echoes of the early Wishbone Ash "English Rock" tones. 

 

Overall Impressions of the Epiphone 58 Korina Flying V

This is the kind of guitar that Birds of Prey would play if they had fingers. If you think you are cool and you haven't got one of these, you were wrong about being cool. It's that simple.

Buy the Epiphone 58 Korina Flying V

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