The Jimi Hendrix 1967 SG Custom and 1969 Flying V are heartfelt tributes from the Gibson Custom Shop.

BY DAVE HUNTER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GIBSON GUITARS

IF WE’RE SEEKING a definition for the term cool that bookends the title of this monthly feature, we could do far worse than hold up a pair of detail-precise re-creations of Jimi Hendrix’s guitars. Unveiled by the Gibson Custom Shop at the tail end of 2020, the Jimi Hendrix 1967 SG Custom and 1969 Flying V will be produced in just 150 examples of each model, including 25 left-handed Vs. Together, they deliver a heady trip some 50-odd years back in time.

The SG Custom got national TV coverage when Hendrix played it on The Dick Cavett Show on September 9, 1969, and it made plenty of other live dates with the guitarist as well. The Flying V was custom-ordered direct from Gibson in a left-handed configuration, to replace a restrung right-handed 1967 Flying V with post-factory psychedelic paintwork that Hendrix had played with the Experience in late ’67. The ’69 model entered into rock history when, among other appearances, it hit the stage with Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival in England on August 31, 1970, just two and a half weeks before his death.