The Flying V “Norlin Restomod” Project.

[V-man]

Happy Easter to those celebrating. Ironically within those 3 days the V has undergon its own ressurrection of sorts, coming a long way, likely with a good deal further to go. So, what do we have?


This ‘15 is a Mod/demo selection from Gibson in a brief period where they churned out some Gibson USA guitars relatively close to ‘70s Norlin spec.

What is “Norlin spec?”

We all are familiar with the big PG Vs that are “the classic” next to the half-pg ‘58s. But since Gibson has been reissuing guitars since the 1980s, specs are muddy AF.

So, that classic ‘67 RI you saw at GCs and CL ads over the past 25 years? That is really an ‘84 (no pg) V with ‘67 treatment. It is a thick body with pointy arrowhead HS, always finished black on the face, with TOM and hot pups that never existed on any classic.

The ‘67 was the first to have the tapered body (58s have “square shoulders”) and the big PG, with arrowhead stock (black-faced). Buuut ABRs/TOMs NEVER happened with these guitars. They all had those awful vibrolas. It was not until the infamous 1971 medallions did we see the ABR/stoptail… a go-to on Vs from that day forward.

With that addressed, the Norlin 1970s Vs had the thin, tapered SG body of the 1967 V, where the FB sticks up a mile high… but it has the ABR/TOM with stopbar. The necks are delightfully hand-crampingly slim with short nut width a nice round profile, terminating into a glorious “spear-head/Ice cream bar wide rounded HS (that got more ridiculous and blunt to the end of the 1970s) complete with volute. Pickups were essentially T-Tops in the 7-8k range.

On to compare this to the real McCoy…

 

[V-man]

Now that we know the spec, how does it compare?


The ‘15 is next to my ‘74-75’ “Second Reissue” Flying V (1st reissues being the 1967), the series ran 1975-1982.

The dead giveaway it is NOT a 67 RI is that prominent rounded HS and volute. The MIJ Edwards do a copy and they missed the volute. Here the top looks correct but for the Grover tuners, which were the old Klussons with chrome tulip keys. Unfortunately Gibson finished ALL of these HS faces in ‘67 style with black finish. While this shows correctly in ebony, sunburst, and even cherry as a nod to the ‘71 medallion… NOT the white though. It bothers me utterly and completely. Also, the HS has a bevel around it in the 70s (front shorter than back). These 2010s series missed that cue… something I can forgive, but I’ll bet those stupid $20k KH sigs missed as well.

Nut-width was off being a more contemporary neck (much to the relief of the general population and to my dismay). Larger hands would appreciate it but that was part of the Norlin magic IMO. Being a few years after the Government wood seizure, CITES, etc, the board is granadillo rather than the customary rosewood that ALL Norlin Vs had.

The body is accurately profiled, overly-thin with the pronounced FB (pics to be added in edit). Furniture is completely off-spec, however. Despite my ‘75 having unoriginal Gold bell/tophats, the Norlins came with witch hats over thumb bleeders. Being a Mod Demo, Gibson furnished this in Gold, which is a gaudy mess. That has to go. Pups are 57 classics, which are appropriate if you aren’t a stickler for exact specs, but they are getting swapped due to the covers.

 

[V-man]

PLAN OF ATTACK

1. Correct the furniture with period-correct or tribute-appropriate appointments.

2. Address the headstock color with a temporary or semi-permanent “fix”

3. Evaluate final pup replacement candidates

4. Address Mod/Demo issues.

 

[V-man]

1. Correcting the furniture.

- Gold HW must go
- Knobs to be corrected


Much as I dislike gold HW, I have a custom ‘67 RI that can certainly pull the look off- definitely more convincingly than the white. The ‘67 sports a 57 (neck) and BB2 (bridge) and hand-picked hardware. This includes NOS Schaller MIG Nashville TOM and Stopbar, a Starr Custom wire harness and Klusson locking tuners with available chrome keys. Unfortunately the tuners become worthless on BOTH guitars now, because the white requires an additional screwhole per tuner I am not willing to make, and chrome clashes with gold.


Pickguards DO NOT match, so this will be a B-A/A-B component swap to each pg. here we have the custom harness w pups on the ‘67.

Now for the ‘15

 

[V-man]

Did I say we were doing a “Norlin Restomod?”

Well, clearly Gibson wanted to join in on the festivities by contributing some serious WTF building practices the 70s were infamous for including. Here we have the absolute most fucked up bridge studs I have EVER seen installed. I would be apt to accuse the seller of fuckery (esp w non matching stop bar studs) but Gibson’s baby pic shows the gold HW.

The “protrusion” may be some fucked attempts to stay level with the higher protruding FB, but I have my doubts. This will be examined by my tech when my number comes up on his list.

My second wonderful surprise was finding the neck pup “dead” reinstalling the works onto the ‘67. No disassembly required other than de/resoldiering ground from the works and un/rebolting everything into the pg. Either I disturbed a connection (possible but somewhat doubtful), the Neck vol pot is bad if not the pup switch, or the neck 57 pup is dead. Sadly i have no compelling recollection I messed w the neck pup (though I HAVE to believe I did).

If the gold neck on the ‘67 is toast, it will get the neck ‘57 from the ‘15 at the least. I will be more inclined to get a closer-to-Norlin set for the ‘15 and either give the 67 one or both pups (into the gold covers).



Guess the original owner never monkeyed around under the PG. now let’s make this correct.

Witch hats with thumb bleeders. A quintessential distinction from the “true classic” Vs and their reissue counterparts… and the coolest look ever IMO.

Aftermarkets were loose and I have ADHD impatience. This resulted in a bead of hot glue into the hole and an insertion over the shaft for a proper fit.


Now, we’re talking… chrome over white… classic spec. Interestingly the pups were gold but rubbed clean. These may/may not stay depending on some auditioning and the outcome of the neck pup’s status on the ‘67.

 

[Rudy v]

There is a small detail you can add, a bigger truss rod cover, like the real one.

 

[V-man]

There is a small detail you can add, a bigger truss rod cover, like the real one.

Boy, have you anticipated a segment on installment 2

 

[Rudy v]

I was just thinking at the top of my voice.

 

[V-man]

This is a test for “ingenuity 101,” and directly related to our regularly-scheduled program. Stay tuned!

 

[Rudy v]

I think of a project in the near future, with my black and red v's something like that.

 

[V-man]

Red’s a little too much for my tastes. There is no shortage of worn cherry models to get a fix on the cheap(er). Now if we’re talking a reachable price on a Cardinal Red or Ember Red Norlin? Disregard everything I just said!

 

[Vinsanitizer]

Did I say we were doing a “Norlin Restomod?”

Well, clearly Gibson wanted to join in on the festivities by contributing some serious WTF building practices the 70s were infamous for including. Here we have the absolute most fucked up bridge studs I have EVER seen installed. I would be apt to accuse the seller of fuckery (esp w non matching stop bar studs) but Gibson’s baby pic shows the gold HW.
View attachment 128520
The “protrusion” may be some fucked attempts to stay level with the higher protruding FB, but I have my doubts. This will be examined by my tech when my number comes up on his list.

My second wonderful surprise was finding the neck pup “dead” reinstalling the works onto the ‘67. No disassembly required other than de/resoldiering ground from the works and un/rebolting everything into the pg. Either I disturbed a connection (possible but somewhat doubtful), the Neck vol pot is bad if not the pup switch, or the neck 57 pup is dead. Sadly i have no compelling recollection I messed w the neck pup (though I HAVE to believe I did).

If the gold neck on the ‘67 is toast, it will get the neck ‘57 from the ‘15 at the least. I will be more inclined to get a closer-to-Norlin set for the ‘15 and either give the 67 one or both pups (into the gold covers).


View attachment 128521
Guess the original owner never monkeyed around under the PG. now let’s make this correct.
View attachment 128522
Witch hats with thumb bleeders. A quintessential distinction from the “true classic” Vs and their reissue counterparts… and the coolest look ever IMO.

Aftermarkets were loose and I have ADHD impatience. This resulted in a bead of hot glue into the hole and an insertion over the shaft for a proper fit.

View attachment 128523
Now, we’re talking… chrome over white… classic spec. Interestingly the pups were gold but rubbed clean. These may/may not stay depending on some auditioning and the outcome of the neck pup’s status on the ‘67.

 

[V-man]

View attachment 128541

Ironically I have an infamous Gibson “pubecaster“ nightmare with a (formerly) professional refinisher, that was also a white guitar.

Great eye though! Just confirmed an arm hair not attached to the stud.

 

[V-man]

Next, the most glaring and difficult challenge with this one:

2. Address the headstock color with a temporary or semi-permanent “fix”

So, here’s the laundry list of problems:

- Nobody local shoots nitro (this is a tiny 7”x4”x1/3 sq in little patch, 25-33% covered by an arrowhead TRC.

- Almost nobody NOT local shoots nitro either.

- Imagine round trip shipping to refinish that tiny face area, if not the whole HS. Might as well refin the whole damned thing complete w hit on value.

The obvious solution is to cover the area with a semi-permanent fix, while I figure something out.

Vinyl wrap seems the smartest plan. The problem I foresee with wrap, however is that It’s going to be snow/paper white or some gamble trying to get something close to aged/canary yellow (unless there is a photo scan option for a very small order). Not sure if it can be primed/finished, and a concern with the edges lifting.

Option 2 is single-ply PG in cream. It may/may not be a close enough match but likely can be sprayed/covered/finished. I have ordered a blank to experiment with. The problem is the thinnest ply is 0.060” and I suspect it would need/ought to be sanded closer to 0.030”

Option 3 is where I started, the “out of the box” approach. Grab the popcorn and soda for this shit.

 

[V-man]

And now the dramatic reveal:



That’s right. The LP back (Joker pic above) was the reaction test. The plan here is a repositionable spray adhesive that provides a temporary inlay and (I had hoped) a removable template for something more durable.

 

[V-man]

As it stands in all its glory currently. Sadly, there is just a smudge of spade on the lower rt corner, otherwise a pretty decent solution, but for the starkness of the white.

 

[V-man]

Note the TRCs. As @Rudy v pointed out correctly, these 2015 covers are bothersome to V guys. They are slightly undersized, and 2-screw covers as opposed to the original that fills the bottom of the HS where it meets the nut better, and fans out taller and wider.

So there were two decisions to the HS at this point: one obvious and one difficult.


Here you see the factory Grover washers (left) that are a cosmic eyesore and further imbalances the dwarf TRC. I hate this awful look and the decision to go vintage (right) is obvious, regardless of TRC.


Now here is a String Butler V5. This is a proper TRC profile for Vs and installs with the 2 factory screws. I do not like the center split gap and would want to fill it (have a gold Gibson logo). The question is whether this is too damned ugly. Most despise the looks of the Butlers. This is less offensive incorporated in the HS, but still.
Here is the current setup (stock TRC) to give you a fairer comparison rather than the cockeyed 2 washer pic.

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

I kind of like the look of the string butler.
But I would also fill the center and apply the logo.

But that’s just me

 

[TheLoudness!!]

Being a flying v fanatic, this is way cool!

I remember those (2015?) flying v's well. I wanted one of those in tobacco sunburst really bad when they came out.

 

[V-man]

Being a flying v fanatic, this is way cool!

I remember those (2015?) flying v's well. I wanted one of those in tobacco sunburst really bad when they came out.

Actually had the VSB purchased from Europe until the seller balked on the insane shipping. I let him off the hook… it just wasn’t feasable