The Long-Anticipated Flying V P-90 Makeover Project

[V-man]

PART I - INTRO

My first Gibson V was that ‘02 Worn with crescent moon inlays on the ebony board. Great guitar, but ugly as hell. I was hell-bent on using that clay for a custom build given the board that worked with any finish and the horrible orangey-brown hue that was begging for a refin, but I couldn’t bring myself to deface a rare, original.

Somewhere around ‘09 in the midst of my guitar-buying mania, I picked up my first husk. An ‘06 I think I was going to drop the 02’s parts onto and flip. It actually had a nicer “proper” cherry color and attractive figure..





Suffice it to say, the pretty cherry husk (then a dime a dozen) became the recipient for my creative madness. I learned about the decoupage technique and had the wild hare up the arse to try. I quit drinking years before but was drawn to the idea of the smoky barrooms and went with a long-defunct brand, last brewed in NOLA back in the ‘70s or 80s.

I found NOS uncirculated beer labels and Fleabayed a special one from the 1930s as well as the original bottle tops (cork-lined). Thus, I created a one-off Jackson Brewery husk. The problem however was my labels were affixed with mod podge- a temporary agent that left the whole thing unsealed. In fact, it took years and a colab with a friend to finally tackle the project properly using bar-top epoxy sealant.

Pickguard sourced with a set of 57/BB2s, some locking tuners, pro PiO wire harness, and NOS MiG hardware, and the long-awaited project was finished, for better or worse the JAX V was put into action.



The guitar sounded great, the worn cherry neck (with a little touch of the scotchbrite pad) was frictionless and as nice as anything Gibson ever carved next to the Norlin V (and a close second at that). When I had to cull the Gibson herd (selling ALL Vs other than my Norlin and this) I knew I’d never see an offer I could live with for the work invested and we were stuck together for good. My last to go was my favorite ‘67, an ‘07 Alpine with ebony board, and the acoustic test between the ‘07 and the ‘06 JAX took much of the sting out of selling it. The JAX outrang the hell out of it and that was that.. my last two Gibson Vs, the two best players.

 

[V-man]

PART II - THE PROBLEM

Finding a guitar that has slipped through your grasp should hardly be a problem. All the permutations of Gibson I got my hands on over the years at least educated me on my spec.and that for me is the ‘75-82 Norlin build. I missed my chance at the ‘13 VOS block inlay, then later found these Japan Market Vs with Norlin headstock (and more importantly, proper body thickness not done on models like the ‘67 RI, the ‘70s V or Hammett Epiphone. I bought 3 over the years and every single time the deal fell through.

That was until I found this Mod/Demo Alpine white… something that pulled at me since I had to give up my ‘07. So I got my “Norlin Methadone,” only it was too goofy in its “Liberace” gold hardware dress the mod shop decked it with. Spending a chunk on that guitar I needed to “fix” it on a budget… and if it couldn’t outright pull the gold off, the JAX V could at least pull it off a damn sight better than the Alpine. Out went the MiG chrome bits and custom wire harness, and in went the Demo Shop 57/57+ Gold block



And so, with 3 Guitars all seemed better, but that was somewhat short-lived. Long story short, a couple of lucky and unexpected Gibsons found their way to me (more blessings, more problems) that enjoy constant use. The gold-barfed JAX V that took @ 10 years to sort and 1 to unsort sat at the back of the rack untouched. Even the Alpine Japan Market rang out a sour note with a strange, flat neck profile -antithetical to Norlin Vs it was supposedly patterned after but that’s a different matter altogether.

The problem was JAX V, despite being a very good player was stuck on the bench in its gilded absurdity and that was too much a disservice after all the work. It deserved more and I had a plan for it but it would have to wait… until recently.

 

[V-man]

Part III - THE PLAN

The last guitar I picked up was my first SG- the ‘64 Tony Monkey Special I revered them and remain shocked that every relevant Sabbath album (Ozzy-era) was recorded on that guitar. I pick it up often, being the only SG and the only one with those pickups. Of course, everything that comes out of the fingertips is doom on that guitar, which permanently lives at C# Standard.

It all made sense to me now. With a newfound interest in P90s, I could kill two birds with one stone: Leaving the SG to C# to what it does best,I could outfit another guitar with them to explore the P90 sound in other tunings, while at the same time making the JAX V all the more unique and interesting.

With that course in mind, I needed some P-90s and by the laws of aesthetics they absolutely had to be chrome-covered to look right in the pickguard since black washes out against a black PG and clashes in a white (the same rules applying to white. So, why not the P-90s that got me hooked? All I had to do was find an Iommi set that wasn’t ridiculous (when I could afford to commit). It took over a year. I even did a home restoration/repair on a Norlin guitar case I had to take the edge off. Finally I got the set.



With the set in hand, the only thing that made sense was to reach out to the one man who knows P-90s better than anybody on the site… our very own @AlvisX. Having done one of these himself, he had plenty of good input on the project and I am looking forward to finishing what I hope to be the final iteration of this guitar. Stay tuned for IV- The Process.

 

[V-man]

PART IV - THE PROCESS

So, money was tight on this after the P-90 set. The hardware/electronics from the Japan Market Gold set is un-salvageable because it is that awful gold and I plan to keep the original parts 100% intact in case of a future sale.

Fortunately I blacked out my ‘90 Studio giving me the snot green standard Klusson keys, and MiG Nashville w stopbar in chrome. My hope was to scavenge the bin to put together a wire harness, leaving the P-90 routed PG as my only parts expense.

Looking at Pickguards, WD is a backordered mess. One other company (I won’t mention) had a great ply and good price… until the drop down menu to route for P-90s. $25/hole. I contacted them about this and to spare you a comical story, these idiots (who charge standard H/H routing free somehow have a delusional explanation that ALL their routing is by hand that costs them time… yet everybody else does the routing at no other cost (and they themselves “hand route H/H free… whatever).

@AlvisX suggested Terrapin pickguards the same time I had given them my order. Someone else posted a web post outlining their adventure doing the same conversion using Terrapin PGs and I noticed they were still in business. They were extremely prompt… I feel like they went from order to shipment in less than 2 weeks.



It was nice to see they added aluminum foil tape over the controls (I think WD charges for this) but my understanding is the main issue of the P-90 surrounds the pickups themselves rather than the cavity. Thus, I entertained myself while waiting for the pickguard to show.



2” copper tape on amazon more than covered the entire cavity. And for good measure…



Overkill I imagine, but what else am I going to do with all that tape?

 

[Vinsanitizer]

Flying V's are good.

 

[V-man]

Flying V's are good.

Indeed. It will be interesting to see what a dedicated P-90 V will be like against my SG Spl, seeing how they are the same pups. My 07 was a single HB setup but that was a SD P-Rail, which was an amusement park of tonal options.

Regardless, (and this is with the distortion of years on my memory) I don’t recall it having the “bite” P-90s have but rather a warmer HB tone when set in P-90 mode. The many P-90 vids I come across suggest to me that the P-90 is quite similar to a PAF style HB, only with more high-end “bite” to the voicing.