Mystery 80’s-90’s Flying V (anecdotally custom ordered from ESP)

[Justquarter]

Hello all!

My name is Quarter and I’m new to the forums here! Thanks so much for taking the time to assist in uncovering who, when, and maybe where this axe originated from. I’m an avid enthusiast and have been for nearly 25 years. I have a foundational understanding of Japanese makes but nuances, iterations, and other minutia are seldom my forte.

I have recently been importing a few guitars here and there, enjoying the histories of said instruments before purchasing. However, I did take a $900 flyer on one guitar that was haunting my dreams (see photos). It’s not going to be special to everyone, but it spoke to me. Here’s the original listing:

“Up for sale is a Very well made “One of a Kind” Flying V. It doesn't have brand name at the headstock and truss rod cover so I can't verify which company produced. I owned many MIJ Flying V but even compared with them, I can say this one is so special.
It features a solid Mahogany body, thick 50s profile Mahogany neck, “Black Burst” Nitro Lacquer finish (thin finish just like old Gibson), 58' style Flying V string plate. The long neck tenon is deep as pictured. The fretboard has been used very high quality rosewood. Both the body and neck are aging naturally over the years and have numerous weather checking.

The previous owner told me that she is ESP's custom order made guitar in 80s but no COA or something like that. Most of MIJ Flying V guitars have poly finish to save costs but this one has genuine Nitro finish and doesn't have cheap bolt-on or scarf-joint construction so I personally guess that it's a pretty expensive guitar at that time.

You can see the high-res photos. For more details please see the photos!!

Overall it has wear and tear due to the age. The body has some chips and dings around the edges, common paint cracks around the set neck joint, nitro wear around the screws of the pickguard, normal scratches and a few buckle rash on the body. The neck has some minor chips and dings at the edges of the headstock, a few paint chips and minor dings on the backside but the paint is thin so the back of the neck smooth overall. The metal hardware has scratches and some rust but look great.

The neck is Straight and it's comfortable to play with Low-action(1.3mm/1.7mm@12th fret). Great playability. The truss rod works fine at either directions. The frets are around 60-70% and show some wear but no deep grooves or deadspots.

The weight of the guitar is hefty 3.7kg(8.15lbs).”​

This leads me to my dilemma. After having received the V, I can confirm:

• beautifully dark and rich Brazilian board
• Nitro finish
• aged burst used to be blueburst (confirmed under pickguard/tailpiece)
• Long neck tenon
• 8.1 and 8.2 ohm neck and bridge pickup (again, unmarked and unknown pickups)
• Nut is cut with string directionality
• Creamy brownish MOP inlays
• Volute on neck!
• ABR1 style bridge
• MIJ Gotoh style tuners, no Gotoh branding though
• I believe it just said “Japan” on the bridge bottom.
• Control cavity is uninspiring, but no indication it isn’t original
• Pot codes are hard to identify, but there wasn’t much to discern
• not a brand name on anything!

So, I haven’t gotten far in any of the identification, but the pickups might lead us to closer. There are 4 notches near the corner of the brass baseplate on each pickup that can be used in conjunction with other details that might help in narrowing it down. I thought maybe ESP LH200 pups, but I don’t even want to assume this is an ESP guitar yet.

All that to say, I would love some help in identifying this guitar. Even if I can get a few leads, I would be grateful. Thanks and let me know how I may provide more information. Thanks for any insights.

 

[Sigmania]

Welcome.

Looks like early 1990s based on the tuners and the pots. Pots date to 1992 it looks like.

Routs don’t look like Tokai.

 

[Justquarter]

@Sigmania thank you so much! Let me know if I may give any other information.

 

[Justquarter]

Bump; ty all!

 

[Sigmania]

Was it re-painted or re-finished? That alligator effect usually happens when you have different surfaces that expand and contract at different rates.

Edit: looks like you had stated it was a blue burst originally.

 

[Justquarter]

Good morning,

It was not, this is definitely a nitro that has succumb to age. It feels like an old gibson with it’s chonky neck and thin feel. The finish has the UV fading of a blueburst (looks black/green). I was only able to determine the blue when lifting the pickguard or tailpiece off the body and seeing the finish unaffected by UV.

@Sigmania I don’t know it anyone else is following this thread, but I am so happy that you mentioned the routing and the pot codes. It narrows my search to the late 80’s-90’s components. I used this information to take to Google Images, eBay completed listings, Reverb, etc to hunt for similar unique features to match what I have in the pickups. I began by searching through images of common makes of the time, Duncans, Maxon, etc until I had some results actually lead me to ESP, which tracks with the story from the dealer in Japan:

1. I found some similar sets of pickups under this eBay listing that’s eerily similar aside from the gray wire vs my black:
   1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1314880912...PMPVCQ&hash=item1e9d4d0c69:g:x0MAAOSw~FNUal3N
   2. https://reverb.com/item/26376090-esp-lh200-humbuckers (The listing agent mentions this pickup being in loads of custom shop ESP’s in Japan. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but circumstantially supports the ESP claim.)
   3. https://reverb.com/item/85514178-esp-kramer-kp-100-humbucker-80s-black (A Kramer/ESP with the notches, screw heads, brass base, no corner holes on base, but with corresponding sticker.)
2. I also found similar routing in other ESP models from that era, but nothing extremely definitive either.

The hunt continues…

 

[Sigmania]

Hopefully someone else will chime in. Lots of experts on Greco, ESP, Burny, etc. on here. Maybe something will look familiar to someone. I think it’s fun doing the detective work. Will see what others think.

 

[Justquarter]

100%

Thanks so much, and very happy to have finally joined. Cheers

 

[wasabi]

Body looks somewhat similar to ESP V-II. Headstock tho

 

[wasabi]

Could've been some 90s custom order, but I'm still not sure if esp provided that type of headstock, so maybe custom project or mod of an existing guitar? Also seen something similar at Jackson and no name brands

 

[Justquarter]

@wasabi Yeah, I believe the story of this being a custom order leans to being true so far, especially with it's high quality specs from over there. ESP custom shop, from what I have read, would make you any shape you would be willing to pay. Just need some more evidence to whom did make this whether is was ESP or another Japanese luthier. Thanks

 

[Justquarter]

Bump

 

[Justquarter]

Bump

 

[Justquarter]

bump