Veni, Vidi, Vici: The Hunt for the Perfect Flying V [028]
Stuck in my head: "Villains"
The Verve Pipe
Villains
There was a brief period in 2011 and 2012 where I helped out at a guitar store as they were opening up, just small tasks here and there in exchange for information and some knowledge and better habits. You should see how I used to change guitar strings before! My technique is much cleaner and more refined these days.
If you've been keeping up (not sure why you would, nobody reads this shit) then you can probably gleam that I've got a fondness for Fender gear and a handful of Gibson pieces, though I largely lack the desire to afford Gibson gear. Don't get me wrong - I think Les Pauls and SGs are good, classic guitars, but Gibson's ethos regarding their trademarks, their litigious nature, the "Play Authentic" debacle, and the perception of the headstock design flaw is disconcerting, especially when asking their fans to pay thousands of dollars for their instruments.
I do have a Les Paul Studio, but it was a lucky find - I only paid about $400 for my '94 Centennial Studio... and yes, it's been verified as legitimate, but that's a story for another time (Here's one such story).
I never held any love for their "futuristic" designs, the Explorer or the Flying V. I was not a metallica fan, and I remember james hetfield using an Explorer during the "black album" years, though I would later learn that wasn't a Gibson, but an ESP... again, that's another story. Additionally, I felt that the Flying V looked antiquated when I was coming of age, and being a fan of Megadeth when Dave Mustaine was a Jackson-endorsed artist, I liked the idea of the pointy Jackson King V - it looked like it could kill somebody and definitely sounded like killing was its business… and business was good.
[Huh... I just read the previous paragraph and realized that I'm still fighting the Megadath/metallica fight. Aren't we all?]
I remained fairly ambivalent until one visit to the local guitar store in April of 2017, and there it was: a beautiful cherry sunburst Flying V that not only spoke to me, but was screaming very loudly from the rooftops with a megaphone and a PA system: BUY ME, DUDE.
I pulled it off the wall and strummed a couple of chords, and… a V had never felt so damn comfortable before. I remember feeling quite taken aback that a Gibson could feel this good, except... wait... this isn't a Gibson?
Oh shit...
I'd never heard of this brand before, but the store owner and the store manager had been in the business for a long time: they both told me that Polaris had been the house brand for a musical instrument franchise known as Music West back in the eighties. This information is corroborated by Aaron from Warmoth on this thread at The Gear Page:
I can tell you all about Polaris. In the 70's and 80's there was a musical instrument chain in the PNW called Music West. There were about 7 or 8 stores in Washington and Oregon. I managed one for several years. Polaris was their house brand.
Manufactured overseas, and generally not that great. There were a few Gibson copies that were passable. In particular I remember the Polaris flying V copy to be decent. I have an 80's era Owen Mills photo of me holding the one I owned somewhere in the smallbutmighty archives. Parachute pants, faux leather jacket, and a perm. I'm not certain it should ever be released publicly... :)
Overall though....just entry level stuff, or even some really bad junk. Microphonic pickups, crappy electronics, etc.
I wanted it. I went home that evening to do some gear math and figure out what I could sell or trade, and when I came back the next day, the guitar was gone, having been sold that morning. What's more, the aforementioned Gear Page thread refers to a Seattle guitarist that "... was playing a Flying V copy by a brand called Polaris."
... bruh.
I'd run into the guy at a different local shop where he worked. "I love it, man, I'll never sell it. I hope you find one, though."
The two picture above were taken from a Reverb listing for the sake of clarity. The fact is that there aren't too many of these out in the wild. I could swear that there had been a second Reverb listing, but I can't find it now. I see them pop up on eBay every once in a rare while, usually from Japanese sellers who are asking double the price. The next few photos are of one such listing:
Of course, it pains me to see the actual guitar in the hands of the fella who bought it and presumably still owns it. I blurred out faces and any other identifying information for their safety:
... god dammit.
I keep active searches for a Polaris V on all the major platforms. Two years ago, I decided to place a "WTB" listing on local Craigslist to see if anyone had one they wanted to move. I received several replies from other players who owned one or used to own one, and apparently my listing brought back a bunch of memories for them. Of course, any time an email came in, I though someone had one to sell, not trying to reminisce with me.
An email came through in November 2021 from a fella in North Seattle; he'd bought one when he was fifteen, owned it for many years, gave it to his daughter, and she gave it back to him once she moved out and lost interest in playing guitar. "Four hundred dollars and it's yours," he said.
Of course, I didn't notice it until I got home, and this is where I made a major fuck-up.
I gave the dude the benefit of the doubt; he said it had been in storage for about ten years, so he probably hadn't even looked at it until he was browsing Craigslist. It came with the original case, but any guitarist worth their salt knows better than to buy, use, keep, or even entertain the idea of a flimsy chipboard case.
They are relatively easy to crush and offer no protection against the guitar jostling around inside, as they generally have no padding, just a flannel-type fabric lining inside. Not really suited for traveling or shipping.
If you have no case at all, it's better than nothing, I guess. Or if you have a really cheap guitar that doesn't merit investing in a decent case. At least it'll keep the dust off the guitar when you're not playing.
But if you have a decent guitar, you should consider buying a hardshell case.
His daughter might have dropped it before she gave it back to him, it may have been jostled in storage... any number of things could have happened to it before it got to me, but it is ultimately my responsibility because I didn't notice it. I could have shaken him down two-hundred more dollars, but... it obviously needs a little love. I'm sure that he loved it for a time, and loved it enough to give it to his kid, and loved it enough to keep it, but his love for it had reached an end.
I haven't taken it in, yet. Honestly, I've been waiting for a good case to come along because I am not going through this again. As of two weeks ago, Dean finally got their ABS plastic cases back in stock and I finally got one:
I'm gonna tag my guy in it, see if he'll handle the repair.
I gotta tell ya, though, I still want that sunburst transparent V, and if I ever find one, I will pick it up. It's not that the red one is bad - it isn't! - my love for these just started with the sunburst guitar, is all.
I've learned quite a bit about Vs since this whole Polaris infatuation began. Sometimes I think I should pony up the dough and get a Gibson; one of my favorite bands is Smashing Pumpkins, and guitarist James Iha slings a Gibson V in the video for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings":
The headstock on Iha's guitar is super pointy, same as most vintage Vs. Of course, the Polaris had made me accustomed to a rounder headstock. It wasn't until Keith Williams' channel, Five Watt World, put out a history of the Flying V that really cleared a lot up for me specifically in reference to the 1971 Medallion V:
As of this writing, I have the red Polaris and a Fibson V Custom in what Gibson would refer to as "Faded Cherry":
Still... something's missing. Maybe it's an itch that will be scratched once I find that burst Polaris, or maybe something else will come my way. Either way, it's the journey and not the destination that stirs up all the fun of the hunt.
Happy collecting.
-CST.
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