Description

WARNING: This Guitar Smells of Smoke. Do NOT Buy If That Bothers You.

I’d describe it as a warm/wet woody smoke – Slightly “flavored” scent.

Please view the full video to see the guitar’s condition in real-time

The Case…

This comes in an era-correct “Gibson Custom Art Historic” Flying V Case. Like this guitar – this also reaks of a smoke scent. It has been lysol-wiped head to toe and will “air out” for as long as this listing is up. It shows scuffs and wear from use/storage. I’d give it a 7/10. Inside the case compartment sleeps the original pre-pack checklist, Customer Care Guide, silica packet, case key and truss rod tool. The large paper COA is no longer with the guitar

The Guitar! Fat 50s Neck | 7lbs 7oz

The Satin Metallic series was done in late 2002. It consisted of 3 models (Flying V, Explorer and Futura) where a total of 60 were made for each body style. Therefore, 15 of each color (Blue, Green, Copper, Silver) exist. Due to low production numbers, the odds of finding another one exactly like this one are very low. This did not start life green – it is actually one of the blue ones! The clear coat has ambered heavily due to living in a smoky environment. If you remove the pickguard, tuners, truss rod cover – you will see the original Satin Blue hue – just like on vintage Pelham Blue SGs!

This guitar was DISGUSTING when it arrived to me. I gave it as deep of a clean that I could muster. That is 3 rounds of Scratch X to remove layers of caked on tar and then a final round of Virtuoso for a final polish. This is one of those guitars that you can keep cleaning forever and still get more tar off it so I hesitate to truly call it “clean” but it is miles better than before. You’ll still smell smoke when you play/touch it. The fretboard/frets were steel wool’d and then polished and a fresh set of D’Addario 10s installed. This all occured on Sept 8, 2025. This guitar started life a SATIN finish – due the cleaning process, the guitar is more of a semi-gloss now – especially on the neck.

There is unevenness to the satin finish in both sheen and color – most notably is the BLUE by the top strap button (likely shielded from the tar by a strap) and on the headstock edges from where it was guarded by the stand it was on. There are light and heavy scratches in the aluminum pickguard

This has buckle worming on the back – various nicks/dings all over, including one on the face of the headstock and a few others on the edges/extremities. The frets are in very clean condition though – I couldn’t see any visible wear. The truss rod was set with a few threads showing out the top from the factory (has blue on them) but functions as it should. There is natural finish checking occuring on the back of the headstock that actually looks pretty cool!

The original 490/498T Gibson pickups sound extra good in this one. Not sure what it is about it – but they SCREAM

If you’re looking for a minty one of these – this is not it. If you’re looking for a smoky player with a seriously cool vibe that you can’t get otherwise, you can’t lose!