Very few guitarists get to play the guitars that inspired them to pick up the instrument in the first place—let alone own them. For Kirk Hammett, it became a reality when in 2020 he got the opportunity to purchase the Flying V he’d been obsessed with as a teenager
The following is an excerpt from The Collection: Kirk Hammett, the premium coffee table book from Gibson Publishing. Order your copy here. Find out more about the new Michael Schenker 1971 Flying V Collector’s Edition model from Gibson Custom here.
As you’d expect, at Metallica’s cavernous HQ in the Bay Area of San Francisco, you’ll find row upon row of guitar cases—and many of them contain Gibson Flying Vs. In addition to the original 1950s models we look at in detail elsewhere in this book, Hammett reveals the full extent of his Flying V™ acquisition problem: “I have three from the sixties, I have at least 15 Medallion Vs, I pretty much have every year from the seventies, I have eighties Vs, I have those crazy V2s with the V-shaped pickups… I even see new Flying Vs and I’m like, ‘I gotta have that!’”
The iconic Schenker Flying V is now part of the Kirk Hammett collection
Alongside his original black Flying V, one of the jewels in the crown of Kirk’s guitar collection is undoubtedly the 1971 Medallion Flying V (so named for the gold coin affixed to the upper wing that was made to commemorate the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich) formerly owned by Michael Schenker of The Scorpions and UFO.
The guitar began life in Cherry and was used by Michael Schenker throughout the 1970s. At some point, Schenker stripped off the paint in pursuit of a natural finish, damaging the wood beneath in the process. Apparently unable to decide whether he wanted to play a white or a black Flying V, Schenker had the guitar resprayed in the iconic black and white color scheme with which he became indelibly associated.
The chance for Kirk to purchase the guitar came in 2020 when he was emailed by its then-owner, Wolf Hoffman, from the German heavy metal band Accept. For Kirk, it was a “huge” moment. “Wolf Hoffman got it from Michael Schenker’s tour manager, who had been sitting on it for like, 20 years,” Kirk explains. “But it’s the original ‘Medallion’ V that Michael Schenker played on UFO albums, Phenomenon, Force It, and No Heavy Petting. It’s crazy because you can still see some of the red finish, if you look at certain spots on the guitar.”
The medallions were added to commemorate the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich
Something else that validated the guitar for Kirk was its arrival in a flightcase stenciled with the former London telephone number of Peter Mensch, one of the founders of Metallica’s management company Q Prime. After he left UFO in 1978, Michael Schenker stayed at Mensch’s house for a year or so. “Michael knows I have the guitar and he said 100 percent, that’s the guitar he played on those three UFO albums,” says Kirk. “For me, that’s amazing; I spent years—it feels like years!—listening to UFO guitar solos, trying to figure them out. I spent so much time listening to that particular guitar. It’s one of those full-circle things.
“The Schenker Flying V is almost like a religious relic for me. It represents so much of my youth and all the travails I went through in just trying to learn how to play guitar and be a great improviser and soloist like Michael Schenker. I spent so much time as a teenager just staring at this guitar on the back of UFO’s Force It album. There’s a picture of Michael Schenker playing this very guitar—it’s red, you can see the medallion—and I used to stare at the guitar and go, ‘I need to get a Flying V.’ Little did I know that, decades later, I would have the very Flying V that I was staring at.
“I seem to be able to attract guitars I spent so much attention on over the years, and somehow or another, they’ve made their way towards me. Maybe it was a manifestation. There isn’t really an explanation that’s valid as to why these things happen. Every time something happens, there’s a reason for it happening. I haven’t gotten to that reason yet. I’m just celebrating the fact that it happened, and I’m fucking really, really happy and grateful and humbled by it.”
Find out more about the Gibson Custom Michael Schenker 1971 Flying V Collector’s Edition model and shop now.
