Lonnie Mack's Gibson Flying V rig sells for $550,000 at Heritage Auctions

Lonnie Mack's 1958 Gibson Flying V, sold together with his 1962 Magnatone Custom 440 combo amp, fetched $550,000 at Heritage Auctions' Vintage Guitars and Musical Instruments Signature sale, according to Guitar World. The auction realized $2.16 million across 188 sold lots.

The korina Flying V was the seventh guitar off the production line of one of Gibson's most prestigious runs and the American bluesman's workhorse instrument. It was put to work in the studio in 1985, when Stevie Ray Vaughan produced Mack's comeback album, “Strike Like Lightning”. Heritage Auctions' Aaron Piscopo said the guitar helped shape the sound of modern electric guitar.

The same sale saw a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, serial No. 9 0640, sell for $781,250, a record for a guitar of its kind without celebrity provenance. It still carries its original humbuckers, and its solder joints have stayed unmodified since it left Gibson's former Kalamazoo factory. The previous non-celebrity record holder was a 1958/63 Gibson Explorer sold for $611,000. Together, the two headline lots brought in $1.3 million.

Lonnie Mack, born in 1941 in West Harrison and who died in 2016, blended blues rock, rockabilly and gospel, and was a key influence on Stevie Ray Vaughan, who later helped revive his career. His last studio album is “Still on the Move” (1999), according to MusicBrainz.