Dan Erlewine Albert King Custom Flying V - "Lucy" vs Gibson Explorer Korina
The Dan Erlewine Albert King Custom Flying V - "Lucy" and the Gibson Explorer Korina are both electric guitars. The Dan Erlewine Albert King Custom Flying V - "Lucy" leans transparent and warm. The Gibson Explorer Korina leans bright.
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Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.53% — moderately similar
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Genres both listings are associated with.- Blues
Dan Erlewine Albert King Custom Flying V - "Lucy"
Dan Erlewine · electric guitar
Gibson Explorer Korina
Gibson · electric guitar
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$6500via Reverb
This brown Flying V, built by luthier Dan Erlewine, is one of several instruments Albert King named Lucy over his career, part of a lineage that began with his original 1959 Korina Flying V and continued through custom copies from different builders including Erlewine, John Bolin and Tom Holmes as King wore through or retired earlier examples. Erlewine was among the first luthiers King commissioned for a replacement once his original Korina V became too valuable and fragile for regular touring use. It is associated in this catalogue with both Albert King and Joe Bonamassa, the latter a well-documented collector of King-associated Flying Vs.
Kirk Hammett owns a 1963 Gibson Explorer assembled from korina body and neck stock left over from the model's original, extremely limited late-1950s production run, one of the roughly 17 rare vintage Gibsons he showcased in an episode of Gibson TV's The Collection alongside a 1957 Korina Flying V prototype and Peter Green and Gary Moore's famous 1959 Les Paul, Greeny. Korina, a lightweight African wood Gibson used briefly for the Explorer and Flying V before both models were discontinued in 1958 due to poor initial sales, gives these guitars a brighter, more resonant voice than the mahogany used on most other Gibson solid bodies from the era. As one of the rarest body shapes Gibson ever produced in this wood, Hammett's example represents a significant piece of guitar history well outside the metal-oriented gear he's more commonly associated with.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Metal
- Country
- Rock
- Jazz
- transparent
- warm
- sustaining
- bright