Hendrix handpainted his Flying V. When Jimi sold it, the buyer paint-stripped it for resale, the muppet. Lovingly recreated, The Epiphone Jimi Hendrix "Love Drops" Flying V is $300 off this Black Friday weekend

Jimi Hendrix Love Drop Epiphone Flying V — (Image credit: Olly Curtis/Future)

Update: This deal has now sold out. If you're a Flying V fan, Guitar Center is offering $150 off this Epiphone Flying V '70s Silver Burst. Check out the deal below.

I was in the office when the Epiphone Jimi Hendrix "Love Drops" Flying V arrived. We stood around it like it was the Holy Grail. It was such an accurate, lovingly recreated copy of Jimi's V – and at a price range that put it within reach of ordinary players – that it had us all standing around nodding. (I made a video on my phone that you can see below.)

But we didn't have a guitar trap, and balancing a just-out-of-the-box Flying V on our laps, seemed risky. In the end, Stuart Williams, our Deputy Reviews Editor across Guitar Player and our sister sites, Guitar World and MusicRadar, was the guy lucky enough to take it home. "A great statement guitar," he wrote in his review. "It looks fantastic, plays well and sounds superb.”

And then he boxed it back up and sent it back to Epiphone before the rest of us could have a play. Selfish. If, like me, you've been coveting it for the last year, now could be your chance with Sweetwater offering $300 off this Black Friday. As offers go, it's fire.

Hendrix painted the V himself, and maybe it says something about Jimi's status or how quickly psychedelia fell out of fashion, but when Jimi gave it to Mick Cox of the Irish band Eire Apparent, Mick paint-stripped it to re-sell resold it in 1973.

Eventually collector David Brewis, acquired the guitar and painstakingly re-created Hendrix’s artwork using old photographs. And it's that recreation that Epiphone has worked from. You can see how well they've done below.