• THIS IS THE 25th ANNIVERSARY YEAR FOR THE LES PAUL FORUM! PLEASE CELEBRATE WITH US AND SUPPORT US WITH A DONATION TO KEEP US GOING! We've made a large financial investment to convert the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and recently moved to a new hosting platform. We also have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!
  • WE HAVE MOVED THE LES PAUL FORUM TO A NEW HOSTING PROVIDER! Let us know how it is going! Many thanks, Mike Slubowski, Admin
  • Please support our Les Paul Forum Sponsors with your business - Gary's Classic Guitars, Wildwood Guitars, Chicago Music Exchange, Reverb.com, Throbak.com and True Vintage Guitar. From personal experience doing business with all of them, they are first class organizations. Thank you!

Victory, Redux

jb_abides

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
6,070

“Created in response to player requests for the return of this ’80s-era cult favorite”: Gibson channels Superstrat and PRS vibes as it revives its Victory model for the first time in 40 years


The Victory's revival was first teased late last year, and the offset double-cut has been rebooted with a few choice tweaks

1726028100627.png

Gibson has officially revived its Superstrat-style Victory electric guitar model from the 1980s, nearly exactly a year after the firm’s CEO had teased its imminent return in a social media post.

The Gibson Victory is a quirky offset double-cut design that was first produced and made available during a short period in the ’80s. It was, effectively, Gibson’s answer to the Superstrat hype that took hold during the decade.

Yet the Victory was quietly discontinued, and eventually slipped into obscurity after failing to hold down a permanent position in the company’s regular lineup.

However, rumors of its long-awaited return began circulating in September last year when Cesar Gueikian was snapped playing one live on stage at the Pilgrimage Festival with Better Than Ezra.

Back then, it was theorized that Gueikian – who has a track record of teasing upcoming releases on his Instagram account – was putting out feelers for the Victory’s eventual resurgence, and now such theories have been confirmed.

1726028173495.png

The returning Victory, as Gibson explains, “was created in response to player requests for the return of this ‘80s-era cult favorite” and “carries the DNA of the original with enhanced features”.

At its core, the Victory features a newly contoured double-cut mahogany body with a satin nitro lacquer finish, as well as a mahogany neck that’s topped with a 24-fret ebony fingerboard. Other key components include a 25.5” scale length, a SlimTaper neck profile, a Graph Tech nut and acrylic dot inlays.

1726028197482.png

Hardware wise, a Gibson-standard Stop Bar tailpiece/Tune-O-Matic bridge combo makes the cut, while the Explorer-style headstock (another update on the original model) is dressed with Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners.

As for tones, there are two ’80s Tribute Humbuckers wired to a three-way toggle, and push/pull master volume and tone parameters, which offer coil-splitting and inner/outer coil selection.

Three Victory variants have been unveiled. The first is the standard model – available in Dark Walnut Satin, Gold Mist Satin and Dark Green Satin – and the second is the Figured version, which offers an AA figured maple available in either Iguana Burst, Wine Red Burst and Smokehouse Burst.

The final iteration is the Gibson Exclusive Figured model, which arrives in a Translucent Ebony Burst.

1726028227018.png

It’s the latest example of Gibson leafing through its history books to revive long-lost models – just see the recent run of the Theodore models – and while the Victory will look to recapture the vibe of an ’80s-era electric guitar, it will also find itself competing with more contemporary creations.

To that end, the Victory certainly carries a certain PRS flair, and can be particularly compared to the Vela, which was also recently revived.

The Victory models start from $1,999.

Head over to Gibson to find out more.

 

Dave P

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 13, 2001
Messages
1,063
I thought it looked better with the original Firebird-ish headstock. I liked the originals with the HSH pickup setup, too bad they were so ungodly heavy.
 

zacknorton

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
766
if they want to sell that model.... its going to need a halon trem/bridge or maybe a mastery. that would seal the deal.

one more vote for the firebird headstock. 🤘
 

Hiwatts-n-Gibsons

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2024
Messages
631
Agreed. It would look way better with a Firebird headstock. Here is a pic one poster added on the Seymour Duncan forums after I brought up the very same point there. They also added an LP style pickguard. Picsart_24-09-13_18-58-36-215.jpg
 
Top