The Gibson Victory MV-X, or Victory 'Multi-Voice' 10, was so-named because of the 10 distinct switch settings, or sounds from this guitar. It was very much an attempt to create a guitar that could offer the best sounds of Gibson, Fender, and any other maker. It was styled as a 'super-strat', with its body shape and three-pickup, five-way switch configuration, but stuck to Gibson tradition with its humbuckers, set neck and roughly Firebird headstock.
The Gibson Victory MV X (and the dual pickup MV II, both part of the part of the Victory series alongside the Victory bass) was designed by Chuck Burge and Tim Shaw of Gibson's research and development department in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Chuck built the prototypes and show models, with Tim producing the innovative electronics and new design pickups - but whilst the main production of basses immediately moved to Nashville. The earliest MV guitars were built in Kalamazoo, but by late 1981 these too had moved south.
Unlike the bass series, the Victory guitars had a set (glued in) neck, following many years of Gibson tradition, but visually, these guitars were quite different from the guitars that preceded them. They were certainly something new for a new decade..
The MVX was described as follows...
In order to offer the same tones as the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul, the MVX pickups were specially designed to replicate single coil tones aswell as Gibson's characteristic humbucker tones. Likewise, the controls were arranged to be more familiar to a Strat-player: i.e. five-way blade pickup selector switch with only master volume and tone controls. For a detailed description of the controls, see page 16 of the Gibson Victory MV owners manual.
The MVX was a superb guitar: a Victory, both in name and features, though another defeat for Gibson in terms of sales. They were simply too new, and too expensive, and even today are somewhat overlooked in favour of the omnipresent Les Paul. At launch they were priced $929 - between the Les Paul Deluxe ($899) and Standard ($999). A great player, and a future collectable. If you get a chance to buy a Victory MVX, snap it up!
For detailed information on the controls, and pickups of the Victory MVX, please see page 16-17 of the Gibson Victory MV owners manual.
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