New, limited-edition Flying V guitar named after Fountain Square music store founder

Tim Evans
IndyStar
Former Indianapolis music store owner Amos Arthur plays a 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar that he ordered in 1958 and sold the following year.

Nearly six decade after Indianapolis music store owner Amos Arthur sold an odd-looking Gibson electric guitar, the now-classic instrument and its amazing backstory continue to draw international attention to the small Fountain Square business still run by Arthur's family.

The growing legend of the 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar dubbed "Amos" is a mash up of fairy-tale story lines: Ugly duckling leaves home and later develops into a beautiful swan, which is taken in by a prince who brings the swan back home for a triumphant visit.

The amazing tale, shared far and wide in musical circles, spurred other guitar players to want their own ugly ducklings. But only a few dozen were made in the 1950s, and if you do find one for sale the price tag is likely to be somewhere north of a half-million dollars.

Blues-rock star Joe Bonamassa's 1958 Gibson Flying V electric guitar, left, was originally sold by Amos Arthur at his music store in Indianapolis. Epiphone Guitar Corp. is now offering a limited edition Joe Bonamassa "Amos" re-issue of the original, right, bearing the name of the Fountain Square music store founder.

But now, just in time for the Christmas season, two savvy musical equipment manufacturers — with help from the "prince," better known as international blues-rock star Joe Bonamassa — are stepping up to help fill that demand.

Epiphone Guitar Corp. this week announced the debut of a new guitar it calls the "Limited Edition Joe Bonamassa 1958 Amos Korina Flying-V." Modeled after the guitar Arthur sold in 1959 and now owned by Bonamassa, only 1,500 are being made. They are expected to sell for around $900.

And for players seeking to add the signature sound of a classic Flying V to their own guitars, California-based manufacturer Seymour Duncan has released a limited edition Joe Bonamassa Amos Pickup Set. Matching the year "Amos" was made, the company plans to limit production of the sets to 1,958. They are made to the same specifications — and with the same materials, craftsmanship, tone and voicing — of the pickups responsible for the distinctive sound of the original "Amos" guitar.

Linda Osborne (left), and her daughter Amy England, of Arthur's Music Store, Indianapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017. Osborne took over the store from her father Amos Arthur.

Arthur's daughter, Linda Osborne, said she's been touched by the "Amos" phenomenon.

"Dad's love of playing the guitar and music in general is going to be part of history. I mean, how cool is that," she said. "What better honor for a guitar player than to have a guitar named after them. Very few non-mega stars ever experienced that level of recognition."

Seymour Duncan has issued a new set of electric guitar pickups based on those from a guitar sold in 1959 by Fountain Square music store owner Amos Arthur. The pickups endorsed by blues-rock star Joe Bonamassa are nicknamed  "Amos" in a tribute to Arthur.

She added the tributes will also help future generations of Arthur's family grasp his vision and impact.

"It's now a legacy thing that can go on to his grandchildren and great grandchildren so that they will understand how much he contributed and how much people appreciated him."

The ugly duckling

The ugly-duckling thread in the story of "Amos" the guitar is also an appropriate metaphor for Arthur's Music Store. The family-run business — now in its 65th year at the same location — has blossomed as the fortunes of Fountain Square fell and rose again.

Today, Arthur's is one of Indiana's oldest music stores continuously operated by the same family. It is now owned by Amos Arthur's daughters, Osborne and Elizabeth Gibson, and run by Osborne and her daughter, Amy England. 

Amos Arthur, a World War II veteran who landed on Normandy Beach on D-Day, studied at the Jordan School of Music and played guitar professionally with several groups during the Big Band era. A  life-long member of Musician's Union Local #3, Arthur and his wife, Leola, opened the music store in an old house in the 900 block of Shelby Street in 1952.

Fountain Square was a hopping place at the time. But the area later fell into decline and languished for years before its recent resurrection as one of the city's hottest and hippest neighborhoods. 

Osborne said the area's ups and downs didn't hurt the business as much as a flood of cheaper, imported guitars that started in the 1960s. It was a trend, she said, her father was slow to embrace.

"The 70s, 80s and 90s were really rough," she explained. "It wasn't really the area, because we've always attracted a regional and statewide audience here. I think the main thing was really the fact that all the instruments started being made in Japan and dad was one of the very last people in the country to not be selling totally American instruments."

An old car as used by Arthur's Music Store, Indianapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017.

Osborne said the family was advised in the early '90s that their store was an ugly duckling. The store, which had expanded to include three adjacent homes, needed to be modernized with "a gray-slat wall and ferns and burgundy accents or you'll never make it," Osborne said she was told.

"Obviously, we ignored that and now everybody's happy that we did."

Still, the recent boom in Fountain Square "has made a huge difference" for the business, Osborne said.

"There were people who were afraid to come to Fountain Square — people that didn't come south of Washington Street or even 38th Street, that thought it was a place they shouldn't come. And now, of course, they come down in droves. We have people in now, almost every day, even after being here 65 years, who have never been in before. They'd always heard about us. They knew about us. They'd just never come in."

Osborne said the store also benefits from all the live music venues in Fountain Square. 

"We have an awful lot of touring musicians that come through now."  

Then there's been the boost from the "Amos" story.

The story of 'Amos' 

It was in 1958, during the infancy of rock and roll, that Arthur took a chance on a new, angular electric guitar. It didn’t have the gently rounded body that had been the industry standard for more than a century.

The new guitar was almost immediately lambasted as ugly.

Arthur ordered one in spite of the initial negative reaction, predicting the futuristic-looking instrument would be a fun conversation piece and draw customers to the store.

The 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar dubbed "Amos" by musician Joe Bonamassa landed back on the counter at Arthur's Music Store in 2015 along with a photo of store founder Amos Arthur playing the guitar in 1958.

The Flying V that Gibson sent to Arthur’s store — serial number 8-2857 — was among the first made in a run of only 81 the company shipped to dealers in 1958. Only a few more would be made before production stopped in 1959.

Arthur sold the guitar in 1959, but the business has no record of the buyer. Life and business went on.

Interest in Arthur's Flying V was rekindled a few years ago when England began posting old photos — including pictures of her grandfather playing the guitar — on the store's Facebook page. That coincided with a booming collector market in which original Flying Vs became highly coveted vintage electric guitars.

Unbeknownst to the staff at Arthur's, California-based vintage guitar dealer Norm Harris had purchased the Flying V in about 1975 — three years before Amos Arthur retired and handed the store over to his daughters.

The guitar remained in the collection of Harris until Bonamassa, who began his musical career as a 12-year-old opening for B.B. King, purchased it about three years ago. To Bonamassa, who's amassed a large collection of vintage guitars and amplifiers, there's more to collecting than just acquiring a rare guitar.

"You collect history and stories," he told IndyStar in 2015, "just as much as you collect instruments."

The quest to learn more about his guitar led the musician back Arthur's — the guitar had its own seat on the plane trip to Indianapolis — and prompted Bonamassa to call his new old guitar Amos. Osborne and England gave him an engraved name plate from one of Amos Arthur's old guitars.

Bonamassa, who is currently on tour, was not available for comment on the new "Amos" re-issue, but a spokesman sent a text stating: "He loves the Arthur’s Music family and respects their long tenure in the industry. It’s fortunate Amos Arthur had the foresight to order this guitar at a time when they were not taken seriously. The photos of the store during that era make the history even more rich and exciting for those of us who love vintage instruments. It’s all about the history."

Despite its age and value, Bonamassa still plays "Amos" — one of  two 1958 Flying Vs in his collection — on the road  

That exposure has helped the legend of Amos continue to grow and prompt the new "Amos" branded products. It also is garnering more attention to the small Fountain Square music store. The new Epiphone "Amos" guitar includes a reproduction of the nameplate from Arthur's guitar.

Blues-rock star Joe Bonamassa has borrowed a custom truss-rod cover, which Amos Arthur had custom made in the 1960s, for his 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar he has named "Amos" to honor former Indianapolis music store owner who first sold the guitar in 1959. Ephiphone Guitars is re-issuing a new version of "Amos" complete with a reproduction of the nameplate.

"We are so very, very happy that there are musicians like Joe Bonamassa and other people who truly appreciate the life and history of musical instruments," Osborne said. "Joe has been just fabulous to us as a store and to the memory of our father because of the fact he's just constantly telling people all the time to come and see us."

Contact Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204 or tim.evans@indystar.com. And follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim