Bolan used the Flying V for both recording and performance, most notably for an appearance on Top Of The Pops performing Get It On in 1971. Three recordings were made for Get It On, the first two in July and August have been largely lost, with only brief fragments still in existence, the third recording took place on 20th December for the Christmas Special, and featured Bolan playing his Flying V accompanied by Elton John on the piano. Get It On stayed at number one in the charts for four weeks, and was released in the U.S. as Bang A Gong, where it reached number ten in the charts. In the accompanying letter from Micky O'Halloran, he recalls Bolan using the guitar to record various songs including the single b-side Thunderwing and Buick MacKane on The Slider album, both released in 1972, and also for a series of home recordings done between 1975-1977 released on a posthumous album, Billy Super Duper, 1982.

As detailed above, the guitar underwent various minor modifications in 1980; the plaque on the tailpiece was added by the vendor; the Marc Bolan sticker on the body which is evident in contemporary photographs was removed before 1990. Close examination of the wood grain on the body, fingerboard and pearl dot inlays, compared to contemporary photographs of Bolan with his Flying V show them to be one and the same guitar.

Gibson produced a prototype Flying V in 1957, followed by the first commerical models in 1958 when 81 guitars were shipped from the factory, followed by 17 in 1959. According to Gruhn's Guide To Vintage Guitars, the first series of guitars produced after the 1950s numbered around 200; no shipping records exist for 1968, so it's probable that this guitar belongs to the batch shipped in 1969, which numbered a mere 15.