Gibson Firebird V: (2020)
The Gibson Firebird has a reverse body and headstock design as originally introduced in 1963 and was Gibson's first neck-through-body design. The traditional 9-ply mahogany/walnut neck through-body construction provides rich, warm tonality and good sustain. A slim taper neck with a bound, rosewood fingerboard and acrylic trapezoid fingerboard inlays enables fast and effortless playability. The refreshed Firebird for 2019 is outfitted with the redeveloped Alnico V Firebird pickup to recapture the scorching output and searing tones of the original voice for which the Firebird is known.
Some quick specifications are a rosewood neck, scale length 24.75", with a 12" Radius, 22 medium jumbo frets, Graph Tech nut, Aluminium Nashville Tune-O-Matic Bridge, Grover Mini Rotomatics, 2 Volumes and 2 Tones & Toggle Switch, Firebird Alnico V Rhythm, and Firebird Alnico V, Lead pick-ups. Finish is a gloss nitro-cellulose lacquer. The guitar comes with a large rectangle shaped hard shell case.
Personal Comment:
Yes... yet another one of those purchases based on memories of days gone bye but the first time I clasped eyes on an actual Firebird in the flesh was when a used one came into my local music store in the early 70s. Despite being beat up looking the shop wanted a lot of dosh for it, once again, for a young kid it was way out of my price league. This particular guitar I purchased during "lock-down" and in fact, it was just about impossible to get one as I think I must have got the last one in the UK at that time. So... is the Firebird V 2019 model exactly as the original? well not quite. The headstock has been redesigned to allow for Grover mini tuners, a replacement for the classic Banjo tuners. I have to say, tuning is a bit of a pest as the tuners are very small and very close together. The raised platform on the original head stock has been replaced with a flat finish, clearly what appears to be a cost saving design.
In this example, the nitrocellulose lacquer is actually quite hard, and by that I mean that there was possibly more hardener in the lacquer mix than on other Gibson guitars I have owned. This has led to cracking at the body wing joints. Now, that sounds awful but you really have to look hard and in the correct light to be able to see this but it's something to bear in mind. I tried fitting a Duesenberg Les Trem II tremolo to the guitar and while it works fine I have since removed it. Is the Firebird for everyone? it's a guitar you will either love or completely dismiss, they do take a bit of getting use to, but once you get into it they really are very interesting to play. I have done a few videos comparing the Firebird up against a Telecaster and the Les Paul with P90 pick-ups - check-out the videos below by clicking on the pictures.
So, is this guitar a keeper? well, while there is much nostalgia here for me it is a guitar that is not going to get much use in my recording work and so it will be getting sold. If you want to know more about this guitar drop me an email.