Gibson Firebird
| Gibson Firebird | |
|---|---|
| File:Firebird guitar.jpg | |
| Manufacturer | Gibson |
| Period | 1963 — present |
| Construction | |
| Body type | Solid |
| Neck joint | Thru-body |
| Woods | |
| Body | Mahogany |
| Neck | Mahogany and Walnut |
| Fretboard | Rosewood or Ebony |
| Hardware | |
| Bridge | Tune-o-matic |
| Pickup(s) | 2 Mini Humbuckers |
| Colors available | |
| Various; often natural tones | |
The Gibson Firebird is a solid-body guitar marketed by Gibson from 1963 to the present.
History
The Gibson Guitar Corporation released several new types of guitars during the 1950s to combat Fender's successful and modern guitars, such as the Stratocaster and the Telecaster. Fender's range of colours, shapes and multiple pickups were endorsed by many notable guitarists of the 1960s.
Gibson had success with the Les Paul in the 1950s, but their other releases (Flying V and Explorer) were failures. The president of Gibson at the time, Ted McCarty, hired a car designer named Ray Dietrich to design a guitar to combat Fender.
Under Dietrich, the Firebird drew closely around the lines of mid-50s car tailfins. Dietrich basically took the Explorer design and rounded the edges. The most unusual aspect of the design is that the guitar is somewhat "backward" in that the right-hand (treble) horn of the body is longer than the other. Thus, the original Firebirds were unofficially referred to as "reverse".
It was the first Gibson solid-body to use neck-through construction, wherein the neck extended to the tail end of the body, to which extension pieces or "wings" were attached. Other unique features of the Firebird were its reverse headstock and banjo tuning keys, and was also the first Gibson to employ special design pickups similar in size to Epiphone mini-humbucking pickups but without adjustable pole pieces.
The Firebird line of guitars had four guitar models and one bass model, the latter known as the Thunderbird. Unlike the Les Paul and SG line, which used the terms "Junior", "Special", "Standard" and "Custom" to mark the range, the Firebird line used the Roman numerals "I", "III", "V" and "VII" to distinguish each model. In 1965 and 1966 Gibson made Non Reverse models. These did not have the neck through design, but a standard set neck design, and two or three Gibson P-90 pickups.
The Firebird's design was unable to effectively compete with Fender's Jaguar and Jazzmaster models that were released at about the same time. In addition, the guitar's design (which Fender complained was copied from their Jazzmaster instruments) was expensive to manufacture. Consequently, the entire line was revamped, and the guitar was given a less angular, flipped body style known as the "non-reverse" template. After a few years of disappointing sales, the line was dropped and was not reissued until the late 1970s. The firebird looks like it has a big hernia in the side of it
Reissues
The "reissue" Firebirds are usually based on the original reverse body design, however Gibson reintroduced the non reverse Firebird around 2004. While prices for just about all vintage guitars have skyrocketed, the reverse body Firebirds are known as the better design, and they command much more money than their non-reverse siblings. Many model types have been released of the Firebird. Epiphone, which is owned by Gibson, have also re-released the Firebird model, as well as the other guitars from that era.
Notable Firebird players
Configurations
- Firebird I - 1 pickup. Combination stud bridge/tailpiece. Chrome hardware.
- Firebird III - 2 pickups, Combination stud bridge/tailpiece and Gibson Vibrola. Chrome hardware.
- There was a sub-design of this version of the Firebird. It featured a flat headstock with standard tuning machines rather than the sculpted one and also utilized two soap-bar P-90 pickups rather than the mini-humbuckers
- Firebird V - 2 pickups, Tune-o-matic bridge. Chrome hardware.
- Firebird VII - 3 pickups, Tune-o-matic bridge and Maestro "Lyre" Vibrola tailpiece. Gold hardware.
- Firebird Studio - 2 humbuckers, Tune-o-matic bridge. Chrome or gold hardware.