In a recent thread on fave guitar shapes, several folks listed Firebird, among them.

While it's admittedly less than 1% as popular as Strats and Teles, in this opinion, the Firebird is a rather nice guitar. 'Had an Ibanez "Lawsuit" copy of a V from '75 and it's still played and liked. (Ibanez did such a nice job, decision was made to keep it over a new Firebird V, but that's another story.)

Who else likes and has a Firebird in their guitar harem, stable or garage?

Sorry don't have a Firebird.

How about the Firebird X?
I hear they are getting a lot of flamin' attention. Or is it Henry J who's catchin' a lot of flame?

I've loved Firebirds ever since I saw my hero Brian Jones play a Firebird VII on the Ed Sullivan Show.I could've bought a 63 Firebird VII in 76 for $450 but was too stupid to take out a loan to buy it.So now I have to content myself with an Epi Firebird V,not that I'm complaining because it sounds just like a mid 60s SG-a lovely guitar.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Twinhit, 'personally feel sorry for Gibson.

They have been struggling to stay in the game, long after the rules became so bizarre (for a banjo, harp guitar and mandolin company) and the competition so fierce, it would have been unimaginable to "prepare" for.

Fender had 50 years of "non-history" before the end of WW II which saved them from having a rut to get into.

That said, the Firebird X seems like a cosmic dumb idea.

Gibson seems to be hellbent on spending untold millions on R&D of hare-brained ideas that are dismal losses when they come to fruition such as the Dark Fire,Dusk Tiger,the Robot Guitars and the most laughable fiasco of them all The Gibson Hendrix Strat.Their prices are making their guitars so unattainable that people are flocking to Fender and other companies and people are also finding that Gibson owned Epiphone guitars are a much better choice both pricewise and in quality.The time is long overdue for Henry J. Juskiewicz to step aside and let someone who's more dedicated to bringing prices down and bringing reliability back into their products run the firm.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

For me, Gibson makes the following:
Mandolins, Banjos, acoustic guitars, acoustic and/or electric jazz and ES guitars, The Les Paul, the SG.

For me, Fender makes the following:
Telecasters, Statocasters, Tweed Amps and Blackface Amps, guitar picks and strings
Precision and Jazz Bass.

I own a 2010 Am St Strat SSS and a 2006 Les Paul (R6) '56 Goldtop VOS with P90s
To me, these are the two singlemost ultimate solidbody electric guitars. A Tele, LP Custom, and second Goldtop or Ebony or Tobbaccoburst LP with PAFs, and SG would be equally desireable stablemates.

It looks like a collection and it is, but not for the sake of collectorship but for tonal palate. Additional amps would come from Vox and Marshall, of course.

Gibson, like Fender, is capable of making a high quality product. They are also capable of making some real doozies, too.

IMHO, Old school approach for the guitars and tube amps, Effects pedals can always benefit from circuit advancement but when it comes to DSP, I say leave the DSP stuff OFF the guitars and tube amps. Want latest DSP tech? Make it a separate product ala effects pedal or rackspace unit or hybrid of both. Physically mixing it up isn't good IMHO.

The Gibson Hendrix Strat
I must have been sleeping when that came out.

Gotta agree with you about the prices.

That holy grail "Pearly Gates" LP shouldn't cost $10,000.00
IMHO $2000 tops.

They ARE pricing themselves out of business when it comes to the LPs, I think.

Go look at their master grade Ricky Skaggs F-5 Mandolin. Try $20,000.

When I moved back to this town in '01 I hooked up with a band whose lead player owned three fairly expensive LPs he'd bought with money he'd inherited. He brought all three to every practice, took all three to every gig, made fun of me all the time for never taking a guitar worth over $500 to a gig. Guess who's guitars were stolen one night while we were loading up after a show? Not my $500 Tele.

He didn't have insurance and couldn't afford to replace them, refused to buy or play anything cheaper. He quit the band. Never seen or heard from him since.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

in a guitar shop in cairns i found a black one, asked the dude if i could play it and he said yeah. it was the most un comfrtablest guitar i've ever played with.

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riley

I owned a recent vintage Firebird V for two years but I never could get comfortable playing it, particularly when I was sitting down. I couldn't get used to the weight distribution. Loved the mini humbuckers and the tones I could get out of the 'Bird, though. I traded it for a guitar that is the standard for comfort and weight distribution... a 2010 American Deluxe V Neck Strat.

I had the same experience with a Flying V. The Firebird V and the Flying V are very cool, radical designs but they're both uncomfortable to play. I do get along fine with Lesters and SGs.

John

hey jhjs good to know you guys are loving my thread !!!
i tried a gibson firebird studio a while back i fell in love with it (really felt like it had a fender influence though still felt like a gibson i guess i could say this is my "les paul") i even love the epiphone firebird studio... never bought one though i hate the epis cherry finish and i couldn't find a firebird studio that looked cool cause it was a discontinued model when i figured it out... i guess i hate all the other firebird models for various reasons though...

dear gibson... please bring back the firebird studio in cool finishes...

My non-reverse Firebird 3 is shaped closer to a Strat (pretty sure there was a lawsuite that forced Gibson to change the shape to that of the 5 series) it has 3 P-90s and one of the fastest necks I've ever played. Still going strong.

Hi Twinhit,RE the Gibson "Hendrix Strat":It was released somewhere in Sept. '09 to much speculation and fanfare.They had joined forces with Janie hendrix(which should have sent up red flags in itself as she is a hendrix in name only)to create a guitar that "Jimi would have loved to play"when the thing was finally unveiled it was nothing more than an outright Strat copy -except for the headstock-with a Hendrix logo and Gibson printed on it.Public reaction and outrage was so immediate and so intense that the next day Gibson not only removed all references from the website but had all the guitars that were ready for distribution destroyed.That's why if you weren't on the forums for a 2 or 3 day period in Sept. 09 you wouldn't have heard a whimper about the fiasco.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I think the neck thru the body design helps Firebirds stay in better tune than most SG's with a set in neck/glue joint. The problem with a lot of Firebirds (IMHO) is the tremelo tailpiece that contributes to the instrument not holding a good tune. A stop tailpiece Firebird would be my choice.

I always liked the non-reverse, three single-coil firebirds for reasons I can't explain.

Johnny Winter ripped it up on Firebirds. I saw Steven Still playing a white Firebird VII. He sounded good to me.

The Firebird V I had stayed in tune, particularly after I learned the less wraps is more stringing method with the banjo tuners.

John