Gibson Firebird

The Gibson Firebird is a solid-body guitar marketed by Gibson in the late 60's.

Related Topics:
Guitar - Gibson - 60's

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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. Fender's range of colours, shapes and multi-coil pickups were endorsed by a lot of superstars of the 1960s, such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and others.

Related Topics:
Gibson Guitar Corporation - 1950s - Fender - Stratocaster - 1960s - The Beatles - Jimi Hendrix - The Rolling Stones

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gibson had released the Les Paul, but their other releases (Flying V and Explorer) were failures. The owner of Gibson at the time, Ted McCarty, hired a car designer named Ray Dietrich to design a guitar to combat Fender.

Related Topics:
Les Paul - Flying V - Explorer - Ted McCarty - Ray Dietrich

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Under the famous automobile designer Ray 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 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. This design was pioneered by Les Paul with his prototype "The Log" guitar. It was also the first guitar to employ mini-humbucking pickups, a feature more common to instruments manufactured by Epiphone. Other unique features of the Firebird were its reverse headstock and banjo tuning keys.

Related Topics:
Les Paul - Epiphone

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Unfortunately, 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. Ironically, the design looked more Fender than Gibson. After a few years, the line was dropped and was not reissued until the late 1970s.

Related Topics:
Jaguar - Jazzmaster

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several players have become associated with the model. Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones), Johnny Winter and Eric Clapton have all played Firebirds at some point in their careers.

Related Topics:
Brian Jones - The Rolling Stones - Johnny Winter - Eric Clapton

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~