Gibson Firebird Guitar Review

so what is the gibson firebird I feel
like a lot of people get this wrong the
most popular thing is that it’s like a
strat on steroids but that could not be
further from the truth it’s like a
bluesy Telecaster on steroids it’s kind
of like a strat on steroids the best way
that I have ever found to think of the
gibson firebird to peg it you need to
peg guitars you need to kind of know
what you’re doing with them you know for
me if I’m playing on a Gibson SG I’m
gonna play differently than I would play
on a Gibson es-335 then I would play on
a Fender Stratocaster that I would play
on a Les Paul or on a Telecaster because
they each have sort of sonic properties
and characteristics and feel and tone
that lend themselves to certain licks
and don’t lend themselves to other lis
you know and that’s not to say you can’t
play anything on anything and you you
know these Stevie Ray Vaughn could play
his licks on and es-335 where he could
play him on a Stratocaster but the
reason he favored the Stratocaster was
because that was more the sound for it
you know the reason BB King played on
his guitar and any of them so the
question really is okay what is a
Firebird where does it sit and there’s
so many demos of it being played high
gain which you know I don’t want to
knock anyone else for kind of doing
music the way that they see fit but I
feel like this is not necessarily a high
gain guitar I mean if you want to use it
for metal crushing gain is always just a
boss metals on the way but I feel like
more of the people who are gonna be
interested in it gibson firebird really
more for probably a blues rock or a
blues or classic rock kind of sound and
a little bit less of that more modern
heavier gains
so the best way that i have found to
describe the gibson firebird is that
it’s like an overpowered Telecaster but
more like a later like a 60s Telecaster
that’s kind of bluesy not really so much
the earlier fad 20 Telecasters you know
but when the pickups change there’s kind
of a little bit of a mid-range scoop
that came with the 60s pickups and the
rosewood fingerboard you know the the
60s telecasters are a much different
sound than the early 50s Telecaster so
if you were to think of a 60s Telecaster
they got hit with some gamma radiation
that had maybe had little kind of
steroid juice things going right into
the back of it said that perhaps it’s
morphin time so a few of the key
differences are you have this neck
through body okay so on a classic
Firebird which we’ll talk about in a
second this is different with different
model Firebirds but on a classic
Firebird classic reverse Firebird this
is a neck through which means that this
is all right up there and then these
wings are kind of connected on the side
it’s this one long piece of wood and
then it has these mini humbuckers which
are different than regular mini
humbuckers all of these make it a much
brighter and snappier and 20-year guitar
more akin to a fender sound then a
Gibson sound however they are even
though they’re different the regular
mini humbuckers they are humbuckers they
are fatter this guitar will get more
aggressive than you know Telecaster
might speaking a little bit about the
history of the gibson firebird this is a
reverse Firebird which was the first
type of Firebird later on they made one
called the non reverse so this is the
reverse Firebird even though this was
the original Firebird and the original
Firebirds came out with Roman numeral
odd numbers so there was the Firebird
one which had one pickup no neck binding
or no inlays kind of akin to a Les Paul
or SG junior you had the Firebirds three
which was more like a special than it
gave you the to pick up and you had the
Firebird five which is what this is a
modern Firebird five and then the custom
equivalent was the Firebird seven which
had an ebony fingerboard with block
inlays it had three pickups it had the
long tail piece maestro of a berola
and that’s again you know before you get
into the later
models like the non-reverse Firebird and
then in in modern times they’re things
like the Firebird Studio which is just
kind of a one-piece body with humbuckers
and they’ve made you know many different
incarnations of the Firebird since then
including the Firebird X which is I
don’t know if it was 10 or not is like
the iPhone like well I know we think
it’s a 10 but it’s really not it’s the
Firebird X yeah cuz that makes a lot of
sense anyway I digress
so the pickups so these are not standard
mini humbuckers these are a special
breed of humbucking pickups that don’t
sound as much like a a humbucker a mini
humbucker kind of sounds more like a
slender humbucker these sound much 20r
much bouncier than that and you’ll
notice there’s no pole pieces showing
that’s classic of the Firebird pickup a
lot of Firebirds come with different
wiring they come with 300k pots I
actually have 500k pots in here more of
a vintage style wiring and these are the
best Firebird pickups that I’ve ever
played which are lust for tone
prototypes moonbeams which is reference
to Eric Clapton’s white room song these
pickups just sound glorious they really
really capture the vintage Firebird you
got this bright punchy cool but with
girth neck pickup it’s perfect perfect
for blues it’s perfect for kind of
expressive blues rock and then the
bridge pickup which has that 20 ‘no sand
it has that sort of sagginess and really
lets you snarl into a note and
everything some notable Firebird players
probably the two most notable Firebird
players arguably would be early on Eric
Clapton in cream he used it for white
room and a number of other songs and it
definitely got a different tone if you
listen to those early Clapton recordings
particularly on white room there’s a
really really different sound that was
associate with the Firebird and because
these are kind of lower gain than
regular humbucking pickups there was
actually this this is sort of a neat
thing that also kind of goes to show how
gear can affect your playing but when
Clapton was on a show and the name of it
escapes me now but he was playing a
Firebird into his Marshall stack to a
studio audience and he could not turn it
because you know you blow the walls off
the place and everything it’s not like
he had a tube screamer or a power
attenuator back then and everything it
was you know if he wanted that sound he
had to just blast as in so he wound up
playing sunshine of your love on a
Firebird clean and it was it was very
different and I think part of it was
because he couldn’t get that thick
saturated sound like he got on his SG or
335 to a huge you know audience or in
the studio when he could really turn up
and so he actually kind of played it
like this he sort of doubled up on the
walk down and then when you listen to
the solo he almost does these like Chuck
Berry double stops and things and again
because he didn’t have game to work with
you know it was like plugging out a fire
bird into ultimately a pretty clean
Marshall amp it just changes the whole
dynamics of the song the other and
arguably most famous Firebird player
would be Johnny Winter and he was just a
fabulous blues player great for slide
and again that also brings up my next
point that Firebird is an excellent
guitar for slide if you want to use it
for slides one quick tone tip for your
gibson firebird is be very very good
friends with your bridge pickup tone
knob because that front pickup okay way
to say other people call this the front
pickup this makes more sense to be
called the back pickup anyone else have
that problem this should be the front
pickup this is your lead pickup this is
yours it’s it’s not a front it’s
troubling it’s punchy this is your back
pickup it’s in the bass it’s cool it’s
kind of laid-back why do people call
this the front pickup that makes no
sense at all on your treble pickup you
want to be friends with the tone knob
because it can get very bright
particularly at higher volumes and kind
of in a not good way it can be a little
bit too sharp it can be a little too
strident as a word that I’ve heard used
courtesy of Joe Bonamassa he says said
that can be too strident the neck pickup
is kind of perfect just as this it’s um
it does get this really cool woody
bluesy even jazzy tone that’s really
really nice but again still has more
thickness and warmth to it than a single
coil would but with that really really
sharp top-end that just sounds great
this one can really snarl and it can
really sound fat again you just want to
you know you want to be aware of your
setup and be ready to roll back on on
this bridge to pick up tone enough I had
a different set of pickups in here for a
while and that bridge one was you know
was a little thinner like you will find
on a lot of Firebird pickups and I
played live once with the tone knob
rolled all the way off to about three
and a half just to get it to sound
standard so now I have not had to do
that with the lust for tone pickup I
think this one sounds great and actually
for the majority of this video shot it
with a tone rolled all the way up except
for some parts I rolled it back to about
seven still and it’s just the nature of
the beast but the cool thing about that
is you can also get a lot more top end
in twinning than you could from a
traditional humbucker so I’m curious
what do you all think of a Firebird
where how would you describe it where do
you think it sort of sits in the sonic
realm of guitars I would love for you to
leave some comments and let me know what
you’ve always felt about it for those of
you who are players or if you’re
somebody who’s interested in a Firebird
and you haven’t been able to quite peg
it and you want one but you’re not sure
if it’ll fit I hope that this video has
been helpful in kind of giving you an
idea of what you’re getting into
there super super cool guitars I think
they’re one of the most underrated
guitars in guitar history and this is
one of the coolest you know it’s got
that retro you know old car kind of feel
to it with the sort of pseudo strats top
and the shape is kind of like it’s
flying through space it’s very very hot
rod
I love these guitars you know as much as
I love Les Paul’s and SG and things
they’re also really cool to see because
so few players play them now that you
know when you go out you get a different
tone you get a really cool look
I love Firebirds I can’t say enough good
things about them but again this is
another guitar you want to know what it
is
you want to know what you’re kind of
getting into when you get one I’m Jack
Fossett please remember to Like share
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time