We’ve reduced this New Old Stock (NOS) Gibson Firebird in Cherry Red!  This guitar is as new with all warranties, it’s just an older model. Below is our original post about it, with new photos attached. 

We confess, we have a fondness for Firebirds, probably stretching back to listening to Johnny Winter And Live as a ‘learn to play guitar’ album. Many artists have used them – Eric Clapton, Brian Jones, Allen Collins, Phil Manzanera, Dennis Coffee and other session players. Interestingly, and very worth tracking down is the movie “The Howlin’ Wolf Story – The Secret History of Rock & Roll” in which Howlin’ Wolf plays a Firebird while talking to Son House.

This is a very good guitar. Firebirds, like Explorers, are more comfortable than they might appear at first sight; particularly with the smaller, lighter tuners used here, they balance well when standing and sitting and the fretting arm has a natural resting place on the lower bout. The wood and construction choices make for a very responsive, resonant instrument with great tone.

Built at the Gibson Nashville plant, the new Gibson Firebird closely – but not entirely – follows the original construction concepts of the first Firebirds. Most importantly, this is a neck-through design, with the neck and the body built up of a total of five pieces of Mahogany over their length, and four Walnut strips bracketing the center sections. This multi-piece construction is used to provide extra stability over the long section.

The Gibson Firebird construction differences are apparent in three places. On the original, the center section had a ‘V’ cut in, and the inner edge of the ‘Wings’ or body side had a matching ‘V’ cut to slot into the body. On this model, the joint surfaces are flat rather than V’d. The second place is on the headstock, which lacks a secondary, decorative piece of head plate. Finally, the tuners are standard, treble side Grover Mini Roto-Matics instead of the original Kluson banjo tuners. This is a very good thing as the Grovers are much more precise than the Kluson tuners. These changes do not seem to affect playability, resonance or tone, but do bring down production costs.

The original brown rectangular Gibson hard shell case is included.

Here are the builder’s words on the Gibson Firebird for 2019:

“The Gibson Firebird rocks 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 incredible sustain.

A slim taper neck with a bound, rosewood fingerboard and acrylic trapezoid fingerboard inlays offers fast and effortless playability.

The Firebird Mini Humbuckers (Rhythm and Lead) impart the unique “brighter and tighter” voice for which the Firebird is known.

Available in 2 classic finishes: Tobacco Sunburst and Cherry. “

Gibson Firebird Cherry Specifications: