❌SOLD❌ Gibson Firebird T Vintage Sunburst 2017

I have to quote Johnny Winter here – I love Firebirds.   This new Gibson Firebird T Vintage Sunburst  – The Twelfth Fret is one of the best renditions of the model that I’ve seen,  with great build quality and changes to the hardware that improve the instrument as a whole.

The very first versions of the Firebird appeared in 1963 and used a neck-through-body design. In this design, the neck was one piece of wood extending the full length of the instrument. This makes for a very resonant, responsive guitar, but the size of the wood blanks also drives up construction costs. Within a few years, also partly due to Fender’s legal objections to the headstock shape, Gibson flipped the body over and reverted to a traditional set, also known as mortise and tenon, neck joint (on acoustic guitars, a dovetail joint would be used).

The new Gibson Firebird T uses the set-neck design, and it appears to be a tonal success, and allows for a significantly lower price.

Another major improvement with the Firebird T is the installation of Steinberger gearless locking tuners. These are more compact, lighter, smoother and more accurate than the traditional banjo tuners used on other Firebird models. Hands down, these are better. Smoother tuning is always a plus, and the lighter weight helps with the instrument’s balance. A subtle advantage is that reducing mass on the end of the head can help reduce chance of catastrophic damage in case of a tumble.

It’s a Firebird, so it has a pair of mini-humbuckers, which provide a tighter, brighter and more focused tone than full-size pickups. The mounts are also improved so that the tops of the pickups closely parallel the strings, and are less prone to rattle.

Overall, this is an impressive guitar, very much worth checking out. It’s shipped with an original brown Gibson rectangular case, padded to provide proper support.   

The instrument seen here sports the Vintage Sunburst, and it’s also available in Pelham Blue.