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Firebird Non Reverse Studio 2011


outtahere

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My linkI purchased an earlier Custom Firebird Non Reverse, which was delivered unseen over the interwotsit from a very fastidious supplier

 

I have had total joy therefrom...perfect finish, set-up and sunburst shading

 

I did, however pay double the price of the latest Studio model.....

 

V

 

:-({|=

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  • 2 weeks later...

My 'bird arrived yesterday! Before I start: 1. I'm happy. 2. I probably voided the warranty to get happy.

 

First impression upon opening the case: 'Wow!' , then she purred: 'Daddy...' So I was sold. [flapper] [flapper]

Back to reality: the advertised 'ultra-thin' neck is slightly smaller than the 50-ies neck on my LP studio faded. No idea why anyone would say this nek is ultra thin.

The action was ridiculousely high. Lowering the bridge I found out why: the neck had a serious backbow (negative relief). I have owned some 100 guitars. This was the worst I've ever seen. The pickups were just wobbling in their cavities. No spring-tension under the pups. There was a piece of wood missing between the neck and the neckpup cavity. The control cavity is unshielded and looks worse than a $100 guitar from China. The switch lever is too tall. It not only looks wrong, it gets in the way too.

 

Anyone unexperienced, or unable to do some 'work' would think: WTF is this piece of sh*t? and return it. Oh, did I mention the lacquer has orange peel, uneven spots and some dried laquer drops? Yes people I still love this POS....

 

After completely loosening the trussrod nut and stringing it up with .011's I have reached zero relief on the neck. I used a brown felt-marker to camouflage the unlacquered spot at the neckjoint. Filled the pup cavities with firm foam and re-tensioned the springs. The middle and bridge pup are the same, so the bridge pup is underpowered in comparison to the middle pup. The coil-tap function is nice, but I'd rather would have Gibson invest in QC instead of 'more gizmo'.

 

Did I mention I love this guitar? I'm going to play the sh*t out of it. Pics to follow.

 

Last April I bought 18 guitars at the bankruptcy auction of a collector that had over 400 guitars. One of my purchases was a 2003 Custom Shop Firebird non-reverse TV White:

 

Firebirdbody.jpg

 

Even though the guitar was 8 years old, it had never been played. Over a couple of months I sent all 18 guitars to my tech for setups and new strings. The Firebird was the worst of the lot. It needed major fret work and still would buzz with 10's so I also had to switch to 11's. Now it plays OK but it is my least favorite Gibson. Cosmetically it is fine but the QC and the neck leave a lot to be desired, especially from a custom shop guitar.

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I just sent back a Ebony Firebird V that was brand new. It had back bow just like yours. It really sucked because the guitar was beautiful. This was the 3rd Firebird V this year that had an issue. I don't know what is going on at Gibson, but I believe they better get it together! I told them I wanted a new guitar..........they better not send me one with a baked maple board or Im' gonna snap! One out of four has got to be a keeper, huh?

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I got one of these about a month ago and absoloutly love it to death..

 

I did have the issue of it being quite high action but I soon fixed that and apart from that it is perfect.

 

I love the neck and its my first guitar with any sort of out of phase or coil tapping and I love that too.

 

By the way, did you get one with a Baked Maple fretboard or a Rosewood one?

 

I have read on the guitars page that some people did get a Rosewood one but obviously anyone getting one of the later ones will get one with a Baked Maple board as is on my one. And I love that too, its the smoothest fretboard ive ever played..

 

AWESOME stuff :)

 

 

My 'bird arrived yesterday! Before I start: 1. I'm happy. 2. I probably voided the warranty to get happy.

 

First impression upon opening the case: 'Wow!' , then she purred: 'Daddy...' So I was sold. [flapper] [flapper]

Back to reality: the advertised 'ultra-thin' neck is slightly smaller than the 50-ies neck on my LP studio faded. No idea why anyone would say this nek is ultra thin.

The action was ridiculousely high. Lowering the bridge I found out why: the neck had a serious backbow (negative relief). I have owned some 100 guitars. This was the worst I've ever seen. The pickups were just wobbling in their cavities. No spring-tension under the pups. There was a piece of wood missing between the neck and the neckpup cavity. The control cavity is unshielded and looks worse than a $100 guitar from China. The switch lever is too tall. It not only looks wrong, it gets in the way too.

 

Anyone unexperienced, or unable to do some 'work' would think: WTF is this piece of sh*t? and return it. Oh, did I mention the lacquer has orange peel, uneven spots and some dried laquer drops? Yes people I still love this POS....

 

After completely loosening the trussrod nut and stringing it up with .011's I have reached zero relief on the neck. I used a brown felt-marker to camouflage the unlacquered spot at the neckjoint. Filled the pup cavities with firm foam and re-tensioned the springs. The middle and bridge pup are the same, so the bridge pup is underpowered in comparison to the middle pup. The coil-tap function is nice, but I'd rather would have Gibson invest in QC instead of 'more gizmo'.

 

Did I mention I love this guitar? I'm going to play the sh*t out of it. Pics to follow.

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Wow i really wanted one of thes firebird studio's but i would have never keep that guitar. i deffintly am weiry of getting one now.

 

i had a problem with a gibson sg or should i say 2 sg's. i had to send the first 2 back becuse of problems with damge from factory and terrible finish jobs. but number 3 was acceptable. its a shame that i had to take an acceptable sg and not a perfect one.

after that i was very conserned about buying any more gibsons. but i seen a les paul traditional pro for 2000.00 and guitar center had a coupon that let me save 200 of that price, so i said i would try it one more time. and the guitar i got was nearly perfect. it had the usall small lines about a inch long and inch wide on the side of the body where they put them in the case without being fully cured. the norm these days i see them on 90% of gibsons i have looked at this year.

 

well i said i would take it home and try it out. since i have to the end of january to retun it if i didnt like it or somthing was wrong. well it's not going back it plays great out of the box was setup perfect with low action and no buzzing. thats rare from the gibson factory. it stays in tune with out any problems even after lenthy playing and string bending. every thing else is great.

 

but here lie's the problem why do we have to settle for an acceptable gibson and not a perfect one.? i always here well there hand made. well then these guitar's should never have left the factory period. i have been playing for over 30 years and i can say that gibson has the worst quality control out of all the major manufactures period. i have seen better mex. strats and epiphones then gibson has been turning out latley.

 

But i cant see myself without owning one or two. and they know that so they live off the name like harly davidson did in the early days, and they just dont care about us just profits.

sometimes i wish someone would just buy them out.

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One other thing about these babies..

 

I dont know what it is about them but the tuners on this guitar are the best ive ever had (I am usually a Les Paul person but wanted something different).. I have guitars with classic tombstones, grover kidneys and locking grovers that all go slightly out between plays..

 

But these ones stay in tune no matter what.. It came out of the box in tune and after a few days of playing was still in tune.. just amazing (in fact it only went out of tune once when I initially changed the action)..

 

Still loving this guitar (but I will always be a Les Paul man at heart :) )

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  • 10 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Update. Bridge pickup replaced by PRS P90, just a tad hotter. Better balanced with the other pickups. Still love it.

The guitar is used for all guitartracks in this song:

 

 

Still GASsing for the Pelham Blue [flapper]

 

 

Wow just checking out this thread and this was a really cool song! Caught my attention on the Melody riff. I will defiantly follow you guys on facebook. Great tones too!

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