Coachmoe

Little late to this, but here is some info. Gibson started using a few various forms of COA's around 1997/98. I have seen pics of them. Not all Historics got them however. The ones that may people have seen, the large sunburst one started around late 2001 early 2002. I have a Historic Firebird 1 from 2002 that has one. That style stayed around until 2007. Early 2007's had the large sunburst one and roughly mid year ,they switched over to the smaller 5" x 6 1/2" still in use today. The early large ones had the model and serial number stamped in ink although I have seen some that were hand written. The current ones, since 2007, they are hand written I have a 2007 R7 hand written and a 2023 58 Junior DC that is hand written. In reality, case candy and a COA is important only if the owner / seller / buyer feels it is important. Many don't care. I am an OCD kinda guy and I want my Historics to have all the goodies they came with. I am fortunate, my used 04 R9 had everything. So did my 23 Junior but I bought that new. The other four Historics had bits and pieces and I have slowly added pieces parts so that now all of my Historic / Custom Shop models have all that documentation. Now if I could just find a 2002 Gibson Custom Firebird case...

Absolutely.

Looks like the info I got from Mat Kohler at Gibson has been spot on so far. Modding one of the Epi Birds works great. Already has CTS pots and Orange Drops. Just add in the Switchcraft jack and switch and you're good to go. Faber makes a replacement ABR style bridge. https://faberusa.com/product/3060-0-abrm-bridge-ez-gloss-nickel/ I personally don't care for locking tuners of any type but if you're set on them, Grover does make a left hand locking set of tuners. I know because I had an Epi Bird with them on it. Good luck!

Crow, REPEAT AFTER ME: NEVER TRUST GIBSON'S WEB SITE!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Crow, You're welcome! you are right about the build quality on the IBG Firebird. In my opinion, it's the best bang for the buck going.. That being said, IF Gibson has a substantial price increase, I suspect there USA production sales will take a hit and the Epiphone line will have an increase. Additionally, there are tons of used Gibson's out there and there are always deals to be had. Personally, there are only a few Epi models I would consider owning. That's not meant to disparage the entire line. I have owned probably a dozen Epi Les Paul models and I have always found them to be lackluster in playability, tone and overall sound. I find their build quality quite high however. The Epi Birds, Flying V and Moderne models are great guitars too. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming months and the new couple of years.

If you wrap banjos correctly, a good tight wrap, there are no issues with banjos.

Ok, so you've been here since 2014 and owned many Gubsons. Your comment suggested otherwise.

Agree! I am curious to see what the price increases will look like in 2023. Can't remember when they go up, sometime in the first quarter if I'm not mistaken.

Sarge, your comment makes it sound like you are NOT a Gibson fan. If that is the case, why are you here?🤔🤔🤔

Crow, I've had two of those Epi's. IMHO, best bang for the buck out there. Real CTS pots, orange drops. Only complaint I had was why did they cheap out on the switch and jack? I replaced mine with Switchcraft ones and it's good to go!

SteveFord, In my original question to Mat Kohler of Gibson, I mentioned that the tuners are too close together. I suggested to mat that maybe Gibson could fan out the tuners like Epiphone does on their IBG Firebirds. I put strip tuners on mine so that it resembles a 65 transition model.

There have been some reports of people who were lucky enough to get 2020 USA Firebirds. There are three firebird FB groups that I belong to and occasionally a 2020 pops up.

Wmachine, First, Gibson has not been diligent in updating certain areas of their website. It's been that way since the new ownership took over. Second, have you not read my previous post where I named the source of my information? I got my info from Mat Koehler, who is with Gibson Product Development. The original info came from Mat in a post on the Les Paul Forum. In short, several in this thread have tried to order USA Birds with no success. I have given info from a Gibson rep saying USA Birds are no longer available. I think the point to take away is this: USA Firebirds are no longer available, regardless of what the Gibson site says.

I started this thread and here we are almost to 2023 and still no USA production Firebirds of either variant. The Gibson contact I used as the basis for several of my posts is still on the Les Paul Forum. It would seem that his original information, at the time, was correct but no USA production of non revers birds has occurred yet. I personally believe that Gibson is still backed up in production on certain models. I do not think the Firebirds are a priority at this point in time based on the difficulty to make them. I will reach out again to see if there are any new developments.

White is the hardest finish for Gibson to paint. Too much contaminates from other colors in the booth. At least that is what I have read.

THANKS!

Greetings! I've searched for the answer to this question but I've come up short. I have a 2018 USA SG and it came with 61R and 61T pickups. Does anybody know definitively what magnets are in the 2018 pickups? Tons of posts out there about the 61's " 61's are like ... I'm trying to find out what they are. Apparently Gibson is not currently selling these pickups as accessories, so I was not able to find any specs on the Gibson site. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

From what I was told, the USA reverse Birds have been temporarily discontinued. I was also told that USA production of non reverse Birds would be introduced sometime in 2022. This is the most recent info on this subject. I think I will try to make contact with my source again.

To clarify, 1st and 5th digits are the last two digits of the year the guitar was built. The second, third and fourth digits are the day it was built. The last four digits are the number in the production run. Got this info from Bob in Customer Service. Gibson does not do a very good job updating their web content.

There are NO drop in BANJO style tuners that you can get. The banjo tuners are bigger than the Mini Grovers. If you want real banjos you'd have to plug your existing holes and have the headstock refinished and redrilled for the banjos. There is another option. Stew Mac sells a REAL banjo style tuner that most likely would fit. https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-hardware/tuning-machines/solid-peghead-guitar-tuning-machines/rickard-cyclone-high-ratio-tuning-pegs-for-guitar-with-ebony-knobs-set-of-6/ They are pricey for sure. I would contact Stew Mac and see if they would work on the flat headstock of your guitar. Remember too, that back in day, Steve Stills used actual banjo tuners on his Firebirds.

I have a 2013 Ford Escape. I can get 2 Birds, 2 Les Pauls, a Strat and an SG in my cargo area PLUS my amp, cabs and pedal board.

Greetings! I have a 2004 R9 and I'm trying to figure out what pots and caps should have come on the guitar. I bought the guitar used several years ago. The pot codes are all 440-70501-0419. I believe from previous research, that 440 stands for 500K Ohms, 70501 is the Gibson part number for Historic pots made by CTS and 0419 stands for the 19th week of 2004. Is this correct info? I am trying to find out what caps should be in this guitar. Based on info from another Forum, Bumblebees started appearing in 2003 Historics. My guitar has Bumblebees, but no Bumblebee equipped card in the case candy. I realize that since the guitar was used, the case candy could have been removed. Anyone out there with a 2004 R9 that can chime in and let me know what caps are in your guitar would be greatly appreciated.

There are people out there that are willing to pay the price . It’s that simple. Additionally, this thread is about the reverse Firebird being discontinued, NOT the viability of relic’d guitars.

Classic, To further explain, the following post came from The Les Paul Forum. The name of the Gibson guy I mentioned in my previous post is Mat Koehler. Mat works in Product Development for Gibson. Here is part of my original question and his reply to my question about Firebirds being discontinued. My question pertains to USA Production Firebirds. Rumor floating around that they are going to be discontinued. What can you tell us about that? Additionally, how were the finish choices selected for the recent Birds, going back to say 2015? One year only Ebony, other years, Vintage Sunburst and a custom color. If the Firebird will continue to be a regular USA production model in 2022 and beyond, any chance one of the finishes would be White? Great questions! So a bit of historical context here...the original style Firebird (reverse) was designed outside of Gibson (by Ray Dietrich but you know this) in 1962 and it was up to Larry Allers and his team to figure out how to build the thing. They hadn't done anything like it, and the 9-ply centerpiece came about after two-piece centerpieces literally came apart. There was a wing redesign too. Anyway with the length of wood required for the neck-through and the complexity of the build made the model the scourge of the factory. It impeded throughput and with the introduction of the Thunderbird bass, the factory literally had to rearrange how they channeled these extremely long models through production. However players loved it and it was a commercial success, based on how many they were able to produce with such complexity. When all was said and done, the original style Firebirds and Thunderbirds were not made for more than two years. The Non-Reverse Firebird took its place as a much easier-to-build model with the classic set neck construction. It too was a commercial success, even moreso given the ability to fill an order book efficiently. Cut to today. Still a very difficult guitar to build. So difficult that it prompted that headstock change at USA (not at Custom Shop where a Historic Reissue is a Historic Reissue) and eventually let to the *temporary* discontinuation of it and the Thunderbird as you said. But we will have reverse Thunderbird artist models coming up, and we introduced Non-Reverse Thunderbirds which are killer. Non-Reverse Firebirds are next. The goal is to have a more manageable product life cycle...it helps the overall mix. So in a couple years we'll go back to the classic Firebird at USA, perhaps with some concessions like fewer body ply and definitely different tuner spacing. Great idea there, so thank you. White is the hardest color to get through a nitrocellulose guitar factory, bar none. But we are hard at work trying to make that and all lighter opaque colors factory-friendly at Gibson USA. Although white paint has been a battle since the Les Paul Custom in '61. Just very susceptible to airborne debris and aniline dye floating through the air and it's not easy to repair and rework. But people expect perfection, and that is what we aim for...just going to take some careful planning (and cleaning). That said, Custom Shop went through the same woes with white paint and came out on the other side better than ever. We're running a lot of white guitars there. AND I'm happy to announce that we have a Polaris White Johnny Winter Firebird V out of Murphy Lab dropping later this year which may be of interest to you. They are turning out killer! Classic, hope this sheds more light on your question.