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NGD within 25 hours


E-minor7

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Yesterday after visiting the big shop in town for some silk'n'steel strings and trying a bunch of their marvelous guitars, I went straight home and phoned the Firebird Custom guy whom I been negotiating with since beginning of spring. I asked if he still had the F-bird and he said yes – in fact he said more than yes. Being half down with a severely wounded knee, he offered me the instrument for a seriously lowered prize. It seemed he just didn't have the strength to go through another round on the local Bay and wanted to get it over-with. Besides I have the idea he knows how bad I want this 6-string.

 

Long short : As mentioned before, the last point on my Gibson-program is to A/B 2 maples over 6 months and keep the 'best'. A Dove and a Firebird it'll be. With this plan sketched, I simply couldn't resist his offer (never saw a FB this low-tagged) and the thing is in immaculate shape. The move is something that has to be done – it's in the stars – and now for some reason is the time. I know I'm goin' through a privileged situation this period, but sometimes you have the right to be lucky. This intense acoustic phase won't last forever, so I intend to take it the whole way as long as it runs.

Ergo, , , , if everything goes right, I get the Firebird inside these walls tomorrow afternoon – pale topped, over-flamey, cherry-brown and everything.

Already tried it back in May/June and it sounds fantastic. It will be a huge thrill to finally be able to dive into it, re-tune, follow the strings as they fade and so forth. I am vibrating.

 

 

Won't write about too soon, so don't don't expect early reviews – Will post a few lines if things roll well tomorrow though.

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Admit I'm very exited this morning – 6 good hours before it's here.

 

Nice pic MOP -

Still as some of you might know, I'm not too wild about the looks - too flamey and pale for my taste. But the sound ladies and gents. Every f...... time I've played one of these it has been something else. They are, , , dare I say One Step Further.

Now let's see if it holds up when getting close to the thing.

Can hardly wait -

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Admit I'm very exited this morning – 6 good hours before it's here.

 

Nice pic MOP -

Still as some of you might know, I'm not too wild about the looks - too flamey and pale for my taste. But the sound ladies and gents. Every f...... time I've played one of these it has been something else. They are, , , dare I say One Step Further.

Now let's see if it holds up when getting close to the thing.

Can hardly wait -

 

I love that pic too from M.O.P,

I was also siding with your intial thoughts on the looks Em7.. but that pic has maybe changed my mind somewhat.

 

I hope she is all you hope and dare I say dream for. I bet you will come around to her looks too.

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Just curious? Did Ren have a hand in making and designing it?....being custom, I would assume so.

!1 hour left as I speak – precisely !

Don't know about Ren and the design, but it's not impossible, one would guess.

 

The tale says there was a fire raging rather close the Bozeman wood stock (do not read Woodstock) and that the model was thought up to celebrate the flames didn't take the buildings.

I know nothing for a fact – other than every FB I've tried so far blew my mind to confetti. Already said that in previous post, , , better keep quiet and sit back in delirious patience.

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Don't touch that guard or rub it off! I actually think that it looks better than the Dove guard. In fact, I think the overall impact of the guitar is less OTT than the Dove, even with the extra bling of the headstock and fingerboard inlays. The Dove is a real looker too, no doubt. But somehow abstraction carries it over figurative in this fly off. The Firebird bridge beats the batwing of the Dove for sure. More restrained there, and somehow the batwing stands out more than the firebird inlays.

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I had one one of the best I've owned regretted selling it ever since. Hope you enjoy yours! Here's a pic of mine seen one recently with a cherry burst. You'll love it!!

102e1189.jpg

 

 

Something about this guitar really jumps out and grabs me. I'm not normally a "bling" kind of guy.

 

Nice guitar Em7, hope you enjoy it!

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It's when the stings fade down and after they've stayed there a while, you finally get the possibility to ask : Who are you. And it's goes the other way around as well. In a way the guitar gives you the same question. Who are you, , , do you like me as I am, can you hear me, are you able to appreciate my naked nature.

 

The new Firebird is a giant. Ren Ferguson and staff have created a masterpiece. Neck is slim a´la the Hummingbird - action is just an ants-hair above ideal – it was nearly untouched when it came here, but breaking in or opening up just doesn't cross your mind.

 

Been playing it every day since it arrived Thursday afternoon and have to say it rises like pure acoustic royalty. One could add, it outshines the rest, but wouldn't that be somewhat unsympathetic, , , , so referring to it as queen might be the easiest way to describe what is does and how it stands out.

 

There are no traces of puristic-cool little blues-box about this instrument – apart from that, it answers every other task I present it. Fingerpicking rolls like a river, flatpicking puffs away like Zorro snapping his whip - strumming conjures a second to none tour de force, and everything in between just happens with such naturalness. Without being arrogant, it's almost as if the guitar allows you to take its offers for granted, which is a very rare (and daring) thing to be able to say about an acoustic 6-string.

 

The Firebird is loud ! , , , but maybe due to the AAA quilted back'n'sides, doesn't get boomy.

Same with another of my major issues : The A overtone (in reality Ab) often heard from the D-string when playing a G chord-fingerpostion half a step down, where I usually live.

I hear that annoying bi-effect from most of the others in the herd, but again the maple (of course the braces could play in the mix too) absolutely steers free of this trap - - and what invaluable relief it is.

 

Then in the talked about comparison with the regular 1996 Dove, how much maple is there to be heard. Definitely lesser. Where the classic says : I am a Gibson Dove and I drip maple-sirup, the F-bird holds back the well-known m-flavor and only gets real maply in flatpicking action. This brings us to something important. Yes, the guitar is big'n'loud sounding and yes the balance is immaculate. (Bass so powerful without overruling mids and trebs, , , trebs a tinkling mountain stream). Still the actual voice is a bit neutral heard next to our well-known Gibson park. Lesser obvious G-sound, , , ? Maybe but the dryness and basic G-identity is no way gone. I can only agree with Mop and Faron (a member who owns both) when they say the F-bird holds a touch of Martin, , , and by the way state that the 2 square shouldered maple deers, in spite of similar body-sizes and woods, are rather different.

So there is the riddle – what makes them so unalike. I haven't at this point lowered my little triangular mirror to study the ceiling of the inside environment, but it surely will happen when both guitars receives new strings simultaneously. This might take place within a fortnight or so, for as said in the intro, there is some fading of these Masterbuilt 12's to experience first (in fact the original set from the plant !!). I wanna know this marvelous guitar from its plainest hideaway corner to the shiniest spark and fountain. It will be taken through the cream-zone in the center to the limits in both east and west.

Now the ball begins - At your service my dear Lady Firebird, , , I am your humble E-minor7, , , who on this planet are you. . .

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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