Been waiting on the right one of these to find its way to me and the day has finally come. This is a “Bonamassa Special”...in that it’s crazy clean and comes with the original purchase receipt. I had to have the sunburst with gold hardware for this one and that gold hardware makes it particularly difficult to find a clean low-tarnish example. But this one was a case queen and has effectively no wear for a 45 year old guitar. AND to top it off, this is my first “vintage” guitar purchase! I have other guitars that have moved into the “vintage” realm simply by me having them so long, but I had never sought out an oldie before. The cherry on top is that I got a great deal on it. I have gotten some especially good deals lately that I’m sure, unfortunately, are due to out-of-work cash flow issues. This one won’t turn into a flip, so I feel a little less bad about it.
SWEET! I love Firebirds. Be careful where you put it down those banjo style tuners stick out pretty far
Looks close to museum condition. Really nice. Those have always had a cool factor. Great acquisition. HNGD.
I assume that was a Bicentennial 1976 model. COOL!! I remember 1976 - I was 6. Red white and blue everywhere. It was cool. That's a badass guitar.
That is a beautiful bird. My FB is my favorite guitar in my collection. And a good friend of mine has that exact model. (I love the multi-colored logo.) Firebirds are great guitars. The sustain and the upper fret access make them a real winner in my book. Enjoy!
They used those because the reverse headstock has the tuners on the wrong side, where they are a RPITA to turn. The banjo tuners fix that problem. Not all Firebirds had them though.
And for a while Gibson was using Steinberger gearless tuners. That’s what’s on mine. They retain the sleek look of the original birds, but without the tuner issues. I actually bought a spare set in case I ever need to replace one. I think the Grovers on the new birds don’t look right.
The last line in the ad had me hook, line and sinker: “Let out your inner Tom Petty and play this beast” ha—exactly what got me wanting one. Actually saw a magazine cover while waiting in line at the grocery store shortly after he passed away. I had never seen one before and thought “wow...I’m going to have to find one of those for myself...” This was the cover photo actually:
That’s a good question....I’m assuming some sort of witchcraft. Seriously though, no clue how they work, but I do like them. You do have to be a little careful changing strings because there is a tiny screw inside them, that if you break it, you’re hosed. But, the reason they get broken is some people mistakenly try to tighten them with a set of pliers or something instead of just using their fingers.
Wow—I’m sure it was killer. Hindsight is 20/20 right? I haven’t sold many so I’ve hopefully limited the chances for seller’s remorse.
Got a bit more back story on this guitar from the seller this morning—it’s only had 3 owners prior to me and one was Gil Southworth, so that’s kinda cool. Originally bought as a gift in Maryland...spent essentially all of its time with that owner in the case and moved to Gil when the original owner passed away. Gil apparently bought it for himself rather than to flip, so he had it quite a while before selling to my seller. My seller kept it as part of a collection and it again wasn’t played much. Happy it took the path it did!
Amazingly, this turned out to be the rare case that the guitar is in even better shape than the photos showed. Sounds AMAZING and plays so easily. Any idea what kind of rosewood Gibson would have used in 1976? I’ll snap a pic in a bit to show it—very defined tight-ish stripes.
