Music Services Inc.
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Wantagh, NY 11793

THE GIBSON FIREBIRD SERIES

What’s a boy to do? It is early 1966. On several of the Rolling Stones T.V. appearances, Brian Jones (and occasionally Keef) are playing truly strange looking guitars. They look so slick strapped on and yet they look-well-upside down. I hear they are called Firebirds. I decide it is time to hop the bus into Manhattan and visit young Henry Goldrich (remember being young Henry) at Manny’s music on 48TH ST. Henry had always been tolerant of my inquisitive young self and actually sold me my first electric (58’ Fender Musicmaster 3/4) guitar in 1960 for $80.00 thus beginning a mental disorder that continues full blown to this day. But I digress. So I ask Henry if he has those Firebirds like the Stones. Sure he says and even better he has the new models and they are way cooler. Mind you Henry doesn’t play guitar. He pops open a case and there it is. WAH-WAAAH!! This guitar looks-well right side up. This guitar has a giant white pickguard all over its face instead of nice wood grain. And worst of all it doesn’t look sleek-it looks like a 50’s coffee table. And no matter what IT AIN’T WHAT THE STONES HAD. This is serious. So begins one of my earliest adventures into the mysteries of those old guitars.

In the early 60’s Gibson was no doubt still smarting from the "modernistic guitars" debacle of a few years earlier and still watching that guy in California steal Gibson’s thunder. It was the dawn of the space age and Gibson didn’t want to be perceived as behind the times.

Whereas the Korina guitars of the late 50’s were essentially innovative only in their shape, Gibson decided to do a series of guitars and basses that were unlike anything they had done before. They would utilize radical new styling (with help from a Detroit auto designer), new electronics and new construction methods. These were bold steps coming from a very traditional company. Gibson dubbed the line Firebird (Thunderbird basses) and launched them (4 guitars and 2 basses) in mid 1963. By 1969, even after extensive re-working, the Firebird line was history, apparently the victim once again of the publics unwillingness to perceive Gibson outside of their tradition.

Next week we will take a look at those "upside down" guitars, the so called reverse Firebirds.