NGD - 2017 Firebird T
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 1:29 am
For Christmas/upcoming birthday my wife got me a new guitar. I’d been eying a vintage burst Gibson Firebird T at my local shop for a while, and it went on sale over the holiday... but that’s not what I got. Instead, I poked around a little bit, and found the Pelham blue version was also available, but wasn’t on sale; Boxing week, it was, so we ordered it in. It took a week to be sent from a shop in Ontario, and it arrived in a snow storm, so of course I drove out to pick it up.
This is pretty much THE spec/design for a Firebird. It’s pretty similar to the 2016, but with better bridge/tail, and with rounded edge on the neck binding, which is pretty comfy. The Steinberger tuners are kinda neat; I’d never used them before, but I like them. I played it a little with the 9s it shipped with, but quickly set it up with 11s with wound G. I didn’t get much chance to use it set up with the heavier strings before the power was knocked out for a few hours in the storm, but the feel improved greatly, the little fret buzz it had went away, and the intonation was better than with the 9s on. The balance is, surprisingly, spot on; the tuners are pretty light, and there’s lots of body, so there’s no neck dive at all. The neck pickup was somewhat hot compared to the bridge, so I had to adjust that to balance them a bit better.
The Pelham is pretty fucking nice against the white and chrome hardware.
The neck pickup is nice and round; fairly warm with a bit of thickness, but not too much; it’s still articulate and not muddy. The bridge is fairly aggressive, nice and bitey. Together the sound is pretty decent, round with clear highs... but I think this guitar is probably best suited to one or the other, while I tend to play most of my guitars with multiple pickups active.
I’m still exploring this one, I’ve only had a bit of time to mess around with it... but I like it so far. It’s more interesting than my LesPaul, or friends’ LPs and SGs have been, but still not quite what I’m usually after in a guitar - the Fender sound is more often what I want. That said, I do really like it, and we’ll see what sorts of music it makes me want to play.
MOAR PICS!!
This is pretty much THE spec/design for a Firebird. It’s pretty similar to the 2016, but with better bridge/tail, and with rounded edge on the neck binding, which is pretty comfy. The Steinberger tuners are kinda neat; I’d never used them before, but I like them. I played it a little with the 9s it shipped with, but quickly set it up with 11s with wound G. I didn’t get much chance to use it set up with the heavier strings before the power was knocked out for a few hours in the storm, but the feel improved greatly, the little fret buzz it had went away, and the intonation was better than with the 9s on. The balance is, surprisingly, spot on; the tuners are pretty light, and there’s lots of body, so there’s no neck dive at all. The neck pickup was somewhat hot compared to the bridge, so I had to adjust that to balance them a bit better.
The Pelham is pretty fucking nice against the white and chrome hardware.
The neck pickup is nice and round; fairly warm with a bit of thickness, but not too much; it’s still articulate and not muddy. The bridge is fairly aggressive, nice and bitey. Together the sound is pretty decent, round with clear highs... but I think this guitar is probably best suited to one or the other, while I tend to play most of my guitars with multiple pickups active.
I’m still exploring this one, I’ve only had a bit of time to mess around with it... but I like it so far. It’s more interesting than my LesPaul, or friends’ LPs and SGs have been, but still not quite what I’m usually after in a guitar - the Fender sound is more often what I want. That said, I do really like it, and we’ll see what sorts of music it makes me want to play.
MOAR PICS!!
