EPIPHONE INSPIRED BY GIBSON 1963 FIREBIRD I & V
Two of Gibson’s most controversial designs, reimagined and rebranded with Epiphone’s moniker. Do they promise the ‘Cream’ of the crop or a ‘Winter’ of discontent?
Well does this reviewer recall hearing Cream’s live version of the blues classic Sitting On Top Of The World on the band’s Goodbye album. Clapton spits out reams of notes with a huge distorted tone that it turns out was his 1964 sunburst Gibson Firebird I. Just as memorable was first catching the infectious swagger of Johnny Winter’s Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo, most likely played on Johnny’s own 1964 Firebird, this time a white model V.
While Winter made a Firebird the main staple of his career, Clapton only stayed with his for the final Cream tour and on afew Blind Faith shows the following year. EC’s use of the Firebird inspired Gary Moore and Joe Bonamassa to purchase identical models, and it’s likely that many a Firebird lover took Winter’s fiery licks and slicing tone as inspiration. Gibson later produced limited-edition runs of both guitars.
Plugging the Fir ebir d I into our 20-watt combo it’s immediately appar ent that this dual-rail mini-humbucker br eathes fire
We’ll spare you the full history lesson, but in the face of Fender’s success with its futuristic designs Gibson brought in auto industry designer Raymond Dietrich to see if his genius as amotor vehicle architect for brands such as Packard, Studebaker and Lincoln would transfer to the guitar. Visually, it most certainly did, but commercially the result was more akin to Ford’s ill-fated Edsel model (not a Dietrich design). Even when Kalamazoo undertook a radical rethink of the Firebird in 1965, partly due to threats from Fender regarding headstock and body shape infringements, by 1969 the range had fizzled out.
Although Gibson has reintroduced the model in various guises over the years, with none in the current mainstream line-up (you’ll find some Murphy Lab ones but for mega bucks), it falls to Epiphone to fly the flag for this largely undersung guitar.
The Firebird Iwith its single bridge pickup and wrapover bridge would be one of the simplest guitars that Gibson ever made were it not for some highly unusual features. Like all reverse-body Firebirds it features a neck-through-body design with two body ‘wings’ glued into V-shaped recesses milled from each side of the body end of this nine-piece multilaminate. Using five mahogany lengths interspersed with four slim walnut strips for additional st
