Gary's Gibson Fire Chicken

     This week's post by local guitar veteran: Gary Vogel of Minneapolis. 

"I have always loved the look of the original "reverse" version Firebird.  Such a 
lovely shape!  An much more practical than the Explorer, because it does not 
have the big pointy tail that I always find myself bumping into things.

But every vintage one I have tried suffered from two problems:  The neck was 
uncomfortable, too fat like a baseball bat, and those damn banjo tuners were 
either worn out and broken, or damaged in some way.

Well the recently discontinued Gibson Firebird V 2010 model solved both those 
issues!"

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Firebird/Gibson-USA/Firebird-V-2010.aspx

"The neck is extremely smooth and fast..  The tuners have been replaced by modern 
Steinberger models, allowing the beautiful headstock to be unsullied, and 
eliminating those damn banjo tuners.

The new ceramic pickups are really sweet.  Not too hot, but a bit stouter than 
the original ones.   Less noise, too.  A bit brighter than a P90, but also a bit 
smoother in the mid-range, I guess they could be defined as a less "snotty" 
pickup somewhere between a P90 and a humbucker.  I find them to be incredible 
useful when playing complex chords, but I would bet that blues players would 
really dig them too (think Johnny Winter, of course!).

I don't know why Gibson decided to discontinue this particular reissue, poor 
sales probably.  But I am damn glad I was able to find one-- and it took me some 
serious searching before I found a white one-- the rarest of all, and most 
gorgeous IMO.  This baby had originally been shipped from the factory overseas 
to Germany, and ended up at a NY guitar trader who I purchased it from 

Another one checked off my bucket list!

You can see me play this baby at my next show with my band MFG (we are on 
Facebook) at Mayslacks Friday November 30.  We play after the Mighty Others and 
my friends, Capital Sons, who featured my lead guitar on their first CD.  We go 
on at 11pm."