Firebird history and tones with the ex-XTC leg-end!
Welcome to the show. This one has been a loooong time coming. Gibson’s Firebird is perhaps the company’s best loved oddball to date. It was introduced in 1963 and adopted by players as diverse as Phil Manzanera, Johnny Winter and Brian Jones.
Now, Dan and I are almost entirely ignorant of this beautiful bird, so what better way to get schooled than invite our wonderful friend, Dave Gregory, to Schwangri-La? Dave talks us though his five Firebirds by way of telling the Firebird story. Needless to say, Dan and I now want to be part of it.
Enjoy the show!
There are no rig annotations today – it should be easy to understand. The signal runs right to left on the pedalboard, and you can see what’s on. The ABY Baby is simply the two channels of the Matchless: B is the 12AX7 channel; A is the EF86 channel.
Gibson Firebirds at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/75ZgkQ
Gibson Firebirds at Andertons: https://bit.ly/4btLJmV
Pedals & Stuff used in this show
• TheGigRig Three2One
https://www.thegigrig.com/three2one
• Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner (link to TU-3)
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3RRfur2
Australia: https://bit.ly/2B06quU
USA: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/3eG1rd
• Boss CS-2 Compression Sustainer (link to CS-3)
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/4cLuui4
USA: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/oq7d6m
• Dinosuaral Cogmeister
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/3Lbsfsx
• Echo Fix EF-P2 Spring Reverb
UK & Europe: https://bit.ly/45zErwt
Australia: https://bit.ly/3RAhCTD
• TheGigRig ABY Baby
https://www.thegigrig.com/aby-baby
Amps used in today’s show
• Matchless C30 & 1x12 cab with Celestion G12H-75 Creamback
Interesting bits and go to sections…
0:00 Intro
1:50 Welcome Dave Gregory!
3:00 What’s a Firebird?
5:25 Designed by Ray Dietrich
6:50 Firebird 1 1964
10:30 Lightning Bolt bridge
12:20 Let’s hear it
14:20 Using the tone control
15:30 Eric Clapton with a Firebird I
17:43 1963 Gibson catalogue
19:25 Dave and his Firebirds
26:15 Firebird models
30:50 Let’s all have a go
36:15 Non-Reverse
38:20 P90s VS Firebird pickups
48:00 Vocal midrange
50:00 Using three pickups
58:00 Dave’s ‘The Disappointed’ guitar
1:01:00 Firebird V
1:06:30 All hail the Cogmiester!
1:09:00 D&M on Firebird V
1:13:10 Totally unique in the Gibson world
1:14:20 Epi Firebird VII
1:23:10 What are it’s strengths?
1:27:00 Dan’s Matchless
1:27:30 Firebird case – guitar breaker!
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