The giant white pickguard hides all of the routing for the toggle switch located on the lower horn of the guitar, situated next to the now iconic Firebird logo, which didn’t actually feature on the original ‘63 guitar (this was added later). To continue the aerodynamic flow of the guitar, Dietrich used banjo tuners that poke out the back of the headstock, keeping the clean lines of the original design intact. It also featured glued on mahogany “wings”, creating the famous “step” in the middle of the body, and a massive 6-in-line style headstock is also present on the guitar (I wonder where they got that idea). This guitar was unlike any other Gibson model, featuring a 100% neck-through construction made from a mahogany and walnut sandwich.
![gibson firebird guitar gibson firebird guitar](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/51/8f/d0/518fd07bb0af19ff042b7385ccdcd8a3.jpg)
His answer was the elegant, sleek, and almost aerodynamic Firebird. McCarty loved the use of flowing lines on cars such as Packards, Lincolns, and New York cabs for the Checker company, all previously designed by Dietrich.
![gibson firebird guitar gibson firebird guitar](https://loviesguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_5650.jpg)
Ted McCarty, then president of Gibson (and mastermind behind the SG, ES-335, Explorer, and many more), started by asking the 68-year old retired motor designer Ray Dietrich to come up with a brand new electric guitar. There was only one thing for it Gibson needed an offset of their own! Gibson’s sales were dwindling and with the company deciding to drop the original Les Paul shape in favour of what we now call the SG, something had to be done to keep up with their Californian rivals. These guitars turned out to be a massive hit, albeit not with the jazz musicians Leo had originally intended. In the early Sixties a minor guitar company named Fender (wonder what happened to them?) were making a splash in the up and coming surf scene with their then-new offset models the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. So without further ado, here is my abridged history of the iconic Gibson classic. With Gibson recently suffering the loss of the European trademark, we could see a lot more Firebird style guitars popping up in the near future. What would scratch that itch? A Gibson Firebird of course!Īfter picking up my new guitar, I wanted to dig a little deeper into the history of the model beyond the scraps of information I had picked up over the years and the hearsay online. After missing out, I was still left with an itch for a new guitar. A few months ago I missed out on purchasing a Gibson ’67 Reissue Flying V (and yes it was in white, just like Jimi’s!).