Gibson 2011 Firebird Studio Non-Reverse

It comes crafted from Grade-A tonewoods, loaded with three of Gibson’s new Tapped P-90 pickups (for both original fat P-90 tones and brighter, snappier “narrow single-coil” tones, according to Gibson), and upgraded with new five-way pickup switching, push-pull tap and phase switching, and a Tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece.

The guitar’s body is crafted from solid Grade-A mahogany, and dressed in a high-gloss nitrocellulose finish in Vintage Sunburst. Its quarter-sawn, Grade-A mahogany neck is carved to an .800-.850 profile, glued in, and topped with a Grade-A rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets and a 12" radius. Beyond the PLEK-cut Corian nut, it carries a traditional “hawk’s head” six-in-line headstock with Mini Grover kidney button tuners, while down at the body end a Tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece.

A trio of Gibson USA’s new Tapped P-90 pickups are designed to provide fat snarl, crunch, and bite that vintage P-90s are known for, with the option of a the brighter, twangier sound of a thinner single-coil pickup accessed via the push-pull switch on each pickup’s independent volume control. They don’t feature “split coil” switching, as used on humbucking pickups. The switch on each of these single-coil Tap P-90 pickups accesses a tap wired into the coil windings of each unit, grounding off part of its output, which is designed to produce a brighter, more focused tone when the switch is pulled. The Firebird combines this with the push-pull switch on the master tone pot, which puts the middle pickup out of phase when combined with either the bridge or neck unit, and five-way switching to access bridge/bridge+middle/middle/neck+middle/neck pickup selections (either tapped or full).

Pricing:

MSRP: $2129

For more information: Gibson