In Search Of The Way Out -- The Gibson Firebird

In the mid-50's, hot on the heels of its successful Les Paul model, Gibson decided to create a trio of radically shaped guitars -- the Flying V, the Explorer and the Moderne.

As Gibson's president Ted McCarty explained it, "We developed these models because we wanted to be way out." These new designs were intended to break the company out of the mold of producing only conventional, aesthetically unchallenging instruments.

Of the three, the Moderne was produced in such a small quantity that it has become the holy grail of solidbody guitars. In fact whether any were made at all remains a point of contention -- none of the originals from the 50's are known to exist today.

The market, however, was not prepared for such 'way out' guitars. Sales flopped.

In a bold move, the ever forward-thinking McCarty hired Detroit car designer Ray Dietrich to come up with a guitar that would both shake up the guitar industry and be embraced by the marketplace.

A tall order indeed.

His new design, dubbed the 'Firebird' was released in mid-1963.

The Firebird featured all-mahogany body wings glued to a multi-laminate mahogany and walnut through-neck/centrepiece which extended the entire length of the instrument. Outfitted with proprietary Firebird humbucking pickups, it also featured a reverse peghead design with perpendicularly mounted 'banjo' tuners.

Some have observed that the Firebird's design was actually the Explorer shape with its points rounded off.

Because of the extended lower horn on the Firebird's treble side as well as the upside-down reversed headstock, these came to commonly be referred to as 'reverse Firebirds'.

Available in sunburst as a standard finish, the customer could also order the guitar in custom Duco automobile colors such as Polaris white, Pelham blue, Kerry green, frost blue and silver mist, golden mist and cardinal red -- true to the Firebird's automotive origins.

Four Firebird models were produced:

Firebird I -- one pickup, two knobs (tone and volume), wrap-around bridge, unbound rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays

Firebird III -- two pickups, 3-way selector switch, wrap-around bridge with Vibrola spring vibrato, single-bound rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays

Firebird V -- two pickups, 3-way selector switch, tune-o-matic bridge, Deluxe Vibrola vibrato with a metal tailpiece cover engraved with the Gibson 'leaf and lyre' logo, single-bound rosewood fingerboard with trapezoid inlays

Firebird VII -- three pickups, 3-way selector switch, tune-o-matic bridge, Deluxe vibrato with a metal tailpiece cover engraved with the Gibson 'leaf and lyre' logo, single bound ebony fingerboard, block inlays from the first fret and with gold-plated hardware

The Firebird was only a little more successful than its Explorer and Flying V predecessors -- it didn't take off to the extent that Gibson had hoped. The reverse-body Firebird line was discontinued in 1965, to be replaced by the redesigned 'non-reverse' model in that same year.

Along with the early, commercially unsuccessful Explorers and Flying V's, the 1963-65 reverse Firebirds are very much sought after by collectors today, fetching exorbitant prices.

Some things are just way out ahead of their time.

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It's Golden -- The Birth Of The Gibson Les Paul

The Broadcaster, Fender's first widely marketed solidbody, was a runaway success. With a retail price of $170 in 1950, the utilitarian design -- little more than a maple neck bolted to a plank of wood with simple electronics -- was easy and cheap to manufacture.

And the Broadcaster -- soon to be renamed the Telecaster -- was to be something of a thorn in the side of Gibson's president, Ted McCarty.

On the one hand, he was eager to have Gibson launch their own solidbody electric guitar. At the same time he was being pressurized by his compatriots at other companies who were strongly advising him not to do so as this would legitimize the abomination that was the solidbody electric guitar!

Realising the enormous sales potential of a Gibson-made solidbody, McCarty set the engineering wheels in motion in November 1950 for what was to become the first Les Paul model, soon after the Broadcaster appeared on the market.

Seeking to produce a solidbody of a higher calibre than Fender's, McCarty and the engineers at Gibson decided on a glued-in set neck and more sophisticated electronics. It was also decided that the guitar was to have a carved arched top, much like their hollowbodies -- Gibson had a special shaper that could carve the arched top, a machine that Fender did not have. In effect, they took most of the features of their hollowbody archtop line and incorporated them into a solidbody instrument.

Mahogany was decided upon as the body wood, but by itself it was dark sounding. Solid maple was also considered but it would have been too heavy and bright sounding used on its own. With a carved maple top glued to a solid mahogany body, the characteristics of both woods were fully realised, with the darker sounding tone of the mahogany countered by the bright sounding maple cap.

A few years earlier, Les Paul, the late guitar legend, had approached Gibson with his 'Log', hoping to sell them the concept of the solidbody electric and had been unceremoniously dismissed. With Gibson's new solidbody in the works, McCarty decided to approach Les Paul for design input as well as for an endorsement deal.

The final design included a 24 3/4" scale with 22 frets on a rosewood fingerboard, Kluson tuners and a 3-way toggle switch for selecting between the guitar's two P90 pickups. Each P90 had two Alnico 5 magnets wound with 42 gauge enamelled wire, producing a DC resistance of 8.66 k ohms. A cream plastic casing enclosed each pickup.

McCarty presented the prototype to Les at a recording session in a mountain lodge in Pennsylvania. An endorsement agreement was reached that night, and Les would receive a 5% royalty for every guitar sold for a period of 5 years.

The Les Paul model, as it came to be known, was launched in mid-1952 and priced at $210.

At Les' suggestion, the guitars were available only with a gold-finished top, further characterizing it as a luxury instrument.

At Les' suggestion also, the bridge with a trapeze tailpiece (as shown in the pic) was installed as a standard feature. But because these early Les Pauls were made with a very shallow neck pitch, the action was too high, even when the bridge was set at its lowest. To counteract the problem, Gibson started wrapping the string under the bridge instead of over it, which helped in lowering the action. But it also meant that Les Paul, the guitar's sole endorsee, could not incorporate his trademark palm-muting technique with this setup. Intonation was also inaccurate with these early bridges.

According to Les, these design flaws were the result of a gap in communication between himself and Gibson's engineers. When Gibson sent him some of these guitars, he immediately called them to stop production and fix the problem, which was primarily the result of the neck pitch being incorrect.

In January 1954, the trapeze was replaced with a single bar tailpiece design that was held by two bolts set into the guitar's top. The neck pitch was also increased which meant the guitar became more playable with lower action and improved intonation. In 1955 the tune-o-matic bridge was introduced on the Les Paul goldtops, allowing for extremely fine intonation adjustment, delegating the stud tailpiece to the sole purpose of anchoring the strings.

Like the Broadcaster, the Gibson Les Paul model was a huge success upon its release, and in its many marketing incarnations, proves to be golden til today.

Les Paul And The Origins Of His Namesake

Lester William Polsfuss, more famously known as Les Paul, is widely credited with inventing the solidbody electric guitar. Believing that a solidbody instrument would give him added sustain while eliminating unwanted resonances, Les commissioned two custom solidbody instruments to be built for him in 1937 by luthier August Larson.

In the early '40s he built his third solidbody himself using a 4” x 4” center block of pinewood attached to an Epiphone neck and fitted with a single pickup. Dubbed ‘The Log’, a pair of sides was cut from an old guitar and attached to the center block to make it look more like a guitar.

He approached Gibson’s parent company, CMI, in the late ‘40s to discuss marketing a solidbody instrument based on his design -- Gibson was producing predominantly hollowbody archtops and acoustic guitars at the time.

Les Paul had very definite ideas as to the design of the guitar that was to later become his namesake. Type of wood, choice of pickups and even the idea of finishing the guitar in gold paint were all in Les' design proposal to the corporate bigwigs at CMI.

Unfortunately, bringing ‘The Log’ to the meeting did not work in Les’ favor. The CMI boss dismissed his idea, calling him ‘the guy with the broomstick’.

But things were to change a couple of years later when Gibson began developing a solidbody guitar following in the wake of Fender's successful solidbody, the Telecaster.

Les Paul had become a huge music celebrity as one-half of the Les Paul and Mary Ford duo, and hoping to leverage on Les’ popularity, Gibson’s president Ted McCarty contacted him with the proposal of an endorsement deal. Signing a 5-year contract, Les was to play the guitar that bore his name exclusively, in return for a five per cent royalty on sales.

The first production models, sporting a gold finish, combination bridge/tailpiece and cream P90 non-humbucking pickups were delivered to Les in May 1952. He used them onstage the following month at the Paramount Theatre in New York.

In 1954, the high-end black Les Paul Custom was produced. Featuring the newly designed tune-o-matic bridge and stop bar tailpiece for more accurate intonation, the Custom was decked out with pearl inlay on the ebony fingerboard and headstock and multi-ply binding around the body and headstock.

Interestingly, Les Paul never kept any of his original endorsement guitars from the ‘50s – he had no idea at the time that the guitars that bore his name would become such collector’s items.