Bonamassa Epiphone Firebird I

[spindizzy]

I played one of these yesterday in my local shop in the gold. Looks very nice.

Fit and finish is excellent as expected, neck is chunky in hand but fast.
Recommended retail price here in Australia is pretty outrageous (A$1399*) but I know this whop well, if I offered A$900 they'd almost certainly take it.

The pick-up is positively jangly, much brighter than the Gibson Firebird PUs but also less sterile and nowhere near as hot.
It's an excellent pick-up and makes for a surprising guitar.

Also, very good news, the signature is on the back of the headstock and in pretty low contrast silver. You have to look for it.
I don't think anyone who buys it should feel disappointed.

* for comparison a Fender Roadworn mexi Jazzmaster currently sells for A$2399 - even though the straight currency conversion including all taxes and duties is on A$1600.
Fender are much larger arseholes to Australian customers than Gibson/Epiphone. For some reason Fender hates Australians and loves to rip us off.

[Shadoweclipse13]

And before anyone tries to confiscate my Offset card, here I am with the FB1 with my 1965 JM close behind me:

No worries! Firebirds are actually offset anywho!!

Actually...they're NOT offsets!

How do you figure that? The waist isn't straight.

[noisepunk]

How do you figure that? The waist isn't straight.

Optical illusion from how the sit when they're held and the waist cutout being bigger on one side, but the waist is more only a little off from being dead straight.

[Shadoweclipse13]

How do you figure that? The waist isn't straight.

Optical illusion from how the sit when they're held and the waist cutout being bigger on one side, but the waist is more only a little off from being dead straight.

Really? That's interesting. In all the pictures I've seen, nobody has ever shown one like that.

[wproffitt]

I played one of these yesterday in my local shop in the gold. Looks very nice.

Fit and finish is excellent as expected, neck is chunky in hand but fast.
Recommended retail price here in Australia is pretty outrageous (A$1399*) but I know this whop well, if I offered A$900 they'd almost certainly take it.

The pick-up is positively jangly, much brighter than the Gibson Firebird PUs but also less sterile and nowhere near as hot.
It's an excellent pick-up and makes for a surprising guitar.

Also, very good news, the signature is on the back of the headstock and in pretty low contrast silver. You have to look for it.
I don't think anyone who buys it should feel disappointed.

* for comparison a Fender Roadworn mexi Jazzmaster currently sells for A$2399 - even though the straight currency conversion including all taxes and duties is on A$1600.
Fender are much larger arseholes to Australian customers than Gibson/Epiphone. For some reason Fender hates Australians and loves to rip us off.

This sounds like a cool guitar and not simply a one-pickup version of the Gibson Firebird currently on the market. I'd be interested to play one even though I'm hardly in the market for a new electric right now!

[shinealight]

I played one of these yesterday in my local shop in the gold. Looks very nice.

Fit and finish is excellent as expected, neck is chunky in hand but fast.
Recommended retail price here in Australia is pretty outrageous (A$1399*) but I know this whop well, if I offered A$900 they'd almost certainly take it.

The pick-up is positively jangly, much brighter than the Gibson Firebird PUs but also less sterile and nowhere near as hot.
It's an excellent pick-up and makes for a surprising guitar.

Also, very good news, the signature is on the back of the headstock and in pretty low contrast silver. You have to look for it.
I don't think anyone who buys it should feel disappointed.

* for comparison a Fender Roadworn mexi Jazzmaster currently sells for A$2399 - even though the straight currency conversion including all taxes and duties is on A$1600.
Fender are much larger arseholes to Australian customers than Gibson/Epiphone. For some reason Fender hates Australians and loves to rip us off.

May I ask what shop that was? By the way a Roadwork Jazzy or Jag will be under $2k....nothing ever sells for list price. Still pretty expensive though. I long for that brief period post-GFC where guitars were very, very cheap.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

How do you figure that? The waist isn't straight.

Optical illusion from how the sit when they're held and the waist cutout being bigger on one side, but the waist is more only a little off from being dead straight.

Really? That's interesting. In all the pictures I've seen, nobody has ever shown one like that.

Yep, the central points of the guitars curves (waistline, if you like) are level, not "offset".

[cmatthes]

Yep. Exactly that - the waist is perfectly straight, not offset. The two innermost parts of the waist are parallel to the pickups and the frets, and 90degrees of the centerline.

Sounds crazy, but it's true!

[spindizzy]

I played one of these yesterday in my local shop in the gold. Looks very nice.

Fit and finish is excellent as expected, neck is chunky in hand but fast.
Recommended retail price here in Australia is pretty outrageous (A$1399*) but I know this whop well, if I offered A$900 they'd almost certainly take it.

The pick-up is positively jangly, much brighter than the Gibson Firebird PUs but also less sterile and nowhere near as hot.
It's an excellent pick-up and makes for a surprising guitar.

Also, very good news, the signature is on the back of the headstock and in pretty low contrast silver. You have to look for it.
I don't think anyone who buys it should feel disappointed.

* for comparison a Fender Roadworn mexi Jazzmaster currently sells for A$2399 - even though the straight currency conversion including all taxes and duties is on A$1600.
Fender are much larger arseholes to Australian customers than Gibson/Epiphone. For some reason Fender hates Australians and loves to rip us off.

May I ask what shop that was? By the way a Roadwork Jazzy or Jag will be under $2k....nothing ever sells for list price. Still pretty expensive though. I long for that brief period post-GFC where guitars were very, very cheap.

The Firebird is in the Allans City Store. Go give it a try.

And I was wrong, the list price on the Roadworn JM is now A$2799 - they put it up again.
Even with discounting it's still usually well above A$2K, here's the text quoted from the best priced online ad I saw:*

Roadworn 60's Jazzmaster Sunburst RRP $2799 SAVE $700 !! roadworn jazzmaster $2,099.00

Fender Australia, classy pricing model since forever...

[shinealight]

I played one of these yesterday in my local shop in the gold. Looks very nice.

Fit and finish is excellent as expected, neck is chunky in hand but fast.
Recommended retail price here in Australia is pretty outrageous (A$1399*) but I know this whop well, if I offered A$900 they'd almost certainly take it.

The pick-up is positively jangly, much brighter than the Gibson Firebird PUs but also less sterile and nowhere near as hot.
It's an excellent pick-up and makes for a surprising guitar.

Also, very good news, the signature is on the back of the headstock and in pretty low contrast silver. You have to look for it.
I don't think anyone who buys it should feel disappointed.

* for comparison a Fender Roadworn mexi Jazzmaster currently sells for A$2399 - even though the straight currency conversion including all taxes and duties is on A$1600.
Fender are much larger arseholes to Australian customers than Gibson/Epiphone. For some reason Fender hates Australians and loves to rip us off.

May I ask what shop that was? By the way a Roadwork Jazzy or Jag will be under $2k....nothing ever sells for list price. Still pretty expensive though. I long for that brief period post-GFC where guitars were very, very cheap.

The Firebird is in the Allans City Store. Go give it a try.

And I was wrong, the list price on the Roadworn JM is now A$2799 - they put it up again.
Even with discounting it's still usually well above A$2K, here's the text quoted from the best priced online ad I saw:*

Roadworn 60's Jazzmaster Sunburst RRP $2799 SAVE $700 !! roadworn jazzmaster $2,099.00

Fender Australia, classy pricing model since forever...

Yeah, the problem is Fender Australia. I've noticed the new American Pro series are well over the $3k mark, which is double what you could pick up a new American Standard for 3 or 4 years ago. It's fucked.

[gnoleb]

Dead-ish thread, but since I recently acquired one I'll post my thoughts.

I pre-ordered a sunburst one (the gold are easier to find) when I heard that this next run were going to be even a bit higher quality. I paid $1000 Canadian, which is actually less than the $800 US in conversion. So for once I got a deal with exchange rates.
Bad:
- The fretboard was filthy. I've had this before with Chinese guitars (and a decade ago vowed to stop buying any Asian guitars, apart from Japanese, until this one). I don't know what they do but playing it for 10 min out of the box makes your fingers black. And it isn't the strings.
- It took me TWO cleanings with F-One oil to get the neck clean and nice. Ridiculous.
- I still can't play like Joe. (A joke, I don't play his music anyways).
Good:
- Everything else, really. The neck was straight, the fretwork good (for the price, its good but not master fretwork), it was setup well.
- No finish mistakes. The walnut looks real and gorgeous.
- It is super light and almost balances completely. That's amazing, as every other firebird I've played was well out of whack. This is just a tad headstock heavy and is no problem playing.
- The neck feels chunky but not overly and its surprisingly fast. I usually prefer the standard C but this is nice. Gives a vibe.
- It sounds and plays great. I'm actually shocked that there isn't anything I want to change on it right now.
- The Epiphone video where Joe talks about setting the volume and tone down and just dialing actually works on this guitar. If I did that on my Les Paul it would be mud. But it works here, somehow. I keep it between 5 and 7 on volume and around 6.5-7 on tone and then go from there. It has a nice jangle and a little cut, but its also a little gritty and spanky. Add more volume and you get more cut and grit. Add more tone and get more jangle, cut the tone and it smooths it out. This is really the first guitar where I find myself adjusting the tone control while playing. Feeling like the electrics are good in a Chinese guitar has shaken me a little bit.
- The pickup is great. From clean to Heartbreakers to Soundgarden, it responds really well to gain. I think its because it isn't as hot, so more gain doesn't compress and make things as "boomy".

I'd definitely recommend it for the price.

[Pacafeliz]

the Session store here in Germany has these at €550 now.
i played one of these the other day and it was REAL nice. it's getting kinda hard... (to resist, you pigs)

[Telliot]

I like them but i hate bridge pickup only guitars.

Seconded.

[Larry Mal]

I see at the start of this thread I thought that the Joe B Firebird had the ceramic pickups, now I know that they actually have Alnico 3 pickups that are probably a lot better than what Gibson puts on the American made 'Birds.

[Fiddy]

This one has the banjo tuners unlike all the entry level Gibson Firebirds too. Id take this one over an entry level Gibson.