NGD: Doozy blah, blah... Re: Burny Firebird

[Lost In Autumn]

I've been interested in some firebird pickups for a project for a while. Do the D'Urbano ones sound like classic firebird pickups? I know someone described a neck firebird pickup as "the best sounding strat neck sound they had ever heard". Are these like that?

Compared to the pickups in my inspired by Gibson firebird, which sound utterly incredible, never mind their provenance, the D'Urbano Firebird pickups are a little brighter, clearer, but this may also be because they're wired into 1Meg volume pots and 500k tone pots. "The best-sounding Strat neck sound" is on point.

[Shadoweclipse13]

I've been interested in some firebird pickups for a project for a while. Do the D'Urbano ones sound like classic firebird pickups? I know someone described a neck firebird pickup as "the best sounding strat neck sound they had ever heard". Are these like that?

Compared to the pickups in my inspired by Gibson firebird, which sound utterly incredible, never mind their provenance, the D'Urbano Firebird pickups are a little brighter, clearer, but this may also be because they're wired into 1Meg volume pots and 500k tone pots. "The best-sounding Strat neck sound" is on point.

Good to know! Honestly, I don't have a guitar, and have never played a guitar, with Firebirds. If I do, I'd like to get something that sounds like a Firebird pickups, but that description comparing it to a Strat neck sounds quite interesting. I'm honestly considering routing my Deed_Poll Strazz body for a Firebird in the bridge position, in case I ever decide to explore that option, or in case I don't bond with it. I've heard common complaints of underpowered Strat bridge pickups, and like the idea of flexibility in the future just in case.

[Lost In Autumn]

I've been interested in some firebird pickups for a project for a while. Do the D'Urbano ones sound like classic firebird pickups? I know someone described a neck firebird pickup as "the best sounding strat neck sound they had ever heard". Are these like that?

Compared to the pickups in my inspired by Gibson firebird, which sound utterly incredible, never mind their provenance, the D'Urbano Firebird pickups are a little brighter, clearer, but this may also be because they're wired into 1Meg volume pots and 500k tone pots. "The best-sounding Strat neck sound" is on point.

Good to know! Honestly, I don't have a guitar, and have never played a guitar, with Firebirds. If I do, I'd like to get something that sounds like a Firebird pickups, but that description comparing it to a Strat neck sounds quite interesting. I'm honestly considering routing my Deed_Poll Strazz body for a Firebird in the bridge position, in case I ever decide to explore that option, or in case I don't bond with it. I've heard common complaints of underpowered Strat bridge pickups, and like the idea of flexibility in the future just in case.

I’m a huge fan of single coil-voiced pickups, but not all that into 60hz hum, which has taken me on a circuitous tone quest; of my current stable, the guitars that I’m grabbing the most either have firebirds (the aforementioned IBG Firebird) Filtertrons (an Eastwood Sidejack with TV Jones TV Classic Soapbars, an epiphone WildKat with Blacktop Filtertrons and a Gretsch Falcon replica with Porter PAF-sized Filtertrons) and my other standby, a Baritone Jagmaster, has a Fralin P92 (cross between a XII and a p90) in the neck and a Filtertron in the bridge. Others have Novak Gold Foil and WRHB JM’s, Fralin Alnico and/or steel pole sidewinder soapbars, Fralin Sidewinder JMs, Firebirds and such. An upcoming build will have Fralin Big Single Mini’s, which are a firebird variant. I think I’ve ultimately settled on Firebird-style, Filtertron and Fralin Alnico pole hum-canceling Jazzmaster or soapbar pickups for the foreseeable future. They all have similar qualities, but approach their voicing in slightly different ways, but all work incredibly well for the sounds I have in my head.

[seenoevil II]

I put Q Pickups firebirds in mine.

I think a bit of shrillness is just baked into the Firebird lifestyle. They are a totally different construction than any other pickup type, thus the frequency response you'd expect from rod-mag Fender pups or Gibson PAF or P90s just isn't going to come out of your amp.

HOWEVER, if you accommodate this difference, you will be rewarded with what I think are the most interestingly crystalline, clean, and immediate sounding pickups out there. Personally, this means that I use the hi-cut feature of my Quilter to take down the hi end response. I don't know the best way you'd accomplish this with a standard Fender amp with just treble/bass controls. I could imagine things getting out of control with a super clean, ear picky fender amp.

If it means using an EQ pedal or an "always on" boost with the tone rolled off (or, y'know, the tone on the guitar). But the frequency response of these pickups is just so vast. The only pickups I think that are comparable in terms of sheer breadth are Jazzmaster pickups and Dearmond 2000s. However, there's also this earthy, consolidated quality to the sound as they are hum buckers in series after all. Woody is often used to describe jazz master pickups. I personally think chalky is a better fit. But if the "wood" in "woody" for a jazz master is old spruce, then for the FB it's oak, like in whisky casks, cause it's a bit acrid and intense.


Otherwise, I love the spirit of that guitar. A well worn-in Japanese take on this offbeat classic made from a bygone decade. It just oozes personality. That's a guitar that's just begging to be made someone's main squeeze.

[Fiddy]

I finally got around to removing the pickups to check the serial number. Im not sure if Burny used a two digit code for the year, or just one. So... Maybe 1980?

[Embenny]

I've been interested in some firebird pickups for a project for a while. Do the D'Urbano ones sound like classic firebird pickups? I know someone described a neck firebird pickup as "the best sounding strat neck sound they had ever heard". Are these like that?

Compared to the pickups in my inspired by Gibson firebird, which sound utterly incredible, never mind their provenance, the D'Urbano Firebird pickups are a little brighter, clearer, but this may also be because they're wired into 1Meg volume pots and 500k tone pots. "The best-sounding Strat neck sound" is on point.

Those Epi firebird pickups use A2 magnets and are wound about 25% hotter than a vintage Firebird pickup, so they're significantly warmer.

The D'Urbano Firebirds are also overwound, but to a lesser degree. Fab uses 43 AWG wire on them, as opposed to vintage models using 42 AWG, so the resistance isn't directly comparable, but to my ear it sounds like closer to a 10% overwind. Tough to tell, since a pickup wound with thinner wire to an equivalent inductance ends up having a bit more midrange.

Very few winders offer true vintage-correct bridge pickups - they're usually at least 10% overwound. Some offer vintage-correct neck pickups (which, of course, were identical to the bridge pickups in the original guitars), since that's a popular tone. The vintage bridge pickups were less broadly appreciated, so most modern incarnations beef them up a bit to balance better with the neck.