Gibson Firebird V, ebony, made in USA 1996. This is two things: a guitar with of lot of miles on the clock, and the most convincing Firebird I've ever had the pleasure of playing. We love a Firebird around here, and we've had a few FBV models through: these 90s era examples with the proper 9-ply neck through build and the banjo style tuners are the coolest ones I reckon. This one came through the shop very briefly a year or two back, originally coming from a busy player in Japan. It's got the scars of a lot of shows: finish missing, rub wear and scuffs all over, dents and bruises... it did hundreds of gigs in Japan apparently. It landed quickly with a local gent here in Hobart, and he set about sorting a fairly common issue with this model: the neck wasn't quite straight, and the frets were dead from all that play across the sea. Our local expert luthier Paul Mineur straightened out the neck with his hyper-specialised heat press (ask him about this tool, he'd love to explain!) and then made a custom ebony fretboard, complete with block inlays and new binding and a full set of new frets and installed it... holy smokes, it's incredible work, the man is brilliant. Now that's all done, this plays like a dream. Firebirds don't always feel super intuitive and smooth in the hands, but this just has a thing about it: it's balanced, quick and responsive, the neck feels magical. The other mod is a set of custom wound Firebird mini humbuckers by Melbourne based wizard Mr Fabulous. The brief was to push the mini-hum a little closer to a P-90 in tone, while still being a humbucker, and he really nailed it. The tone bristles with sparkling chime on the top end, percussive fat bass and a breathy, expressive midrange that brings out all the detail in every note and chord. It's a stupendous sounding guitar, truly. It will cover jazzy or surf cleans, Jimi-style crunchy snarl, thick djenty distortion... whatever you throw at it, the natural resonance and excellent electronics deliver the goods. The finish has seen some stuff: partially stripped on the back, some of the headstock facade is missing, the neck is smoothed out but partially bare, but the black is factory original and looks fantastic. This is a few thousand cheaper than a Custom Shop example, and from my perspective, better in every way.: look, sound, feel, swagger. Don't count on seeing another one like this any time soon, folks.

Model: Gibson Firebird V
Made: USA, 1996
Serial: 90396777
Finish: ebony, gloss nitro, original finish
Body: mahogany
Neck: 9-ply mahogany/maple neck-through build, retrofitted ebony freboard with block inlays, 24.75" scale, 12" radius
Weight: 3.825kg
Mods: fretboard replaced including new inlays, frets and side dots; pickups replaced
Pickups: Mr Fabulous Firebird Mini Humbucker x2, bridge alnico 3, neck alnico 2
Accessories: original Gibson hard case, original fretboard, original pickups

Cosmetic condition notes: moderate finish wear. The headstock has finish missing and scuffs on the treble side, dents and scuffs on the bass side and end, dimples on the back, checking dimples and scuffs on the front. as well as a section of the headstock faceplate cut away. The neck is clean and smooth in the hands, there's plenty of finish missing and rub wear on the back but it's been smoothed out for easy play and feels fantastic. The back has bald patches on the bottom horn and elbow area and has been lightly brushed with some kind of paint stripper at some point, so some of the clear coat has brushed texture as well as rub wear, scuffs, dimples and dents. The sides have dimples, scuffs and dents around the whole body as well as a bald patch aroundd the bottom horn. The front has a bald patch around the neck join and bottom horn, another bald patch behind the tailpiece, scuffs around the knobs, back edge and elbow area, dimples along the top edge and top horn, rub wear along the bottom bevel and bottom edge and widespread rub wear and checking lines all over the body.
Overall: good condition (7/10)

Playing condition notes: Action is low, neck is straight, intonation is good, truss rod works. All electronics tested and working properly. Wearing fresh 11/49 Moonshiners strings.
Fret life: 9/10, minor wear only, recently replaced