Yeah, so this followed me home today

Gahr said:
Lo and behold, a polymist gold Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Firebird I signature model just popped up for sale here in Bergen. And the price is the lowest I have ever seen for that guitar. I have already decided to sell my Vox AC30, so I figured I should jump on it. I sent the seller a message saying I want to buy it. It’s late, so I’m not expecting an answer until tomorrow, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed through the night!
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GOOD VIBES AND FINGERS CROSSED FOR YOU!!!!!!
 
gball said:
Ooohhh, that would be a great score. I really wanted to get one when they were out there and screwed up, missed my chance. Good luck on that, hope it works out for you!
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Yeah, I’ve been watching one for sale outside of Oslo for a while, but the seller is not willing to ship it. Then this shows up here in town, at a lower price. This could turn out to be a really good Good Friday. I hope he gets back to me in the morning...
 
So this morning I was able to give the ‘Bird a setup - tweak the truss rod, set bridge height, get some real strings on it (god, Gibson strings are horrible. I know D’Addario makes them for Gibson now, but they are straight-up awful)...10’s now.

Got about 2 hours of playing time on it through the Mark 5, so some solid impressions, and there are three big takeaways: 1. its easily the most resonant guitar I own. Firebirds are always resonant being neckthroughs and all, but this one especially so. 2. The neck shape is different from pretty much any other Firebird I have played. Its the same slightly-wider than an SG slim-taper, but there is more meat right where the V of your hand falls. Super comfy. 3. This is the big one - this is not the regular ceramic Firebird pickup thats been stock for forever now. This thing appears to be the old-school alnico. Its maybe half the output of my other ‘bird (haven’t measured yet) and has the nice, sweet high end and compression of alnico. Looks different too. I’m wondering if they used a Custom Shop pickup since this is a limited edition.

Overall, couldn’t be happier. Oh yeah, build quality is 100% flawless.
 
gball said:
So this morning I was able to give the ‘Bird a setup - tweak the truss rod, set bridge height, get some real strings on it (god, Gibson strings are horrible.... so some solid impressions:

> this is not the regular ceramic Firebird pickup thats been stock for forever now. This thing appears to be the old-school alnico. Its maybe half the output of my other ‘bird (haven’t measured yet) and has the nice, sweet high end and compression of alnico. Looks different too. I’m wondering if they used a Custom Shop pickup since this is a limited edition.

Overall, couldn’t be happier. Oh yeah, build quality is 100% flawless.
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Kernal says:
My guess is that you have the same mini humbuckers that Gibson installs in the Les Paul Deluxe,
and the SG special T. There is a lot of confusion and downright bull-taco that has been written about
mini hum buckers. I personally love the ones I have in my SG, supposedly a new design, with blade sensors.
The Firebird pickups were hotter, and edgier, and like more of everything.

I have not been able to tell if the Gibson 495 R&T pickups are the hotter Firebird type, or the
more moderate output Alnico type. Gibson has taken down the pages I have bookmarked, so I can't even
look up stuff any more. But if your newer 'Bird sounds different from your older one, this is probably
what they did.

Remember, when Norlin took over Gibson at the end of the sixties, they created some guitars designed simply to use up some of the stuff they had laying around the factory. Figure the factory managers of today's transition period
would be doing the same.

But I do love the sound of the Alnico Mini humbuckers, so I'm glad that you do too.
 
Col Mustard said:
Kernal says:
My guess is that you have the same mini humbuckers that Gibson installs in the Les Paul Deluxe,
and the SG special T. There is a lot of confusion and downright bull-taco that has been written about
mini hum buckers. I personally love the ones I have in my SG, supposedly a new design, with blade sensors.
The Firebird pickups were hotter, and edgier, and like more of everything.

I have not been able to tell if the Gibson 495 R&T pickups are the hotter Firebird type, or the
more moderate output Alnico type. Gibson has taken down the pages I have bookmarked, so I can't even
look up stuff any more. But if your newer 'Bird sounds different from your older one, this is probably
what they did.

Remember, when Norlin took over Gibson at the end of the sixties, they created some guitars designed simply to use up some of the stuff they had laying around the factory. Figure the factory managers of today's transition period
would be doing the same.

But I do love the sound of the Alnico Mini humbuckers, so I'm glad that you do too.
Click to expand...

I’m pretty sure it’s a Firebird pickup, not a mini-hum. You can tell from the baseplate.

I just think its got alnico magnets instead of ceramic. Sounds great, so I don’t much care, just a curiosity that I noticed.
 
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