Gibson Firebird Electric Guitars

The Firebird was originally released in 1963, after the limited success of Gibson’s earlier radically-shaped Flying V and Explorer models failed to meet sales expectations. Gibson president Ted McCarty hired auto designer Ray Deitrich to deliver a guitar that could compete with the flashier solidbody designs being offered by Fender and other competitors. After all the cleaning gibson firebird musicians friend
 was done inside and out it was time to glue the break. Sometimes a headstock break will require extra wood to be added in the form of braces placed into small routed out channels, but as this was a relatively ‘clean’ break with no material missing i decided it would be more than strong enough as a straight glue and clamp job. Though a dense and often heavy wood, mahogany is fairly soft and fibrous in its makeup. Gibson angle the headstock back on their guitars as it helps increase pressure on the nut and also increases the string tension on what are ‘short scale’ (distance from nut to bridge saddles) instruments.