October 2008 \ Features \ Personal Encounter \ Gibson's Johnny Winter 1963 Firebird V

Gibson's Johnny Winter 1963 Firebird V

Aaron Farrier

An up close and personal look at Johnny Winter's 1963 Firebird V
Premier Guitar October 2008

Gibson's Johnny Winter 1963 Firebird V
Pat Foley, Artist Relations Director for the Gibson Custom Shop, proudly displays the Johnny Winter 1963 Firebird V
Photo by Wayne Dennon

The Summer NAMM show never ceases to present unique opportunities to lucky convention-goers. This year was no exception with its return to Nashville, Tennessee, a move that seemed to bring an extra sense of “magic,” if not just plain hopefulness, to the entire event. With that said, my experience during Gibson’s Summer Jam, held in the heart of the
SPECIFICATIONS

Body & Hardware:
Solid Mahogany wings
Vintage Sunburst finish
Nickel hardware
ABR-1 bridge, heavy stop-bar tailpiece

Neck & Headstock:
Nine-ply mahogany/walnut neck-thru body
22-fret rosewood fingerboard
Pearloid trapezoid inlays
Single-ply cream binding
Firebird rounded neck profile
24 3/4" scale length, 1 11/16" nut width
Banjo tuners

Electronics & Strings:
Mini-humbucker pickups
2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way selector switch
Vintage Reissue .010 strings
company’s Nashville operations, probably gave me my most memorable NAMM experience to date. I was given a personal, “behind-the-scenes” look at Gibson’s latest Custom Shop masterpiece: a recreation of Johnny Winter’s 1963 Firebird V.

I was ushered to the back area of the Gibson Custom Shop, to what looked like a giant stock room filled with the pleasant scent of freshly cut wood. I was immediately presented with approximately 30 brand new Johnny Winter guitars, each one impeccably finished in that iconic vintage sunburst finish. While inspecting the guitar, I found myself awe-struck by the detail put into it. I noticed a chip in the pickguard near one of the screws; at first, I thought that there had been a mistake by one of the builders. How wrong I was – further inspection revealed that each guitar had a chip in the pickguard, although I was informed that no two were exactly alike, due to the fact that each one was painstakingly done by hand. And while anyone with a few tools and the gumption can make a Firebird replica these days, the chipped bridge, the aged body and headstock, the worn fretboard – including a crack where Johnny had broken the neck – and the cigarette burns all proved that it takes a special talent to recreate a piece of rock history.

     



Comments

 (6 comments) display by
UsernameComment
Moe Donnelly
on 10/03/2012 		it aint about the guitar....play that muthafucka like your a poor albino in beaumont....then ,when you finally can throw down on some blues...... buy some better pickups or keep it soundin old ...and... quit yer bitchin
Jebus
on 08/29/2012 		You guys are dumbshits. It's a firebird. It plays and holds tune like any firebird.
Greg
on 08/20/2011 		"Investors" are part of our world, like it or not. Let them put their money into the untouchable guitars which they don't play and therefore don't have to sound good. The joke's on them. Anyone who wants a good guitar in today's world can find what they want at affordable prices. You can easily custom build one or have one built. I bought a batch of US made modern paisley and floral strat bodies, mated them with genuine late 70s strat necks, put US hardware and custom '54 strat pickups on them, and I sell them to happy buyers at $3,000. Kept one for myself. Anyone interested I'm at gregfield at gregfield dot com
Sam
on 03/20/2010 		I owned this guitar for three days before returning it. This is not completely a Gibson USA 63 Reissue. The JW neck is thicker. But other than that, it probably is identical. And I agree with Ralph; the pickups suck. I also couldn't keep mine in tune. The relic job is fine, but soon after bringing the guitar home, I realized that JW sickly abused his Firebird -- gashes, broken neck, ciggy burns, wierd bubbles in the wood that makes it look like the guitar was melted. Who would want to own that? Gibson was smart in on respect. It knows this is for collectors. No one will play it. So why put good pickups in it and care whether it stays in tune?
Kevin Chase
on 08/22/2009 		go get'm Ralph! I have a "64" and it sounds great. Gibson shouldn't cater to the elite that have the cash and little talent to lock these pieces of wood in a box somewhere as an investment if they don't even come up to the standard that they should be. weird world huh?
Ralph
on 03/25/2009 		If you had played the guitar, you would have found out that Gibson, for all their "painstaking recreation", and no detail overlooked" talk, has put generic, off the shelf USA issue Firebird pickups in the JW Firebird that read 15k (neck) and 23k (bridge) on a digital volt meter, and sound-wise have absolutely NOTHING to do with a '63 Firebird, nor do they have anything to do with the pickups in Johnny's guitar. Typical of Gibson to say that they "didnt overlook any detail" and then put B.S. pickups in this guitar. Bottom line: the pickups sound terrible, and NEED to be replaced in order for this guitar to even approach what its intended design dictates. For having only made 100 of these, they could have AT LEAST had used Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups if they were too cheap or lazy to build an actual replica of an early Firebird pickup. For a guitar that lists at 11k, and typically sells for 7k, this is absolutely inexcusable, and if Gibson was held to the same standards as a car mfg company, the owners of this guitar would get a pickup recall notice.



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