Got me a Firebird ... I want you to know ..

[little-odgie]

Got myself a second hand Tokai Firebird .. 'tis a lovely thing! Really well finished .. as expected from Tokai, plays a treat now I've restrung it with EB Regular Slinkys, oiled the neck (twas very dry indeedy) and set the neck relief properly. Dropped the bridge, tweaked the intonation a bit and hey presto!! Gigging it this weekend so I'll keep you posted as to tone, etc at volume. Bit concerned that the mini humbuckers might be a bit squeeky & microphonic. We'll see.

Big gripe though .. why, when designing the original reverse Firebirds did Gibson never take into account the centre of gravity?? Every one I've ever played is neck heavy .. it's the same with Explorers too .. I've got around it by adding another strap button behind the neck joint which has improved matters, but even so ... :-?

Ah yes .. I just remembered .. it's got a black (graphite I think) nut .. not standard?? Or is it? I'll get round to putting a bone one on when I get half an hour .. surprising how I miss my open chord positions when I fly down the neck into them. Bloody amateur!!

Still love those Love Rocks of mine, sold the Breezysound though. Wasn't getting the use it deserved.

Anyhoo, I'm happy. Hope you're happy too. Ashes to ashes ...

 

[hans-j?rgen]

Big gripe though .. why, when designing the original reverse Firebirds did Gibson never take into account the centre of gravity?? Every one I've ever played is neck heavy .. it's the same with Explorers too .. I've got around it by adding another strap button behind the neck joint which has improved matters, but even so ... :-?

By the way, is your Firebird copy a neck-through model like the original Gibson, or is it a standard set or bolt-on neck like the newer Korean versions? Do you know which wood your guitar is made of?

 

[little-odgie]

It's a set neck .. did Tokai ever do a true "thru-neck"?? I personally wouldn't touch a bolt on neck Firebird .. if you're buying a "replica" for whatever reason, then you might as well buy one that follows the original spec as closely as possible.

Woods .. body is listed as mahogany .. the grain is visible through the finish and it sure looks like mahogany to me. Neck is maple (apparently) .. even under really strong white light/sunlight it's hard to make out a grain pattern through the opaque finish. I have no reason to doubt it is exactly as described in the Tokai 2000 catalogue. Rosewood board .. it's a really nice piece of rosewood too, sometimes you find the face of the fingerboard on Korean guitars is quite porous but not in this case - and it's really dark and dense ... dot markers are resin made to look like MOP, but done really well and they are super flush to the board. As I said, the finish throughout is superb .. even though the neck isn't bound the fretting is all super accurate and so little filler used to cover inaccuracies on both fretting and inlays it makes the current Gibson models look a bit homespun. Good neck profile too .. bit slimmer than a Japanese Love Rock, but not too weedy.

Had it up loud through a big Marshall at rehearsals last night and it sounded fine. Sustain wasn't as full as I'd expected, but tone was good on both clean and overdriven amp settings, and the pickups had loads of output without being especially noisy or microphonic. VERY reminiscent of my 2001 SG Standard but a bit less of a screamer. Bargain!

 

[20 century boy]

neither Greco, Tokai, Orville or Burny ever did thru neck copies of the firebird. It's only set-neck for all those models.

 

[hans-j?rgen]

It's a set neck .. did Tokai ever do a true "thru-neck"??

I think even Gibson changed that at some time to a set neck, but can't remember when. Thanks for your additional info!

OK, the "Gibson Firebird" fan site says it happened first in 1965 with the introduction of the non-reverse body shape which was discontinued in 1969. It's not clear if the following reissues used the neck-through design or rather the set neck. At least the newer Custom shop models seem to have "a long tenon" which means set neck, but maybe only for the non-reverse shape again.

http://www.stevemoore.addr.com/hotnews2.html
http://www.gruhn.com/articles/firebird.html
http://www.provide.net/~cfh/gibson5.html#fire

When digging through the Tokai catalogs again today, I found the FB45 first appearing in 2000 having a bolt-on maple neck with alder body. The 2003-2004 catalog also lists the FB53 with set maple neck and alder body. I thought they had a Firebird version in the '80s, but must have mixed it up with the Explorer which came first in 1984.