1963 Gibson Firebird I - ex David Hollestelle - Herman Brood & His Wild Romance

Another rare axe that is at the peak of our private collection! - NOT FOR SALE
 
All original, no cracks, no breaks, pots date to '63
 
In the early 80's David Hollestelle was on tour in Germany with Herman Brood & His Wild Romance when he noticed this beautiful FireBird in a shop window. Head over heels in love, David asked for a pre-payment on his tour money and purchased the Bird.
 
In the shop the manager told him that once in London there were 2 of these sold at almost the same time: 1 was sold to Dave Mason (Traffic) and 1 to Eric Clapton (Cream, Blind Faith). And one of the 2 was the one David bought, but which one it was they couldn't tell for sure.

 
About a year later David was on tour again and returned to the Shop. They had done some research, checked old concert pics and they were pretty sure the Hollestelle Bird was the ex-Mason one.
 
Six months later David was cleaning the guitar and removed the pickguard to see if a Humbucker could be installed. To his surprise underneath the pickguard scratched in the finish were just 2 letters: "EC"...
 
About the Gibson Firebird:
So, it was that in 1963, Gibson introduced its new Fender-rivaling solidbody, the Firebird. The design had strong links with the failed Explorer, which had already been discontinued.
 
Nonetheless, Gibson hoped that a new spirit of innovation would win the day. The company hired an outside designer to create the Firebird, someone who would not be limited by traditional approaches to guitar design and who would reconsider the way an electric could look and work.
 
Ray Dietrich had been a legendary car designer for 50 years. He started in the drawing office of a small company in 1913, and over the next few decades established the idea of the custom car- body designer.
 
Based in New York City and then Detroit, Dietrich headed a number of firms, including his own, LeBaron Carrossiers, designing and building luxury car bodies and working for brands such as Lincoln, Packard, Duesenberg and Ford. Some of his best work was done in the 30s, when he designed the striking Chrysler Airstream.
 
He founded Raymond Dietrich Inc in 1949 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Four years later he returned to consulting work, and in 1960, at the age of 66, he retired to Kalamazoo.
 
One of the ways Dietrich whiled away his retirement was to give talks on his life in car design. Gibson boss Ted McCarty happened to go along to one, and afterwards, he introduced himself and asked if Dietrich would be interested in designing a guitar.
 
Dietrich agreed, and Gibson hired him to devise a new solidbody electric line. He eventually came up with the design we know as the Firebird, but at first it didn’t have a name.
 
“I was sitting in my office one day with Ray and a couple of the other fellas,” McCarty later recalled, “and we were trying to come up with a name for this thing. He said, ‘Why don’t you call it Phoenix?’ I said, ‘Phoenix, that’s the firebird, the old story of rising from the ashes.’ So, that’s where the name Firebird came from. And Ray also designed the firebird logo that’s on the pickguard.”
 
The new models appeared in Gibson’s 1963 catalogue, with the blurb insisting the Firebirds were a “revolutionary new series of solidbody guitars. Exciting in concept, exciting to play. You’ll find a whole new world of sound and performance potential... plus that sharpness in the treble and deep, biting bass... A completely new and exciting instrument that offers all the sound, response, fast action, and wide range that could be desired.”
 
There were four Firebirds for the 1963 launch – I, III, V, and VII – each with different appointments but following the same overall design and build. The missing numbers II and IV went to two complementary Thunderbird basses, but there was no VI.
 
Gibson announced the new line just before the July 1963 NAMM show in Chicago, and they first appeared on a July price list, with production starting about three months later.