1964 Gibson Firebird III Reverse Sunburst Vibrola

What you see before you is the epitome of vintage cool: a 60's Gibson Firebird!
 
In 1962 Gibson president Ted McCarty decided that a bold new guitar was needed to compete with Fender’s popular Jazzmaster. For a fresh, all-new concept, McCarty sought outside help and hired well-known automobile designer Ray Dietrich. After 50 years of designing for such top companies as Lincoln, Packard, Ford, and Chrysler, Dietrich had recently retired to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Gibson was headquartered at the time.
 
The new Firebird line—the name was suggested by Dietrich—was introduced in the spring of 1963. The series comprised four guitars, the Firebird I, III, IV, and VII, and two basses, the Thunderbird II and IV. Boasting a unique neck-through-body construction that ran from the tip of the headstock to the bottom strap button, as well as a pair of asymmetrical “wings” attached to either side of the neck’s center section, the guitar had a unique, irregular look. To complete this visual impression, the headstock sported six banjo tuners located on the opposite side of Fender’s familiar headstock.
 
The unusual construction of the Firebirds made them difficult and expensive to produce. Once the guitars had shipped, the headstock/neck area was found to be weak and easily broken. Unfortunately, the heavy banjo tuners exacerbated this problem.
 
These issues, along with poor sales and pressure from Fender about copyright infringement on its “offset waist” design, caused Gibson to revamp the entire Firebird/Thunderbird line using more conventional and less costly construction methods. The overhauled versions used a traditional glued-in neck on a more conservative offset body that looked like a flipped over—non-reverse—edition of the earlier guitars
 
The original price for a Firebird III was $249.50. The current value for one in excellent all-original condition is $18,000 - $20,000 and up
 
On to the beans at stake. This particular Bird is in very good player condition, there are a few marks here and there but no cracks or breaks these birds are prone to, it has a clean smooth neck, amazing glossy finish with nice vibey weather checking and hardly any fading. The mahogany body comes with the neck-thru construction and is equipped with an original Gibson Patent Number sticker Firebird Mini humbucker and a soaring hot vintage 1980's Seymour Duncan 2BJ Mini Humbucker. It has the original infamous banjo tuners, vibrato tremolo etc. The bridge is a compensated Mojoaxe and the bridge posts were placed a few mm upwards on the body to get a better intonation and to stabilise the vibrola/bridge setup. It lowers the stress on the bridge and makes it way more playable! There is a routing underneath the pickguard which most likely housed 2 mini switches and the pickguard is a vintage replacement. One of the pots was also replaced for a more recent one due to a malfunction. It had a recent regret with jumbo's so it is ready to go on tour again!
 
And yes, it really sounds exceptionally good this Bird!! So in the end this is a very nice guitar with a couple of minor and invisible issues at the price level of a player! But with no cracks or breaks this could become a close to original guitar again if so preferred, easy to add value with time and love!
 
Comes in the original 1964 Gibson case with yellow lining.