SOLD: currently listed on Ebay



This 1965 Firebird has a repaired headstock crack and the headstock only oversprayed in matching Cardinal Red - and is now a rock solid example of one of these very cool guitars.



The repair and headstock overspray are documented in this blog post.

The only non-original parts on the guitar are the tuners and tuner ferrules - everything else is 100% original.

Opening up the back control panel, it's very clean and none of the joints have ever been unsoldered. The pots date to the 39th week of 1965 - making this a late 1965 Firebird. The serial number is barely visible through the finish, but it is 5191XX, which also corresponds to 1965.

This is a fine bird!! I love how P-90s sound - and the middle position, which I believe combines the neck and middle pickup - just sounds great. Fairly high output which can even overdrive my Ampeg B15N, which is a fairly low-gain amp.




The headstock repair and overspray came out very well - the overspray is most apparent because of the lack of finish checking on the headstock vs. the rest of the guitar. The repaired crack is visible as a fine line under the finish, but it is not prominent and it is solid.


A great playing instrument with a dead straight neck - and the neck set is actually deep enough that the tremelo works and the bridge doesn't wander ! The Cardinal Red finish is quite rare - I haven't seen an original finish example for sale in a long time.





The guitar comes in an excellent condition "thick" 1963 - 1965 Gibson Firebird case, which is what Reverse Firebirds shipped in.



This guitar is currently listed on Ebay  - with a start price of $2950 - though you can contact me directly as well about purchasing it.

I do ship internationally, though because of the size of the case shipping may be prohibitive to some countries. Payment can be via Paypal, cashier's check or wire transfer, though there may be some fees involved for the latter.

If you're interested, please do contact me: krishna@guitargarage.net read more →

I got this project instrument a few weeks ago and just started working on it.

This poor Junior had two Les Paul baby humbuckers installed instead of the old dog-ear P-90 - though they were installed next to each other, so the neck joint wasn't cut into.










And then things got ugly ....

Maybe the "junior scientest" working in this guitar was trying to simply enlarge the control cavity to add two more controls and a selector switch and they broke through the thin top of the SG - or maybe they just had a butter knife to work with and decided hacking a huge hole in the guitar was the easiest way to modify the guitar - anyway, the sad result was what you see below !




The major task obviously is plugging this massive hole and then rerouting the control cavity for two controls and an output jack. After that, the enlarged pickup routing will have to be filled and rerouted as well.

On the plus side, the neck and heel of this Junior have never been broken and this guitar has the fat neck profile of the earliest Les Paul and SG Juniors. And the fretboard and frets are in good shape - well-played but still plenty of meat on them.


To start with, I straightened out the edges of the hacked hole - and then I cut a large plug from a block of mahogany. The block was then glued in using Titebond wood glue - with the top surface slightly above the rest of the guitar face to allow for some shrinkage of wood later.













Once the block was glued in, I drilled in at three points to pin the plug with long maple dowels - securing the block in place.
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I have always loved the Gibson Firebird & Thunderbird family, and in a way I think the non-reverse members of this family of guitars attract me even more, maybe because they were always looked down on when I was younger as the "ugly and cheap Firebirds".

I distinctly remember when I decided I really wanted a P-90 equipped non-reverse Firebird - I saw a band called Lungfish, from the DC area, play at a community center in Indianapolis during 1992 - great show - and the guitarist was playing a stripped non-reverse Firebird with two P-90s and it sounded raw !!!

Over the years I acquired a few different non-reverse Firebirds - all with P-90s and became aware of the amazing color selections the Firebird family came in.




The particular guitar this post is about was acquired through Daddy's Junky Music around 1999. It had a headstock break when I got it - and banjo-style tuners from a Reverse Firebird installed. It was actually this mod that led to the headstock break it appeared - since the case didn't really give enough clearance for the taller banjo tuners, leading to pressure on the headstock. Kind of a dopey mod anyway, since I think banjo tuners are much harder to tune with.



I planned to clean up the somewhat rough looking headstock repair and dowel the tuner holes to allow me to install kluson tuners - I got as far as doweling the holes and fitting some tuners but never redid the headstock - and the guitar went into an early 60's reverse Firebird case (thicker) and lay dormant for the next 7 years.

I recently pulled it out - driven I'll admit by the sudden astronomical appreciation of custom color Firebirds - and decided to properly repair the damage from years ago and fit some re-issue Kluson inline tuners and bring the guitar back to its original shiny red glory.

The headstock didn't look that bad, but the surface wasn't even on either side of the break and I could see a tiny hairline crack, meaning the repair wasn't well glued. I decided to sand down the finish until it was even all around the break and until the break was exposed so I could reglue it.

I used a thin cyanocrylate glue along both surfaces of the crack - applying the glue and allowing capillary action to draw it into the joint and then lightly clamping the headstock. I applied glue three times, to make sure it soaked in completely. I then applied grain filler to areas where bare wood had been exposed by sanding and eventually sanded down the entire headstock smooth again. I also redoweled one tuner hole for later drilling.

The next step will be to drill the doweled hole and check the fit for the repro tuners and ferrules. Once I'm satisfied no more woodwork is necessary, I will then start spraying the headstock with Cardinal Red lacquer. My hope is that color will match exactly - though I will have to feather in the transition from the new finish to the 40 year old checked finish at the headstock/neck transition. The repair is solid now, and within the next week or so this guitar should be done and ready to rock again.

(Update April 5th, 2008)
The Firebird is close to being ready - finally opened up the back control panel - very clean and never been unsoldered - and the pots date to the 39th week of 1965 - making this a late 1965 Firebird.





A few newer pics are posted below of the repair and refinished headstock. The new Cardinal Red came out a little bit darker than the original finish - maybe because the original faded over the last 43 years ?


Anyway - it looks very good, but I want to feather in the area between the original finish and the old finish a little better - and then this 'bird will be ready to fly !! Yes - I will be putting this one up for sale - keep your eyes open.


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