Andertons are currently the one of a select few UK dealers wth the Gibson Firebird X on order. We will be getting just a few of these guitars. If you're interested in securing yourself a Firebird X, please call us on 01483 456777 to place a deposit.
Gibson are fast becoming known as a brand who aren't afraid to be bold! The Gibson Firebird X is testament to their desire to innovate and look to the future of guitar making and satisfy the next generation of guitarists. Balancing this with the conservative demands of many electric guitarists is no easy task for one of the world's most prolific rock 'n' roll guitar makers; but Gibson have stamped a milestone in the progression of Robot, hi-tech electric guitars with the Firebird X.
The Firebird X itself is designed to be a modern profile, fast playing guitar with built in DSP technology including a number of effects. The Firebird X can be controlled using the onboard switching systems and specially-designed wireless footpedals.
The Gibson Firebird X is unarguably "not for everyone" to say the least! But why be like everyone else? The guitar legends we remember are the ones who did something different to everyone else. Be proud, be loud and be a part of the revolution!
The Physical Guitar - Body Construction
The guitar is made to be comfortable and amazingly easy to play. It features a lightweight body made from hand-sorted swamp ash, with a rock maple neck and Brazilian Angelim Rajado figure board. This construction not only makes it refreshingly light (allowing you to play for many hours without even noticing), but it also allows the guitar to achieve exceptional sustain and tonal range. Firebird X is capable of very resonant and acoustic-like voicing.
The guitar is a bit more than six pounds in total weight. Special resonant chambers not only decrease total weight, but also allow acoustic-like tones and increased overall sustain. The guitar is louder than a typical solid body with substantial tone from lowest bass note to highest treble note. To get more depth, we use a heavy bottom gauge of string with E being about "10" and low E about a "52" with a custom gauge insuring even, crisp tones for all six strings.
This guitar is clearly evolved from a Gibson Firebird, evocative of a rich history, but with contemporary features. With its hand-applied and unique high-end wood finish, the Firebird X is not unlike a cross between a vintage sports car and a modern sports racer. It is beautiful, historical and yet contemporary and unique. With a limited run of just 1,800 units, it is sure to become a collector classic.
Scarfs and large radius corners are everywhere the arm and body come into contact. It is smooth and comfortable, even when you are playing for hours. It's almost not there.
BALANCE - WITH STRAP AND SITTING
The balance point for the upper bout and the lower curve for placement on the leg are exceptionally balanced and comfortable. This is a guitar you can play for hours without soreness or fatigue.
We have developed a patent-pending strap that attaches at the upper bout with a single strap lock that comes with the guitar. That strap is much more comfortable, evenly distributing the lightweight beast and allowing complete freedom of motion. A simple adjustment allows you to adjust the hanging height on the fly. Both strap buttons are available if you desire a more traditional hang.
THE AESTHETICS - THE LOOK
The look builds on the Firebird's and Gibson's history. The wood grain is accentuated, so it "pops" with staining technique.
The fingerboard has character with a slightly burnt maple look. The neck inlays are tilted parallelograms, with a very dark wood. The headstock has a classic Gibson dove wing shape, which is bound, and a Firebird-style truss rod cover.
The look has a very classic fine furniture look with marquetry, elegant curves and smooth rounds. It is very appealing to a guitar player and non-guitar player alike.
NECK
The neck is thin, fast, and asymmetrical with a smooth, non-stick satin finish. A volute at the nut allows the hand to quickly find the first position and improves total sustain and strength. The neck joint is smoothly blended from neck to body with just a slight roundness, allowing maximum access to high register strings. The lower cut away cuts deeper, affording exceptional access to the high register.
The fingerboard has low-profile, fretless wonder frets and a highly polished Angelim Rajado surface. Angelim Rajado is an extremely smooth and durable precious Brazilian wood which is FSC certified.
This allows fretting to have almost no impact on pitch (higher frets cause a slight pitch change when the finger depresses the string). Finally, the fretboard is extended to 23 frets, allowing the player to achieve a full, two-octave range with a bend.
The Angelim Rajado neck is hand-sorted and is exceptionally stable, allowing previously unachievable tolerances on our factory set up and maintaining this great set up over time.
PICKUPS
The Firebird X product uses three mini-humbuckers and a vastly improved hexaphonic piezo bridge pickup with an improved low noise, high dynamic-range preamplifier, making this a fully active guitar. The pickups are based on traditional Firebird designs, but have been significantly improved to provide more tonal range and to match the studio-grade preamplifier section. The result is that the signal dynamic analog dynamic range exceeds the specification of the high-end electronics - 110 dB.
Each coil of the electro-magnetic pickup is individually controlled, allowing each coil to be on, off, or on-reverse polarity. The guitar's presets use the best combinations to recreate the world's best tones and some great new tones. New combinations can be made using the Firebird X editor, giving you an unlimited sonic palette.
- 4 lead wire standard color code
- Mini-humbucker side-by-side coils
- Ceramic blade magnets
- Solid chrome cover
- Metalize plastic trim ring
- Well-shielded and adjustable for max S/N
- With 3 pickups, 6 coils
- Can be used in any combination
- Humbucking/noise canceling single coil modes
- Lower turns from 8400 (standard Firebird) to 4200 (lower weight and lower noise pickup)
- The piezo pickup has a new, sweet acoustic-like tone, allowing the guitar to replicate a true acoustic instrument.
All controls on the guitar feel like they come from very high-end professional equipment. The pots are silky smooth with just the right amount of friction. All switches feel crisp and final - no wobble. The surfaces are knurled or textured to allow use with sweaty hands.
ROBO-TUNERS
This guitar continues on a tradition of having electronic tuners, and a fourth generation of supporting hardware and software. What this means is that the guitar can change tuners even more quickly and accurately, with an even simpler way to get to multiple tunings.
The tuners can be used manually and have been enhanced to be more robust with a better feel when used manually.
20 Revolutionary Features
- Audio Quality - Integrating the effects signal path within the guitar allows for perfect impedance and level matching to the pickups, resulting in far lower noise than outboard effects - the dynamic range exceeds 100dB. Even with high-gain distortion and compression, Firebird X is astonishingly quiet.
- Pickup Design - Either coil in each of the three mini-humbuckers can be off, on or reverse polarity, and can be switched into single coil modes with ? for the first time ? true noise-canceling technology.
- GoldTone Switching Technology - Thanks to carefully-selected pickup coil switching choices, Firebird X emulates iconic guitar tones with analog technology ? not digital modeling. Over 2,000 pickup combinations are possible, each with its own unique sound.
- Pure Analog Updateable Audio Engine - Based on the Freescale multi-processor (the latest generation of the chip family used in Pro Tools TDM systems), the audio engine has the power and resolution needed to create sounds with a true analog feel. The engine hardware is not only updateable, but user-replaceable to accommodate advances in hardware
- Patch Morphing - Two "tog-pots" - which look like standard pickup selectors, but have a control built into the rotatable toggle shaft - let you morph smoothly from unprocessed to processed sounds, and anywhere in between.
- Acoustic Guitar Sounds - A third tog-pot blends acoustic sounds from the piezo pickup along with the electric pickups, or even acoustic sounds only. Optimized to sound like Gibson's acclaimed J-45 acoustic guitar, the basic acoustic guitar sound is virtually indistinguishable from an acoustic guitar's electric output.
- Hex Output Structure - The bridge piezo pickup includes hex outputs (each string can provide a separate output for computer or live performance setups), which allows for totally new guitar sounds - from "clean" distortion and synth-like timbres to groundbreaking surround possibilities. Firebird X's new hex pickup design means higher output and greater string separation than ever.
- Open Architecture - 3rd-party developers can develop new and exciting applications (sold through Gibson's app store) for the Pure Analog audio engine. And users can create and share their own patches, as well as download additional patches from Gibson's Firebird X microsite.
- Battery Life - Thanks to advances in low-power circuitry, greater Robo-Tuner efficiency, and powersaving techniques derived from laptop computers, the internal battery lasts for well over two hours of heavy, continuous use - and should the power run out, the battery can be swapped out in under 10 seconds with commonly available, inexpensive camcorder batteries.
- Blue Lightning-Compatible Footpedals and Footswitch Unit - Tired of clutter and cables on stage? So are we. Firebird X communicates with the two (included) pedals and footswitch unit using Bluetooth technology optimized for musical applications.
- Effects Software - Although the heart of the distortion options within Firebird X use McDSP's critically-acclaimed Chrome Tone plug-in, Gibson's engineers have included multiple modulation, delay, and reverberation effects - including new effects like "dynamic" delay, and old favorites like spring reverb, analog chorus/delay, and a 10-second looper.
- Pedal Interconnections - Forget cables: the pedals and footswitch snap together for a secure mechanical and electrical connection, as well as the ability to create large pedalboard setups. And daisy-chaining the control signal saves power and optimizes wireless performance.
- Computer Interface with Solid-State Recording - The included cross-platform RIP interface not only provides pro audio-level interfacing for cutting-edge software, but integrates a solid-state, SD card-based recorder - so you will never lose a riff again.
- Low-Impedance Active Output - While the idea of using a low-impedance output to preserve tone, drive long cables, and even feed a PA or mixer directly isn't new (thank you, Les Paul), Firebird X's implementation is new - this is the most transparent-sounding audio you've ever heard from a guitar output.
- Digital Varitone Tone Control - Turn the tone control fully counterclockwise and you'll hear the traditional high-end rolloff; turn it clockwise for the full guitar tone. But in between those two settings are six additional tone options that add subtle, musical variations.
- Direct Digital Output - A true S/PDIF direct digital output from Firebird X is available for direct digital interfacing to S/PDIFcompatible gear, from signal processors to mixers.
- Case Technology - To protect this finely-crafted instrument, Gibson has developed a unique case that can survive a fall from a six-story building. If you ever have to check Firebird X as baggage with the airlines, rest easy.
- Real-Time Control - Do you like bending over and reaching down to a pedalboard to change a setting? We don't either. So, Firebird X includes six color-coded sliders that let you morph settings, and even switch into different effects entirely, with a flick of the finger.
- Live Performance Modes - When you just want to call up one of the 55 onboard patches and wail, choose "preset" mode - this locks out all onboard controls so you can't change the sound accidentally. To switch into live mode and alter your sounds in real-time, just push on the tone pot twice.
- Robo-Tuners - The first generation of Robot Tuning technology created its own revolution, making alternate tunings practical at last, as well as tuning multiple strings simultaneously. The fourth-generation Robo-Tuners - smaller, lighter, more durable and faster - revolutionize Robot Tuning again.
Turbo Charged "Pure-Analog" Engine
The heart of this high-performance beast is a high-performance multi-processor from Freescale. This is the same chip family used in ProTools systems, except this engine is the latest and greatest and overpowers older Pro Tools set-ups.
Pure-Analog engine features
- User replaceable - built to new universal standards for form, factor and connectivity.
- Using our secret Pure-Analog sauce, gives the player professional analog sound.
- Firmware is user-upgradeable, allowing constant improvements and updates.
- Provides an arsenal of professional, world-class sounds and effects.
- Allows 3rd party developers to make new, exciting use of the engine by allowing their software to run on the guitar's engine and a Gibson app store.
THE ENGINE IS A PLATFORM BUILT TO NEW UNIVERSAL STANDARDS
This powerful, turbo-charged sound processor is designed to give the maximum advantage and flexibility to the guitar player. The Pure-Analog engine is designed to a new Gibson standard, which makes the engine user-replaceable. When you want to upgrade, the little package encased in metal is removable and a new one can be installed in under one hour. Part of the standard is a standard connector (no soldering required) that has pin outs, allowing the most complex guitar designs with many pots, switches and pickups to be accommodated.
These standards future-proof your investment and will allow third parties to supply their own solutions.
The new size standard will allow this engine to be used with any guitar body, including our most space-challenged. By standardizing the sound processor engine form factor, we can also achieve far higher volume by allowing it to be used in many different types and models of guitar and bringing the cost of this powerful technology down very quickly.
PURE-ANALOG SECRET SAUCE - NOT A MODELING GUITAR
This guitar is pure analog, starting with the tuning. Unlike competitors, who use sterile digital math to "correct" pitch and achieve different tunings, we actually tune the strings to very accurate pitches. You get 100% analog with the added benefit of hearing the same pitch coming from the guitar acoustically, or through your amplifier.
This pure analog signal then goes directly into a studio quality preamp, which ensures maximum dynamic range. Since all this activity takes place in the guitar, we use shielded cables, metal enclosures, and other special manufacturing methods to virtually eliminate noise from either external sources, or internally generated distortion.
Our engineers' attention to detail results in the quietest, highest dynamic range guitar ever built.
We then use high performance ADC chips to convert the audio stream into the digital form on which our sound processor can act with virtually no latency. Inside our engine we maintain the signal stream with high internal precision. What this means is that every effect or operation has such a fantastically high bit depth and resolution that there are virtually no truncation errors or other artifacts, truly preserving the analog quality of the original signal. The signal starts as fantastic analog, and leaves as fantastic analog, using an exceptional DAC. Everything that happens in between is Gibson Pure-Analog.
It is not enough to get the analog authenticity that all players lust for. A large part of the analog sound is the way analog equipment functions, which is very different from the implementation of sterile digital mathematical formulas. Like a drum machine compared to a live drummer, real life has enormous texture and non-mathematical nuance. Gibson designers are guitar players with decades' worth of experience. We have studied this very real mojo and added it to every part of what our engine does. These many techniques allow us to achieve Pure-Analog that even the most discerning ears will agree is an analog sound.
BEST IN CLASS ONBOARD EFFECTS-GOLDTONE FX
Our design goal was not to duplicate other effects, but to create unique, very analog-type tones with a lot of warmth that we call Goldtone FX. The Firebird X comes with a variety of patches, many of which approach some sounds from famous gear rigs, but our patches have their own character.
Our patches are not aimed at eliminating outboard gear, although many players will be very satisfied with the huge creative range we allow. Our Goldtone FX plays very nicely with other gear - surprisingly nicely.
The Firebird X guitar has two significant effects that have been made part of the instrument:
- Tube Distortion with Compressor and EQ
- Tape Effects (Modulation, Echoplex, Reverb)
Usually tube distortion has a very characteristic harmonic quality, but it is very dependent on the rest of the gear being used. Even different amplifiers with the same tube circuits and tubes can sound very different. Because all processing takes place in the guitar, we can consistently achieve distortion exactly the way you want it, every time.
Our Goldtone FX captures the analog essence (tube mojo), but allows you to adjust the basic character of the distortion. With a three-way toggle switch, you can immediately dial up three aspects of distortion - compression, distortion and EQ - each controllable in real time with three sliders.
Each of the sliders has a broad range to dial in just the right sound. The most interesting slider is Type, which basically allows a sweep through the personalities of many of the distortion rigs currently in use and then some more.
Body
- Species: Ash
- Binding: None
- Body Type: Chambered
- Average Weight: 2.3 lbs
- Average Total Weight: 7 lbs
Tuners
- Model: RoboHead
- Plating: Black
- Tuning Ratio: 24:1
Controls
- Volume Control: Chrome/knurled
- Tone Control : Momentary switch, Black Chrome/knurled
- Pickup Switch : 5-way pickup selector
- Gear Shift Knob : 11 position rotary knob
- Effects Faders: (Blue) Modulation / Echo / Reverb
- (Red) Compression / Distortion / EQ
- Tog-Pots: 3 position with wet/dry blend
- (Blue) Modulation / Reverb / Echoplex
- (Red) Compression / Distortion / EQ
- (Silver) Pickup programming / Piezo / Tuning
Finishes
- Sealer: Nitrocellulose Lacquer
- Redolution Finish
Neck
- Species: 1-Piece Maple
- Profile: Asymmetrical Neck (.8/.925)
- Truss Rod: Standard
- Joint Angle: 3.75 degrees
Bridge
- Type: TOM / Piezo Robot guitar
- Material: Zamac
- Plating: .07 Chrome
Neck Fit
- Joint: Mortise & Tenon
- Joint Angle Tolerance: +/- .005"
Tailpiece
- Type: Stop Bar Robot
- Material: Zamac
- Plating: .07 Chrome
Case
- Type: New FBX
- Case Exterior: Vinyl - Tweed/brown accents
- Case Interior: White fleece
Fingerboard
- Species: Angelim Rajado (Brazilian Marblewood)
- Scale Length: 24.75"
- Frets: 23
- Radius: 12"
- Nut/E.O.B: 1.695 / 2.273
- Inlays: Abalone
System Requirements
- Control Plates: Back cover: FBX Molded w/Battery Box
- Switch cover: Molded
- Strings: .009 - .054
- Strap Buttons: Aluminum
Accessories
- Accessory Pack: G-Node interface
- Bluetooth Number Controller Pedal
- Bluetooth Continuous Pedal
- Stereo cable
- Pedal Power Cord
- Battery Power Converter
- Battery Type: Rechargeable Lithium Ion
Nut
- Material: Black Tefzell
- Width: 1.695
Pickups
- Coil Wiring: Bifilar
- Neck Position: FBX - Alnico II
- Middle Position: FBX - Ceramic
- Bridge Position: FBX - Alnico V
Software
- Ableton Live 8
- Version 8 PC/Mac
- Guitar Rig 4 Pro
- Version 4 PC/Mac
Headstock
- Logo: Mother of Pearl
- Truss Rod Cover: Chrome Etched Firebird X Limited Edition logo
- Angle: 17 degrees
- Binding: 1 ply White
Electronics
- Output Jack: Locking Neutrik 1/4"/XLR stereo
Windows System Requirements
- 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or Celeron compatible CPU or faster (multicore CPU recommended), 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended), Windows XP or Windows Vista, Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended), DVD-ROM drive, QuickTime recommended.
Mac
- 1.25 GHz G4/G5 or faster (Intel Mac recommended), 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended), Mac OS X 10.4.11 (10.5 or later recommended), DVD-ROM drive.
