Emperor Guillotine
The Almighty Ruler
You guys know those really weird moments when you're mindlessly browsing the internet to pass some idle time and you serendipitously stumble upon something totally unexpected? That's exactly what happened here with this guitar.
I originally received this guitar back in August of last year (2022).
Specs:
• Body wood: poplar
• Body finish: low-gloss nitrocellulose
• Scale length: 629mm (24.75")
• Neck construction: set-neck
• Neck wood: 1-piece maple
• Neck profile: slim taper (thin D)
• Neck finish: satin/matte nitrocellulose
• Fretboard wood: rosewood
• Fretboard radius: 305mm (12")
• Fret number: 22
• Fretwire: medium-jumbo
• Pickups: DiMarzio Super 3 (bridge) and Gibson USA Double Slug DS-C (neck)
• Controls: 3-way pickup selector toggle, volume knob, tone knob
• Bridge: Adjustable wraparound bridge
• Tuners: Grover non-locking tuners (with mini buttons)
• Nut: 43mm standard Tektoid
This particular Firebird Zero was owned by Phillip Farris of the band Norma Jean. Phillip performed live with the guitar during Norma Jean's In Your House tour dates back in the beginning of 2020, right before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing "lockdown era" that we all faced as a result.
The S Series models (S = "Select") were exclusive to the year 2017 and were only available to purchase through select Gibson dealers here in the USA, mainly being just the big-name, big-box franchises and typical online retailers such as: Guitar Center, Sam Ash, Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, etc.
The stock Gibson DS-C pickups and the adjustable wraparound bridge were both exclusive to the S Series Firebird Zero model, with both being designed specifically to suit the Firebird Zero's low-time, low-cost manufacturing process. And as expected, both the pickups and the bridge seem to be the biggest complaints that players have had with the Firebird Zero model.
The DS-C pickups are noted for sounding very weak, brittle, and shrill. I have seen a countless number of Firebird Zero owners share statements online saying that the first thing they did upon receiving their Firebird Zero was do a pickup swap.
At some point, Phillip swapped out the DS-C in the bridge position and had a DiMarzio Super 3 installed. Since the Super 3 is a tweaked, darker version of the DiMarzio Super Distortion with a lot more bass frequency presence, more mid-range grind, and chopped treble, it balances out perfectly in the inherently bright-sounding, lightweight poplar wood body.
Quick note on the body: despite the body being a simple slab of lightweight poplar, the neck dive on this guitar isn't actually all that bad, as long as you have your strap length set correctly. This is one of the lightest guitars that I've ever played, almost to the point that it feels like a toy. So, it was a relief to learn that the 1-piece maple neck didn't cause the guitar to start nosediving towards the floor.
The adjustable wraparound bridge on this guitar was an outright horrible choice by Gibson. The base of the bridge is far too thick; and since the bridge is mounted flush to the body of the guitar, this means that you are limited in terms of how low you can adjust your action to be. Essentially, you can only adjust your action to a certain point before the base inevitably rests on the body of the guitar and not be able to go any lower. Thus, the height of your strings wouldn't be able to go any lower.
Also, before tapered strings became more common in the market, you could only use up to a certain size/gauge of strings because the strings are pulled from underneath the bridge; and this is a problem because (again) the base of the bridge rests flush on the body of the guitar.
On a more positive note, the neck of this guitar was actually quite a pleasant surprise. The slim taper neck profile is a very comfortable, thin D shape that feels super smooth and modern, which was all the more surprising coming from Gibson and knowing their usual fare.
Lastly, the paint job is something worth addressing because the paint used by Gibson on the Firebird Zero guitars was so terrible that it pretty much seemed like Gibson was giving a big "fuck you" to the consumers in the market at the time. The paint is super thin, uneven, and has this weird sheen that makes it look like the interior paint that you use to paint the walls of your house. In fact, I'm convinced that is exactly what Gibson used. And if you spend some time delving into Google and searching up photos of Firebird Zero guitars, you'll probably come to the same conclusion. Not to mention, it looks like the paint was applied in a single pass with a hand roller at the Gibson factory.
With all of that said, these issues with the Firebird Zero are able to be fixed or remedied. You would just have to invest into swapping the pickups, swapping the bridge, and getting the body repainted (refinished). All of these are very doable modifications.
Speaking of modifications, let me take a moment to point out one of Phillip's own little, personal touches that he added to this guitar. Miller High Life bottle cap "strap locks"!
I think a huge issue was the fact that back in 2017, consumers were spending Epiphone-level money ($500-$700) and expecting a full-blown, standard Gibson-level guitar for the cost due to Gibson's marketing of the Firebird Zero model and the fact that the company banked really hard on having the Gibson logo and "made in the USA" stamped on the headstock as the main selling point.
Common sense ought to dictate that to any consumer that you're not going to get a quality instrument worth somewhere in the $1,500-$2,000 (on average) range while paying literally a fraction of the price. Quality will suffer, and corners will have to be cut. In fact, lots of corners were cut on the Firebird Zero so that Gibson could push a super cheap offering out into the market in 2017.
If Gibson had simply changed their marketing for the Firebird Zero model and openly advertised it with the words "entry-level" or "budget-friendly" attached, then that would have probably eliminated a lot of the online criticisms that the Firebird Zero received. But instead, Gibson banked really hard on consumers equating the Gibson name to being synonymous with "high quality", no matter what tier or what price-point. And that led to the Firebird Zero being an epic flop.
I originally received this guitar back in August of last year (2022).
Specs:
• Body wood: poplar
• Body finish: low-gloss nitrocellulose
• Scale length: 629mm (24.75")
• Neck construction: set-neck
• Neck wood: 1-piece maple
• Neck profile: slim taper (thin D)
• Neck finish: satin/matte nitrocellulose
• Fretboard wood: rosewood
• Fretboard radius: 305mm (12")
• Fret number: 22
• Fretwire: medium-jumbo
• Pickups: DiMarzio Super 3 (bridge) and Gibson USA Double Slug DS-C (neck)
• Controls: 3-way pickup selector toggle, volume knob, tone knob
• Bridge: Adjustable wraparound bridge
• Tuners: Grover non-locking tuners (with mini buttons)
• Nut: 43mm standard Tektoid
This particular Firebird Zero was owned by Phillip Farris of the band Norma Jean. Phillip performed live with the guitar during Norma Jean's In Your House tour dates back in the beginning of 2020, right before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing "lockdown era" that we all faced as a result.
The S Series models (S = "Select") were exclusive to the year 2017 and were only available to purchase through select Gibson dealers here in the USA, mainly being just the big-name, big-box franchises and typical online retailers such as: Guitar Center, Sam Ash, Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, etc.
The stock Gibson DS-C pickups and the adjustable wraparound bridge were both exclusive to the S Series Firebird Zero model, with both being designed specifically to suit the Firebird Zero's low-time, low-cost manufacturing process. And as expected, both the pickups and the bridge seem to be the biggest complaints that players have had with the Firebird Zero model.
The DS-C pickups are noted for sounding very weak, brittle, and shrill. I have seen a countless number of Firebird Zero owners share statements online saying that the first thing they did upon receiving their Firebird Zero was do a pickup swap.
At some point, Phillip swapped out the DS-C in the bridge position and had a DiMarzio Super 3 installed. Since the Super 3 is a tweaked, darker version of the DiMarzio Super Distortion with a lot more bass frequency presence, more mid-range grind, and chopped treble, it balances out perfectly in the inherently bright-sounding, lightweight poplar wood body.
Quick note on the body: despite the body being a simple slab of lightweight poplar, the neck dive on this guitar isn't actually all that bad, as long as you have your strap length set correctly. This is one of the lightest guitars that I've ever played, almost to the point that it feels like a toy. So, it was a relief to learn that the 1-piece maple neck didn't cause the guitar to start nosediving towards the floor.
The adjustable wraparound bridge on this guitar was an outright horrible choice by Gibson. The base of the bridge is far too thick; and since the bridge is mounted flush to the body of the guitar, this means that you are limited in terms of how low you can adjust your action to be. Essentially, you can only adjust your action to a certain point before the base inevitably rests on the body of the guitar and not be able to go any lower. Thus, the height of your strings wouldn't be able to go any lower.
Also, before tapered strings became more common in the market, you could only use up to a certain size/gauge of strings because the strings are pulled from underneath the bridge; and this is a problem because (again) the base of the bridge rests flush on the body of the guitar.
On a more positive note, the neck of this guitar was actually quite a pleasant surprise. The slim taper neck profile is a very comfortable, thin D shape that feels super smooth and modern, which was all the more surprising coming from Gibson and knowing their usual fare.
Lastly, the paint job is something worth addressing because the paint used by Gibson on the Firebird Zero guitars was so terrible that it pretty much seemed like Gibson was giving a big "fuck you" to the consumers in the market at the time. The paint is super thin, uneven, and has this weird sheen that makes it look like the interior paint that you use to paint the walls of your house. In fact, I'm convinced that is exactly what Gibson used. And if you spend some time delving into Google and searching up photos of Firebird Zero guitars, you'll probably come to the same conclusion. Not to mention, it looks like the paint was applied in a single pass with a hand roller at the Gibson factory.
With all of that said, these issues with the Firebird Zero are able to be fixed or remedied. You would just have to invest into swapping the pickups, swapping the bridge, and getting the body repainted (refinished). All of these are very doable modifications.
Speaking of modifications, let me take a moment to point out one of Phillip's own little, personal touches that he added to this guitar. Miller High Life bottle cap "strap locks"!
I think a huge issue was the fact that back in 2017, consumers were spending Epiphone-level money ($500-$700) and expecting a full-blown, standard Gibson-level guitar for the cost due to Gibson's marketing of the Firebird Zero model and the fact that the company banked really hard on having the Gibson logo and "made in the USA" stamped on the headstock as the main selling point.
Common sense ought to dictate that to any consumer that you're not going to get a quality instrument worth somewhere in the $1,500-$2,000 (on average) range while paying literally a fraction of the price. Quality will suffer, and corners will have to be cut. In fact, lots of corners were cut on the Firebird Zero so that Gibson could push a super cheap offering out into the market in 2017.
If Gibson had simply changed their marketing for the Firebird Zero model and openly advertised it with the words "entry-level" or "budget-friendly" attached, then that would have probably eliminated a lot of the online criticisms that the Firebird Zero received. But instead, Gibson banked really hard on consumers equating the Gibson name to being synonymous with "high quality", no matter what tier or what price-point. And that led to the Firebird Zero being an epic flop.
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