During the 1960s, Gibson made several different versions of its Firebird electric guitar design as it vied to master the offset’s recipe, and a transitional build from the heart of that period is making a return as the Firebird Platypus.

In recent years, Gibson has frequently dipped into its archive to bring new and forgotten designs to the fore. The Theodore, a sketch made by former President Ted McCarty in 1957 and finally realized in 2022, proves that, while its Superstrat experiments and the Victory, from the same era, have been recently revived.

The Firebird Platypus continues that trend curiously. After the Gibson Les Paul had dominated the '50s, Fender clawed back momentum as the next decade began, leaving its fierce rival to look for a new design to challenge the Stratocaster and Telecaster. Its Explorer and Flying V designs were initial attempts at that, before McCarty hired car designer Ray Dietrich to ensure that three times was the charm, and he set to work adding curves to the Explorer's template.

It was Gibson's first neck-through design, with reverse headstocks and banjo-style tuners, key features of the early designs. The Platypus was the first radical step away from that aesthetic, marrying a reverse body with a non-reverse headstock for the first time, and the headstock was much flatter than its holly veneer siblings and featured six-in-line tuners for the first time. Thus, it proved a vital stepping stone to the Firebird design that, six decades on, remains hugely popular.

It takes its name from the bill-like visage of its headstock and was launched in 1965. Yet, while most Firebird designs can ultimately fall under "reverse" and "non-reverse" categories — its body shape was contorted into both varieties during this period — the Platypus draws from both equally.

The reverse-style body features the raised center section on top, a staple of Firebirds for many, but it also has the classic Gibson set-neck construction like the non-reverse iterations.

The newly reissued build features a mahogany, glued-in set neck and the appearance of a traditional neck-through Reverse Firebird body, but with some select, modern-minded tweaks.

The Platypus-style headstock, for one, has been “slightly modified to provide a straight string pull for less friction and improved tuning stability,” while a SlimTaper neck with a 12-inch radius has been employed for a more effortless playability.

Elsewhere, there’s a rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets and Acrylic Trapezoid inlays, an aluminum Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge, Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners, and a white three-ply pickguard with the Firebird's iconic crest hot-stamped onto it.

There's no hint of modernity from its pickups, though, as Gibson goes for historical accuracy with its Firebird Mini humbuckers. Equipped with Alnico 5 magnets, the Platypus delivers a “bell-like chime when played clean, and great rock and blues tones when pushed,” and plenty of articulation to boot. Each pickup gets a dedicated volume and tone dial, and there's also a three-way pickup switch.

For Gibson’s master luthier Jim DeCola, the humbuckers are central to the guitar’s resurrection.

“The pickups utilize black mounting rings topped off with the traditional chrome trim rings for classic sound, looks, and improved performance,” he explains. “Mounting rings under the trim rings keep the pickups parallel to the strings to provide improved output and balance. We feel the new Firebird Platypus has the ‘best of’ Firebird features, aesthetics, sound, and playability.”

“We had discontinued the Firebird at Gibson USA for a few years,” adds Mat Koehler, vice president of product. “When we brought it back, we wanted to do it in a way that we’ve never done before – at least not since 1965. To me, that’s my favorite incarnation of the Firebird because you’ve got the tuners on the top side.”

Tobacco Sunburst, Ebony and Vintage Cherry colorways are all on offer and are priced at $2,499 apiece.

Head to Gibson to learn more.

The following article originally appeared in Guitar Aficionado in 2012. 

Although he was born in 1977, Joe Bonamassa is already a seasoned blues veteran. Having traded licks onstage with B.B. King at the tender age of 12 he made his solo debut a decade later with the album A New Day Yesterday.

He was destined to be a guitar aficionado, growing up as he did behind the counter of his parents’ music shop in upstate New York, Bank Place Guitars. At 14, he received a $5,500 inheritance from his great-grandmother and used the windfall to acquire his first vintage instrument, a 1954 hard-tail Stratocaster, from a local seller.

“It had a few issues as a collector’s piece but certainly wasn’t a bad beginner guitar,” said Bonamassa. “But I wasn’t satisfied with just one old guitar. By my late teens I had vintage examples of all the classics: a 335, a Telecaster, and others.”

Bonamassa reflected on a period in the mid 2000s when his guitar buying became so frenetic that he often found himself purchasing an instrument, only to remember later that he already had one – or three – almost identical examples. “It got to be so gluttonous,” he recalled. “I’d be on tour in a place like Japan, jet-lagged and ready to start my day at four in the morning. No Starbucks would be open, so I’d just go to the website Gbase and throw something on the credit card.

“I ended up with all these guitars I didn’t even play – a bunch of old [ES-5] Switchmasters and ES-350s and even four Trini Lopezes – guitars that were killer to look at but not useful to me on the stage or in the studio. Finally, I just said, ‘Garage sale!’ and got rid of a ton of stuff.”

By 2012, Bonamassa had pruned his collection to a mere 90 guitars, half vintage instruments and half recent models, mostly Gibson Custom Shop guitars that “sound and play killer and look just like the originals, if you saw them from row G.”

At the heart of the collection was a trio of that most desirable of solidbodies, the sunburst Les Paul Standard, comprising two 1959s and a 1960 with a 1959 neck profile. But the stable also included less coveted pieces, such as a 1969 Grammer Johnny Cash flat-top acoustic.

“You’ve got to see this special guitar,” Bonamassa said as he bolted from the couch and disappeared into a laundry room. He returned with an old, heavily stickered case. “This one is so rare I just had to have it, even though I’m not much of an acoustic guy,” he said, nimbly fingerpicking a series of ninth and 13th chords. “Now everyone who plays it wants it. It sounds incredible and just seems to have a lot of songs in it.”

Another unobvious collector’s piece was Bonamassa’s 1972 Gibson ES-355TDC, its twin humbuckers bearing the embossed Gibson logo on their covers. The guitar hails from what many consider to be a dark period in the company’s design and quality control, but Bonamassa sought it out because of its similarity to the ax played by blues legend Freddie King.

“This was my first and only eBay purchase,” he said. “I ended up in a pitched battle to win it for $2,900 – a steal considering that these are harder to find than a ’59 Les Paul or even an original korina Flying V.”

Bonamassa directed us out of the courtyard and upstairs to a small room where he displayed a nice cross-section of his collection: the ES-355, along with a 1961 ES-335, a 1963 Gibson Firebird I, 1953 and 1954 blackguard Fender Telecasters, a 1955 hardtail Stratocaster, a 1932 Martin 0-17, and a 1970 Martin D-41.

A trio of brown cases – two Liftons and a Stone – were placed on the floor, each holding one of Bonamassa’s three ‘Bursts. The guitarist tenderly unlatched each case and revealed the guitars. Their gorgeous maple tops appeared faded into varying shades of scarlet and amber, and they glowed, as did their owner as he gazed upon them.

“I could’ve bought a house or these three-quarter-million-dollar guitars. I chose the guitars in a heartbeat. I love them. They’re like my children,” he said, with emotion.

His ‘Bursts at his feet, Bonamassa held forth on the subject of originality and his overall philosophy as a collector. “Refrets don’t bother me, but the pickup rings have gotta be right, the pickguard has gotta be right, and I’ve gotta open up that electronics cavity and see some vibrant original solder. I’ve seen some really good fakes out there, and it really bothers me. People are getting scammed for real money by guys who steal original parts to put on fake guitars. 

“I’m not a spiritual guy,” he continued, “but if you buy a guitar with a scratched-out serial number, chances are it was stolen at some point, and therefore it’s not good karma to play it. I find, on the other hand, that guitars with good histories don’t fight you. Somehow, they tend to stay in tune and play better. So all my guitars have got to be clean and honest. Playing wear is just fine, though.

“Check out the worming on the back of Principal Skinner,” he said, lifting his favorite ‘Burst from its case to show where the finish has succumbed to an oversized Seventies-era belt buckle. “Honest playing wear.” 

The ‘Burst triplets make an appearance on Driving Towards the Daylight, along with a handful of Bonamassa’s other vintage guitars. A collector in the best possible sense, he viewed his axes not as investments but as musical tools.

“I really pared things down for the recording sessions [for Driving Towards the Daylight]. I only used about 20 guitars, but they were the best guitars in the world – all the best examples for sure. At one point, I looked at them and thought, If I can’t get the job done with this, then I really need to stop buying guitars and just go home and practice.”

1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard (Serial: 9 0829)

“This one’s called Magellan, because it’s been around the globe with me – at least where it’s safe to travel with such an expensive instrument.

“Airline rule has it that if you want to carry onboard an expensive guitar, you must buy a seat for it. The good news is that they will serve both a ‘Burst and its owner a gin and tonic.”

1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard (Serial: 0 0137)

“I’m the third owner of this truly special ‘Burst, which was ordered in June of 1959 and delivered in August of that year. Although the stamp indicates that it was made in 1960, it’s obviously got all 1959 features.

“I sometimes call it Batman because of the weird winged bridge, a one-off. And I’m honored that Gibson Custom recreated the guitar in exacting detail as Collector’s Choice #3.” 

1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard (Serial: 9 1951)

“This guitar was originally known to the general public as the Skinner ‘Burst [after the auction house that sold it in 2006], but I have renamed it Principal Skinner.

“Killer in every way. This is the most rock Les Paul I own. Big flame equals big tone.”

1969 Grammer Johnny Cash

“This guitar has an unusual look – a grey-‘burst finish – which was apparently designed to look good with Johnny Cash’s black attire.

“It’s a rare bird with an incredible tone. Everyone who plays this guitar is surprised by the sound and wants to take it home.” 

1972 Gibson ES-355TDC

“This isn’t much of a collector’s piece, but Freddie King played one, and so I had to have one too.

“It’s all original, down to the embossed covers on the pickups, and extremely rare. Just try to find another from the same year.”

1932 Martin 0-17

“This 0-17 came from my repair guy in L.A. Someone who had inherited it from her grandmother had left it in the shop and forgotten about it, so I offered to give it a second life.

“It’s a really sweet-sounding little guitar.” 

As surely as Robert Johnson lived the blues, Johnny Winter spent his life in them.

Born albino, Winter discovered early in life that some cultures considered albinos gods, while others abused and ostracized them. It was between these two extremes that Winter found himself throughout his life.

Blessed with talent, he blew minds with his fiery guitar work and had major labels falling over themselves to sign him. He helped advance electric blues into arenas in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

But his career, while marked by flashes of brilliance, was marred by greedy managers, drug addiction and an industry that came to view him as an oddity. What remained through it all was his worship of blues.

Born in Beaumont, Texas, in 1944, Winter began playing guitar at age 11, inspired by blues artists like Muddy Waters and B.B. King. After cutting his first record at 15, he was stuck on a music career.

“That was the most exciting time,” he recalled in 2008. “I made my first record and I started playing in nightclubs, and I had my first drink. All the stuff was brand new, and you could be driving to the gig and hear your record on the radio.”

Winter played clubs throughout Houston and Austin, impressing electric-blues fans with his guitar work, an incendiary meld of rock and blues chops unlike anything heard before.

His break came in December 1968 when he was featured in a Rolling Stone story about the Texas music scene. Major labels came calling, and Winter was soon under contract to Columbia for what was reportedly the largest advance in the recording industry’s history at that time: $600,000.

Soon after, he released Johnny Winter and Second Winter, each helping to establish him as a formidable talent.

As a child, Winter had dreamed of playing with Muddy Waters. He got his chance in 1974 when he and other young blues guitarists joined together in concert with older artists from the Chicago blues scene.

Winter went on to produce a quartet of albums for Waters, earning the elder bluesman Grammy awards and giving his career a well-deserved boost.

Sadly, Winters’ own career suffered over the years. A pair of former managers capitalized on his earlier recordings, earning money from them while Johnny never saw a penny. He dealt with heroin addiction in the 1970s and suffered health ailments in his later years.

He hit his stride again in the 1980s, recording for Alligator Records, and by the mid ’90s he was focused more on performing, where he showed that he’d not lost one bit of his brilliance. A stunning slide player, Winter used a metal slide cut from a pipe purchased at a plumbing supply store.

Perhaps no track demonstrates his furious slide work as well as his cover of Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” from Second Winter.

He played many guitars throughout his career but favored Gibson Firebirds, in particular a 1963 Firebird V.

“That first one I ever bought is my favorite because I’ve played it so long and I’ve gotten used to it,” he said. “There’s nothing it can’t do.”

When it came to playing the blues, you could say the same about Johnny Winter. “It’s a living music,” he once said of the genre. “For me, blues is a necessity.”

Order Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 here.

Great blues tone isn't rocket science – you just need to get a happening sound in your head, and then use the right tools to replicate the magic.

All great players have specific guitars, amps, and effects that are essential to their sound.

Some, like B.B. King, used the same setup for decades – in his case, a Gibson ES-355 through a Lab Series combo or a Fender Twin Reverb – while others tweak their systems incessantly in the pursuit of groovier tone.

Stevie Ray Vaughan favored one guitar – a Stratocaster – and a few key effects throughout his career, but he experimented a great deal with amps and speakers.

No matter which player you choose to emulate, it's important to understand that merely replicating every detail of their gear is no guarantee that you're going to sound exactly like them.

Tone is, after all, 90% touch and 10% hardware.

Buddy Guy would sound like himself no matter what equipment he used, and the same holds true for most great players.

Still, some guitars and amps can inspire you to play a certain way, and using rigs similar to the ones used by players you respect may help you zone in on a killer sound that can later be morphed into something uniquely yours.

ERIC CLAPTON

"Clapton Is God" graced many a structure in the late '60s, and for good reason – he practically wrote the book on how to play blues-rock electric guitar.

Attaining a credible Clapton sound requires that you first determine which period in his long career you like best.

During his time with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Clapton famously used a late-'50s Gibson Les Paul Standard through a model 1962 Marshall 2x12 combo.

Part of the secret here is that Clapton's amp was equipped with KT66 output tubes, which have a more refined midrange and clearer top end than either EL34s or 6L6s.

With Cream, Clapton went to high-volume heaven with 100-watt Marshall heads and 4x12 cabs.

He also used a Vox wah-wah and, occasionally, a fuzz.

After his Les Paul was stolen, Clapton played a '61 SG-style Les Paul, and then a Gibson ES-335 for Cream's farewell concert.

With Blind Faith, Clapton used a Gibson Firebird through a Fender Showman.

He then switched to maple-fretboard Strats through Fender tweed Champs during his Derek & The Dominos/"Layla" period.

Both setups yielded tones that rate among Clapton's best.

ALBERT COLLINS

The "Iceman" had one of the most original tones around – just listen to his fabulous sting on such classic cuts as "Frosty," "Too Many Dirty Dishes," "Iceman," and "Put the Shoe on the Other Foot."

Collins certainly did things his own way.

He played a beat-up Fender Telecaster, with a Gibson humbucker in the neck position, that he tuned to open Fm.

He used a capo – often at the fifth or seventh position – and he snapped and popped his strings with his thumb and forefinger.

Collins also favored '70s-era Fender Quad Reverb amps (100 watts into four 12s), and he used a 100' cord.

This latter detail allowed him to get friendly with the audience, while the added cable capacitance helped defrost his icy highs.

ALBERT KING

Almost every blues guitar player "borrows" something from Albert King – even Stevie Ray Vaughan based his blistering style on King's mammoth bends and lightning-bolt stabs.

Almost no one tries to duplicate the left-handed bluesman's gear, however, which isn't too surprising, considering that King played a flipped-over Gibson Flying V with the low-E string closest to the floor.

According to repair ace Dan Erlewine (who built King's replica V, "Lucy"), Albert strung his guitar .009, .012, .024W, .028, .038, .050, and tuned it C, F, C, F, A, D (low to high.)

Steve Cropper, who produced a number of King's albums, offers a different tuning – C, B, E, F#, B, E (low to high) – which he says allowed King to create a one-finger Em chord by raising F# to G. (Another important aspect of King's tone was that he played exclusively with his fingers.)

Onstage, King often plugged into an Acoustic 370 solid-state guitar amp driving a 2x15 enclosure with a built-in high-frequency horn – a real pawnshop prize!

While a Flying V is the way to go here, just about any quality, dual-humbucker guitar can be coaxed into the Albert zone.

Consider, however, that Otis Rush gets a chillingly similar sound with a Fender Strat!

Amps? That's a good question, as almost nothing available sounds anything like an old Acoustic 370.

Our advice is choose an amp (or amp channel) with enough clean headroom to preserve your note attack. Crank the volume, but go easy on the distortion – King's tone was big and bold, not squashed and compressed.

B.B. KING

The King of the Blues' sweet, singing tone stands out as one of the great guitar sounds of all time.

King's original tone recipe was a Gibson ES-355 through a long-discontinued Gibson Lab Series 2x12 combo amp.

From the '80s, he played a Gibson Lucille model stereo guitar, which features a TP-6 fine-tune tailpiece and no f-holes.

King used both pickups simultaneously and strung his guitar with light-gauge Gibsons (.009-.042).

Though he favored vintage Lab Series amps, he often ran through a Fender Twin Reverb onstage.

Replicating B.B. King's sound requires running your amp's output stage fairly hard, while avoiding the fuzzier distortion produced by high-gain channels or stompboxes.

T-BONE WALKER

Often called the father of electric blues, T-Bone Walker helped establish the guitar as a featured lead instrument in the 1940s.

Guitarists inspired by Walker's playing (or his flashy stage moves) include Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Billy Gibbons, Albert King, Otis Rush, Michael Bloomfield, and Duane Allman.

Walker cut his teeth on primitive acoustic-electrics, but his signature ax was a blonde, maple-bodied Gibson ES-5 that he bought at the peak of his career in the early 1950s.

Walker held the guitar perpendicular to his body (when he wasn't playing it behind his head or between his legs), and it's likely that he plugged into a Gibson tube amp.

T-Bone Walker forged the basic vocabulary of rock and roll using double-stops, half- and quarter-step bends, and his patented, third-to-second-string unison bends.

His unorthodox playing style probably created a little extra string lift and snap, and he preferred his tone dry, clean, and relatively bright compared to jazz guitar players of the time.

A deep-bodied guitar – preferably with P-90-style, single-coil pickups – running through a reasonably clean-sounding tube amplifier are essential ingredients for T-Bone tone.

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN

Stevie Ray Vaughan forged a sound that defines big blues tone.

Five basic ingredients are required here:

• Rosewood fretboard Fender Strat strung with heavy-gauge strings (Vaughan used GHS sets as heavy as .013-.060)
• Ibanez Tube Screamer overdrive (either a TS-9 or an older TS-808)
• Rotating speaker (he favored vintage Fender Vibratones, but you may wish to substitute a stompbox-sized simulator here)
• Vox wah wah pedal
• Fender tube amp with four 10" speakers

Vaughan often combined amps – Fender Super Reverbs with 1x15 Fender Vibroverbs, Marshall and Dumble rigs with Fender combos, and so on.

Heavy electric guitar strings are an important part of the Vaughan recipe, but remember that Stevie tuned down a half-step – you'll want to do the same if you plan on performing his gargantuan bends on girthy gauges.

Choose your Strat carefully for lightness and resonance, and set your amp's controls to produce a clear, beefy clang from the neck pickup. (Fender Super Reverbs do this naturally.)

Gibson has partnered with Halestorm singer, songwriter, and electric guitar player Lzzy Hale to create a unique new signature model, the Explorerbird.

The premise of the model is fairly simple, but a first for Gibson nonetheless: a mahogany Explorer body and mahogany Explorer neck, fitted with the headstock of a Firebird.

That mahogany neck sports a 12" radius, 24.75" Indian rosewood fretboard with 22 gold medium jumbo frets, accompanied – in a swanky touch – by gold acrylic dot inlays.

Sounds come by way of a pair of 70s Tribute humbuckers with gold screws and rods, at the mercy of the standard Explorer control layout of two volume knobs, a master tone knob, and a three-way pickup switch.

Aside from the inlays, frets, and pickup screws and rods, there's plenty of gold to go around elsewhere on the Explorerbird. The Tune-O-Matic bridge with Stop Bar tailpiece, Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners, and even strap buttons are all also given a nice gold finish. 

In another signature touch, the guitar's non-reverse Firebird truss rod cover also sports Hale’s signature.

“As synonymous as lipstick and leather, the Explorerbird brings two iconic worlds together,” Hale said of her new signature model in a statement. “This guitar is a statement and celebration of owning what makes you stand out. Because no one has ever made history by playing it safe.”

“The new Lzzy Hale Explorerbid is the result of two years of testing with Lzzy at the Gibson Lab, and on stage with Halestorm," added Gibson Brand President Cesar Gueikian. "We started with the idea of merging her favorite shape, the Explorer, with the iconic Gibson Firebird, and the result is this new guitar, in Cardinal Red. It sounds as epic as it looks!"

The Gibson Lzzy Hale Signature Explorerbird guitar is available now – in a Cardinal Red finish and with a Modern Series hardshell case included – for $2,799.

For more info on the model, visit gibson.com.

If you like in-depth interviews with great guitar players AND you like to hear them play, then you need to listen to our No Guitar Is Safe podcast.

Presented by Guitar Player and hosted by Jude Gold, No Guitar Is Safe is free to listen to at your leisure on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts.

With over 150 episodes uploaded there’s plenty to get your teeth into.

So far, just some of our featured artists include Joe Satriani, Nita Strauss, John 5, Robben Ford, Steve Morse, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Lita Ford, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Lukather, Zakk Wylde, Ace Frehley, Billy Duffy, Phil X, Celisse, Nile Rodgers and many, many more besides!

Episode 99 features Samantha Fish, the soulful Kansas City-bred blues guitar player/singer, plugging in and performing songs from her album Kill Or Be Kind (Rounder Records) as well as riffing on other cool staples of her live set.

Samantha also proves "War Pigs" can be performed in blues clubs and shares the funniest banana prank since Eddie Murphy's banana shenanigans in Beverly Hills Cop. (Actually, we think Samantha's prank is funnier than Eddie's.)

In this awesome clip, Samantha performs “Gone for Good” from her Belle of the West album on a brand-new Gibson Firebird.

Watch and learn!

To hear the complete one hour interview, subscribe to or stream No Guitar Is Safe wherever you get your podcasts. 

The neck of an electric guitar helps shape the instrument's acoustic voice. It is a primary tonal component, along with the body, bridge, fingerboard, and strings.

Differences in wood density and stiffness alter the way the neck translates string sound to the body.

Tone can vary greatly, even among necks of the same wood type. In most cases, harder materials such as maple produce a bright, clear sound. Mahogany and other softer wood impart more warmth.

You can find alternatives to traditional neck woods more easily today than in the past. Pau ferro (ironwood), rosewood, wenge, and fiber-composite necks are readily available on custom and production instruments.

Truss Rods

Within most necks lies a hidden tone component – the truss rod. 

Primarily designed to counter string tension, the truss rod system alters the neck's mass and stiffness.

It must always be under tension: a loose rod can resonate sympathetically with the strings, absorbing some frequencies and causing dead notes and weak sustain.

Two common designs are the two-piece double expanding rod and the single rod. A double expanding truss rod's stiffness and weight improves sustain. The single rod weighs less, which helps create a warmer tone.

Scale Length

Scale length is the string's speaking length from nut to saddle. The two traditional scales for solidbodies are 24 3/4" (Gibson) and 25 1/2" (Fender).

In addition to determining fret spacing on the fingerboard, scale length influences a guitar's overall timbre.

Many perceive 25 1/2"-scale guitars as sounding brighter and more transparent than 24 3/4" instruments, along with a sense of definition, cleaner bottom end and more clarity in the high notes.

According to other players and builders, the 24 3/4"-scale length imparts a strong midrange kick, delivering a "tight" sound with strong punch and warmth along with a precise, articulated sound.

Several manufacturers build professional quality guitars with scale lengths between 22" and 24 1/2".

The short-scale neck's closer fret spacing facilitates fingering for some players, and shorter string length imparts a chunky midrange quality to the overall tone.

At least one solidbody builder uses a 25"-scale length. "I chose it for feel," said Paul Reed Smith. "It sounds good and is comfortable for players used to the tension of either 24 3/4" or 25 1/2" scale."

Traditional bolt-on solidbody guitars used a 25 1/2"-scale length; likewise set-in neck designs historically featured the 24 3/4" scale.

For decades, guitar makers have created many hybrids of body style, neck/body joints, and scale length, so it's no longer practical to guess the scale length of a guitar by checking its design and features.

When in doubt, whip out a ruler and measure the string's speaking length.

Bolt-On Neck

The way a neck attaches to the body colors a guitar's voice. String vibration transfers to the body through the neck/body joint (as well as through the bridge).

Screws or bolts connect a separate neck and body to produce a bolt-on guitar, such as a Stratocaster or Telecaster. A good fit is critical.

For a bolt-on to have the best possible tone, the neck must fit tightly in the pocket and make good contact on all sides of the joint. Any gap will result in lost sound.

Neck-through-Body

A neck-through-body construction means the neck section continues all the way from the headstock to the strap button; small "wings" glued to the sides form the body.

Neck-through instruments work well in high-volume playing situations that call for definition and clear low end.

Some neck-through guitars such as Gibson's reverse Firebird models (see above), use a laminated mahogany neck section.

Set-Neck 

Set-neck construction refers to gluing the neck to the body, as with a Les Paul.

Some builders feel a set-in joint gives the guitar a "singing" quality – notes seem to swell after the pick attack until they reach their final amplitude.

Smooth, warm sustain with moderate attack are characteristics often attributed to set-neck guitars.

Beginning with his great grandmother's hundred-year-old Spanish acoustic guitar with a neck "all horribly warped like a bow," Texas blues rocker Johnny Winter (1944-2014) began stringing guitars as a child.

With allowance money earned by grass mowing and lugging out garbage, Beaumont, Texas' best-known guitarist began accumulating his giant record collection of rock and roll and blues.

A scholar of his instrument, he rapidly developed into one of the greatest blues guitar players the world has ever seen, inspiring countless others with his unforgettable live performances.

Known for his virtuosic technique, Winter began his storied recording career aged just 15.

Spending a lifetime in the music business, Winter certainly had some great advice to share with Guitar Player over the years.

The following interview extract originally appeared in our August 1974 issue…

1) Off the Record

“I would just learn how to play the record note-for-note. After I kind of got the feel of what was supposed to be going on, I just took what I heard and assimilated it, and I guess it would come out part mine and part everybody else's.

“There's nobody that really plays original. You can't. You can find some of everybody's licks in almost everybody's playing, but I tried to make it my own after I got the basic things down.”

2) A Man of Action

“I like real high action. I had it pretty high before I played slide, because I played hard. Just for pushing strings it's important for it to be high. When I have low action, I can't get my finger under the string to push it as well.

“I'm just lost on a guitar with low action. The main thing I worry about when getting guitars is how easy it is to push the strings, how many notes I can get.”

3) Taste Before Pace

“Kids are coming up with a lot more technical ability, but they don't know exactly how to use it, and how to fit it in with taste.

“I've talked to so many people who have been playing for a year-and-a-half or two years, and they're pretty fast, and they want to make it right. They don't realize that you've got to play, you've got to practice for years.

“You've got to play with other musicians, play a lot of different kinds of music, to really know what you're playing and why you're playing it. Not just throw in things and say, 'Look, man, I can play a bunch of notes, man! I can play as fast as Albert Lee!'"

4) It's All About the Love…

“You got to start out with the love for music. So many people just buy a guitar because they decided, ‘I want to be a rock and roll star. I'm going to learn how to play this son of a bitch.’

“And after they get a few runs down they think, ‘Okay, it's time for me to be a star.’

“You know, I was really ready to play for fifty bucks a week, if that's what it took. I wanted to be a rock and roll star, definitely, because I wanted to be accepted, and I wanted people to think I was good at what I did, but the basic drive and main thing was that I really liked what I was doing.”

5) …And the Vibrato

“It wasn't until about '67 that I started using my fingers. Up to that point I always used the tremolo bar. And about that time, to be a cool guitar player you had to use your fingers. It was cheating if you used the bar.

“So I wanted to be cool like everybody, so I figured, ‘If those guys coming up can do it with their fingers, let them! I'll learn to do it with my fingers, too! [laughs]

“I worked at it about a year getting better and better until I got to the point that the tremolo bar got in my way. It's harder to keep your guitar in tune with, so I'd really rather not use one, even though there are effects that are cool.”

Browse the Johnny Winter catalog here.

Eons ahead of its time when introduced in 1963, Gibson’s original Firebird has represented an iconic example of modernist electric guitar design ever since, remaining timeless and contemporary in equal measure.

And from the time Johnny Winter started setting stages ablaze with this revolutionary electric in the late ’60s, the blues guitar legend has served as the key reference point for what this radically angular and eclectically appointed instrument can do.

The Gibson Custom Shop has created the ultimate tribute to both the man and the instrument in the new Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V, and it’s a doozy of a guitar for anyone who has ever appreciated the equally unique look and voice of this classic.

The Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V isn’t merely a period-correct reissue of the original model; it’s also a pinpoint-perfect re-creation of Winter’s best-known ’64 Firebird V, a guitar used for countless gigs and sessions, and which appears in all its glory on the cover of the album Captured Live!

As such, the Gibson Custom Shop has fully replicated the holes in the body where the original Maestro vibrola was removed, the stop-bar tailpiece that replaced it, the missing reflector insert in the upper tone control knob, the faded Firebird logo on the pickguard, the splits in the wood where the original’s jack was once repaired and more.

The cosmetics are the skilled work of Gibson’s Murphy Lab, which has added a myriad of dings, scuffs and scrapes to the well-aged Polaris White finish to bring the authenticity home.

The original Firebird was created by Ray Dietrich, the automotive designer responsible for the Duesenberg and other classic cars.

Those built from 1963 to ’65 get their “reverse-body” nickname from the fact that the horns on the upper bout and treble-side protrusion on the lower bout appear the reverse of those found on a traditional guitar of the era (some note a resemblance to a flipped-over Jazzmaster).

The sleek lines continue in the six-to-a-side phoenix-head profile of the headstock, which used banjo tuners to avoid spoiling the esthetics.

Given the quirks of the original Firebird design, you can bet it’s no easy guitar to re-create accurately, and Gibson’s head of product development, Mat Koehler, concurs.

“I will say that in the great catalog of Gibsons made over the past 128 years, the original reverse-style Firebird is one of the most difficult to replicate,” Koehler tells GP.

“The nine-ply construction, the wings… It was clear that someone who was not a luthier designed that instrument. Ray Dietrich was a brilliant mind, but he did not make it easy on production,” he says with a laugh.

“That’s actually why Gibson moved to the non-reverse Firebird in 1965. At the Custom Shop, we are making them exactly how they were made in Kalamazoo in ’63, ’64, so this Johnny Winter has exactly the same woods, exactly the same construction, and it’s very, very true to his original.”

As vaunted as the Custom Shop’s reissue guitars have been for several years, Koehler tells us the step up to modern technology finally enabled Gibson to take the authenticity over the top, and it really shows here.

“For 2019, we totally revamped the entire range, including pickups and so forth, and that’s when we took a deep dive into the Firebird, so we corrected a lot of the little issues,” he reveals.

“We’ve now got a 3-D scanner, and were lucky enough to get access to the original Johnny Winter guitar, so in a couple of hours we had a 3-D map of the entire guitar.

“And then over the period of a couple weeks we cleaned that up and created programs out of it, for CNC and otherwise, so we were able to capture that and get the exact dimensions. So when you hold this Johnny Winter model, you’re holding the exact feel of the original, which is cool.”

Out of the case and into the hands, this thing certainly delivers on the vintage-Firebird experience. I’ve said this before about the Murphy Lab work, but if a pal came along and said, “Hey, check out the ’64 Firebird I just bought!” I would in no way doubt the veracity of the guitar upon popping open the gently aged rectangular case and lifting out this very instrument.

Not only does the aging look right, it also feels right: the softness of the body edges and angles, the palm-gracing curve of the medium-C ’64 neck profile and its comfortably rolled binding edges (another Murphy Lab “extra mile” detail that Koehler credits) – it all contributes to the time-machine experience this guitar delivers.

As Koehler indicated, the Firebird’s uniqueness goes far deeper than its looks and includes a complex “through neck” constructed from a nine-ply mahogany and walnut core that forms both the neck and the center of the body, with solid mahogany wings attached to its sides to complete the shape, all perfectly rendered here.

The neck is capped with a nicely dark Indian rosewood fingerboard edged in aged binding, with aged celluloid trapezoid inlays.

Equally significant to the original Firebird’s revolutionary design was the bespoke set of pickups Gibson created for it. Often mistaken for a fully covered rendition of the mini-humbucker that would end up on the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe at the dawn of the ’70s, it is in fact its own design, made with two hum-rejecting coils, each wound around its own Alnico bar magnet, which also takes the place of any pole pieces.

Many past Firebird reissues have carried hotter ceramic-magnet pickups, but Gibson has gone the whole nine yards here to re-create the vintage-style units with Alnico magnets and lower-output windings, resulting in pickups of 6.77k ohms in the neck position and 6.83k ohms in the bridge.

Controls are the traditional four-knob setup, with a three-way switch on the point of the lower horn.

In addition to the lightly aged rectangular hardshell case with “Johnny Winter” stenciled on the outside, the full package includes a certificate of authenticity, a print of legendary photographer Mick Rock’s iconic shot of Winter in action, a slide and a handful of Johnny Winter Dunlop guitar picks.

Played unplugged, the Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V is impressively resonant and lively, thanks no doubt to the veracity of the overall build, but likely aided by that stop-bar tailpiece modification, too.

Amped up through a Friedman Dirty Shirley Mini with a 1x12 cab and a 1966 Fender Super Reverb 4x10 combo, and teamed up with a variety of overdrive pedals, the model’s full promise paid off in spades.

Firebirds are quirky beasts, for sure, and even when you love them, in theory you can still pick up a particular example and go, “Nah, not working for me!” This Johnny Winter homage, then, would be the polar opposite of that experience. Which is to say, yeah, very much working for me.

In fact, I’d say this yielded the most satisfying Firebird-playing experience I’ve had since testing out a particularly nice vintage example from among a noted Firebird collector’s favorites some 12 years ago or more.

I suspect the accurately re-created Alnico pickups are helping a lot here, but either way, the guitar is characteristically bright without being the least bit harsh, as well as surprisingly thick and rich, with a hair of compression in the attack to make the legendary bite and sting sweetly musical.

Getting the formula so right, as Gibson has here, also serves as a reminder of how versatile a great Firebird can be – diving smoothly into everything from hard rock to blues to indie to jangle and twang – and it could open the door to this kind of retro-modern style for countless players who never thought they’d get along with the design… or, to 124 of them at least, if we can find a way to forget to send back this limited-run sample.

Well done, Gibson Custom Shop, on a fitting tribute to the Firebird master.

By any measure, it’s an outstanding guitar.

The Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V is available to order here.

Edgar Winter has unveiled the second single – "Mean Town Blues" – from his forthcoming Brother Johnny album. 

Available via Quarto Valley Records, the new LP is due to be released on April 15 this year and features a stellar line-up of guest musicians.

Among those paying tribute to the late, great bluesman on Brother Johnny are Robben Ford, Billy Gibbons, Keb’ Mo’, Steve Lukather, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Derek Trucks, Joe Walsh and Phil X.

The new single, “Mean Town Blues,” features Joe Bonamassa on slide guitar, Sean Hurley on bass, and Gregg Bissonette on drums.

“To me, this is one of the most important tracks on the album,” said Edgar Winter, “and probably the most difficult to replicate the original feel on.

“I wanted only guitar, bass, and drums, exactly like Johnny’s original blues trio. But I didn’t know of anyone out there who naturally played slide the way Johnny did.

“I thought Joe Bonamassa did such an incredible job with Johnny’s regular guitar style, I wonder if he could do the same thing with the slide? And amazingly, he did it!”

Curated by Edgar Winter and producer Ross Hogarth, Brother Johnny is a sonic celebration of one of the greatest electric blues guitar players in music history.

Retracing Johnny Winter’s evolution as a guitarist, this epic 17-track romp through the years is a touching homage from one brother to another.

Commenting on the song “Mean Town Blues” Edgar Winter said: “If there’s one song that best epitomizes and brings all those elements together to represent the many aspects of who Johnny was in the early days, that song would have to be “Mean Town Blues.”

“Every time I hear it, I think, now that’s Real Johnny Winter. It just captures the essence of everything he was.”

Stream the “Mean Town Blues” single here.

Pre-order Brother Johnny by Edgar Winter here.

Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs have unveiled a new track from their forthcoming album External Combustion.

Released via BMG, the band’s latest studio effort is due to land on March 4 this year and was recorded during the Summer months last year.

Tracked at Hocus Pocus Recorders – Campbell’s Los Angeles home studio – it follows up the Dirty Knobs' acclaimed 2020 debut long-player, Wreckless Abandon.

“Electric Gypsy” is the closing number from the new 11-track LP and is one of Campbell’s favorite songs on the record.

“The song came to me in a moment of inspiration before a session with the band,” commented Campbell, “and we recorded it that day in one take, guitar solo and all.”

While the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers co-writer composed a majority of the songs on External Combustion in recent months, a couple of tracks on the album were old compositions unearthed from the maestro’s vault.

Following the passing of his friend and bandmate Tom Petty, Campbell has increasingly thrown himself into the project. Consequently, on March 9 this year, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs will begin their first US tour.

You can pre-order Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs’ new album External Combustion here.

Born John Dawson Winter III in Beaumont, Texas in 1944, Johnny Winter was an early starter, picking up the guitar in his pre-teen years. At the age of 14, he formed his first band - Johnny and the Jammers – and recorded his first album at the tender age of 15.

Learning the ropes of club gigging in his formative years Winter soon began to sharpen up his act. “You had to be able to play a lot of different things in the clubs or you’d get killed,” he told Guitarist magazine in 1992.

Winter’s rollercoaster life took him on an incredible journey full of highs as he maintained his love for performing live throughout, from the festival stage of Woodstock to the B.B. King Blues Club. Gigging really was the lifeblood of his musical career.

Sadly, the great bluesman passed away on July 16, 2014, aged 70. He had given his final show only two days prior at the Cahors Blues Festival in France, and the amazing rendition of Robert Johnson's “Dust My Broom” captured here proves Winter was able to deliver inspirational performances right up until the end.

Though clearly suffering from ill health in his later years Winter continued to dazzle crowds with his incredible slide licks – his matchless tone shining through as he tore up and down the neck of a ‘reverse’ Gibson Firebird V.

Winter’s killer slide playing inspired generations of blues guitar fans, cementing his status as one of the most influential guitarists in music history. And in honor of the great man himself, the Gibson Custom Shop has recently announced the release of the Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V replica guitar.

Head over to Gibson for more information on the Gibson Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V. You can currently order an instrument from this limited run of 125 Murphy Lab replica guitars from Guitar Center here. 

Blues guitar hero Johnny Winter is synonymous with the Gibson Firebird. Well renowned for his dazzling display of slide licks and lightening fast fretboard work Winter began his recording career at the age of 15 and rose to prominence in the late ‘60s after releasing his debut album The Progressive Blues Experiment in 1968.

Paying tribute to the inimitable bluesman the Gibson Custom Shop has released the Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V. Sporting a Murphy Lab custom-aged Polaris White finish this replica electric guitar is a finely detailed recreation of Winters’ own iconic axe. From the faded Firebird pickguard emblem to the vibrato hole plugs this collectible work of art is the closest any fan will get to the real thing.

Reflecting the sleek, angular geometry of classic cars the Gibson Firebird line was released in 1963 comprising four models, all sporting a through-neck construction and bespoke mini humbuckers. This included the single pickup/dot inlay Firebird I; the double pickup/dot inlay Firebird III; the double pickup/trapezoid inlay Firebird V; and the triple pickup/block inlay Firebird VII.

Originally appearing in the ‘reverse’ style (meaning the treble horn extends further than the bass horn, while the lower bass bout extends beyond the lower treble bout) Gibson reworked the design in 1965. This later ‘mirror image’ incarnation of the Firebird became known as the ‘non-reverse’ style and features a glued-in neck, making it far easier and less costly to manufacture.

A little over 500 Firebird V models were shipped during 1964 making it a rare vintage guitar. Similarly, this limited run of 125 instruments makes the Gibson Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V an even rarer bird. Allocated “JWFB”-prefixed serial numbers each guitar is supplied with a corresponding certificate of authenticity.

A bespoke case stenciled “J. Winter Firebird” contains some interesting candy, including an 8x10 photograph signed by the late, great photographer Mick Rock, a signature Dunlop slide and Johnny Winter/Gibson Custom Dunlop picks.

For more information head on over to Gibson.

You can currently order an instrument from this limited run of 125 Murphy Lab replica guitars from Guitar Center here.

Grab a copy of Johnny Winter's Captured Live! here.

On this day, in 1967, the world’s first supergroup – comprising Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker – released their breakthrough second album, Disraeli Gears. A touchstone of ‘60s psychedelia this hard rock masterpiece broke the power trio in America and became a top-ten platinum-selling classic.

And yet despite the band’s success all was not well in the Cream camp. Part way through their gargantuan Spring 1968 US tour the end was already in sight when they decided to call it a day. 

Forming in July 1966, the group spent a mere two years making music together before officially announcing their forthcoming disbandment in July 1968.

Later, in October 1968, Cream set out on their American “Farewell" tour. Returning to England the following month, they played their final two shows of the era on home turf. 

"On 26 November, 1968, Cream played their final two shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London," wrote Clapton in his 2007 autobiography. "Before the gig started, I just wanted to get it over with, but once I was up on stage, I became quite excited. I thought it was great that we could do this and keep our heads high, and walk away from the whole thing with a fair amount of good grace."

For the sake of posterity, the BBC captured both of the band’s performances and the footage was later assembled into a rockumentary that was screened on UK television in 1969.

Bruce later recalled that by this stage the reaction to Cream was so great “we looked at each other and thought 'Are we doing the right thing?' There was a feeling of regret but nobody was able to step forward and say 'Oh, let's not do this!'"

Indeed, the crowd’s reaction to their rendition of the top ten single “Sunshine of Your Love” says it all.

As the BBC narrator in this clip points out, “The Cream have played together for only two years, but in that time have almost singlehandedly given rock a musical authority which only the deaf cannot acknowledge... Eric Clapton: a 23-year-old ex-stained-glass window designer, rated by most as the finest instrumentalist of his kind in the world.” 

Although Cream were originally together for a relatively brief period their heavy, psychedelic blues style became a huge influence on electric guitar players as rock music progressed throughout the ‘70s.

And with its signature blues-based riff ploughed through a wall of Marshall amplifiers “Sunshine of Your Love” ultimately set a template for hard rock and metal.

Buy Disraeli Gears and other Cream classics here.

Some guitarists find large pedalboards difficult to negotiate. But in high heels? While strapped with a reverse Gibson Firebird VII? In front of a massive festival crowd? Hats off to PJ Harvey.

“Yeah, exactly. That was quite a heavy thing, and she’s not a big person,” agrees PJ Harvey drummer and co-producer Rob Ellis.

In this unforgettable performance at the UK’s 2003 V Festival, PJ Harvey goes beyond effortless cool as she outright owns the festival with a rendition of “Dress” from her debut album Dry. 

Alongside Ellis and bassist Mick Harvey it was PJ Harvey returning to form in the guise of a power trio.

You guys are on fire here. What do you remember from this period?

“I remember that tour well. We went back to the original three-piece idea: bass, guitar, and drums. For Polly and I it was like revisiting the original line-up after we stopped being a three-piece in ’93. It was back to basics.

I played the best gig of my life on that tour. The three of us had been watching the Led Zeppelin DVD on the bus just before we went onstage and then we went out and played this blistering performance. 

It was always a very physical thing playing drums with Polly, and I remember I had absolutely no stage nerves for the first time ever in front of a huge crowd. We were just completely going for it. Suddenly everything coalesced between the three of us.

It certainly appears as if there’s some great chemistry happening between the three of you…

I think we all had a lot of confidence, and Polly was a lot more relaxed. It was about five albums in. It was in between Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and Uh Huh Her. It felt like Polly and I had come full circle, like we were admitting we had this musical relationship which worked really well.

Tell us about the song “Dress” – one of the first things you worked on with PJ Harvey…

Yeah, “Dress” was one of the very first things we did. I co-produced it. That whole recording process was a mixed bag of different people being involved but there was a core of me and Polly and a few others.

It was recorded at The Icehouse in Yeovil [Somerset, UK]. It was [Howard 'Head' Bullivant] Head’s place. He put a studio together in the ‘80s and we used to hang out there a lot. We started hanging out with Polly later on, and that’s where we did those first recordings.

Was the entire Dry album recorded in Yeovil?

We did four songs there initially and one of those was “Dress.” All four ended up on Dry. We actually rerecorded the whole album in London but ended up scrapping it and going back to Yeovil to record the other songs there. 

We recorded in London because Polly had moved there for her sculpture course. I think she was living in Tottenham. At that point, Polly’s rig was very basic. It was just a hollowbody Gretsch electric guitar and a Marshall amp.

Buy Dry here.

It’s an odd twist of the space-time continuum when the “non-reversed” creation comes after the “reversed” original. But such was the case with Gibson’s iconic Firebird electric guitar line-up. The company tore up the world of guitar design in 1963 with Ray Dietrich’s automotive-inspired blueprint for the “reverse-bodied” Firebird, so-called because its body and headstock resembled those of a Fender Jazzmaster or Jaguar turned upside-down.

In early 1965, Gibson settled back into the reality that guitarists were actually fairly conservative and unveiled the “non-reverse” Firebird. The Firebird III model from that debut year has more conventional body lines in terms of its offsets and horn proportions. That said, it’s still an unusual ’Bird, and another vintage Gibson possessed of its own unbridled sense of cool.

Like the first Firebird series, this one came in several configurations, ranged as the odd-numbered I, III, V and VII (apparently, even numbers just aren’t hip). The I and III had two and three P-90 pickups, respectively, while the V and VII had two and three Firebird mini-humbuckers, plus fancier Lyre tailpiece covers. The VII was adorned with gold-plated hardware. Otherwise, all of the new non-reverse Firebirds had simpler construction and were likely less expensive for Gibson to manufacture.

Notable changes included:

• A traditional glued-in neck joint rather than the neck-through-body construction of the previous reverse-body Firebirds, where the neck blank extended all the way through the body’s central core

• An upward-facing, six-in-line headstock instead of the reversed headstock

• Traditional nickel-button Kluson tuners in place of the deluxe “banjo” tuners found on the reversed-headstock ’Birds

• P-90 pickups on the more common models as opposed to the mini-humbuckers on all reverse-body Firebirds

• Simple dot fretboard inlays on all models versus the trapezoid and block inlays of the reverse V and VII, respectively

For all that, though, the non-reverse Firebirds of 1965–’69 are undeniably groovy instruments. While they don’t have quite the same radical chic of the earlier reverse-bodied models, they possess their own appealing style and are preferred by some players.

They have also been less expensive on the vintage market, although that is rapidly changing. You could essentially consider the two-pickup Firebird I an SG Special twisted into a different and arguably more interesting shape, given the hardware and pickup complement it shares with that model. The Firebird III is much the same, with the bonus of a third P-90 in the middle position.

For many, the third pickup, as originally wired by Gibson, is less of a bonus than its potential implies, as you still only get three switch selections: neck, bridge and middle together, and bridge. It might look cool, but some players will miss the “both-on” middle position of a two-pickup guitar. Others have modified these ’Birds with five-way switches for latter-day Strat-like combinations.

More noteworthy guitarists played the reverse-bodied Firebird, but the non-reverse version was popular with several important blues and rock players. The great Gatemouth Brown almost invariably created his blend of swing and jump blues on a self-modded non-reverse Firebird, while Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones played both varieties. Warren Haynes, Paul McCartney and Noel Gallagher have also been caught strapping on NR ’Birds, and the model has even occasionally been found in the hands of Johnny Winter, who was perhaps the ultimate ambassador of the earlier reverse-bodied ’Bird.

Essential Ingredients

• “Non-reverse” Firebird body styling
• Solid mahogany body
• Glued-in mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard
• Six-in-line Kluson tuners on bird-beak headstock
• Three single-coil P-90 pickups
• Maestro Vibrola tailpiece
• Phoenix-graphic on pickguard

Head over to Gibson's website for a look at their current non-reverse model, the 1965 Non-Reverse Firebird V w/ Vibrola.