So as briefly mentioned in another thread, I had the pleasure of receiving a new Firebird on Friday, for the princely sum of $439 plus the pleasure of a quick blast in the Alfa over the Rimatakas to Masterton.
It's a Tokai, and I'm pretty sure it's an FB53, although I can't confirm that. It came with easily the oldest, most encrusted strings I've ever seen, so those were swiftly removed, to avoid Tetanus, and whatever flavour of finger AIDS is floating around Masterton currently. It also came with an SKB hardcase, with the rather impressive lockdown clips, modified from an explorer shape. It works awesomely, except it didn't have a handle on it. I've put an old suitcase handle on it for now, may look at doing something a bit more permanent down the track, but it does the trick for now.
Here, have a perve:
So, after a good couple of days with it.
Pros:
It's a freakin' Firebird!!!
Sits really nicely, no pronounced neckdive
Good Weight
Suits my monkey arms nicely
Pretty decent sounding bridge pickup, especially for stock
Despite actually being quite small, the neck is really nice, good C profile, fits my hand well
It's a Firebird!
Cons:
The dreaded Tokai nut. Yep, rattly and tight at once, not sure how they managed that. It could do with being replaced I suspect. Really effects the acoustic sound, and in turn will no doubt effect the plugged in sound. It sounds choked unplugged. Also, goes out of tune a lot.
As previously mentioned, once the neck pickup is introduced, sounds as if the neck tone pot is turned off, and won't turn back on. Have included a picture above, that is probably too blurry to really be able to see if there's anything glaringly obvious.
Jack was crackly, have fixed that though
Pickup switch was loose and moving all over the place, but have also fixed that, however have attached a dodgy picture above to see if it's causing any issue with the above problem.
Somewhat annoyingly,and I've never noticed it before, but the edges of the neck seem really sharp, they're definitely not rolled. No doubt I'll have to play the balls off it to get them rounded down a bit.
The tuners. Yep, they look a bit bung as one is crooked, and they are a bit loose, as in there's play before they take up the slack. I like the shape, and am hoping that nut replacement will sort the tuning issues.
Despite the long list of faults, I'm really digging it. It has an awesome vibe about it, and it's so much fun to pick up. It sits really nicely in between the Gretsch and the Burns tone wise, with the Gretsch being a bit janglier, the Burns, in humbucking mode, a bit fatter and darker. So all up, awesome guitar, and will get better as the niggling faults are rectified.
