Let’s Talk About Gibson Firebirds… With Dave Gregory!
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- Firebird history and tones with the ex-XTC leg-end!
Welcome to the show. This one has been a loooong time coming. Gibson’s Firebird is perhaps the company’s best loved oddball to date. It was introduced in 1963 and adopted by players as diverse as Phil Manzanera, Johnny Winter and Brian Jones.
Now, Dan and I are almost entirely ignorant of this beautiful bird, so what better way to get schooled than invite our wonderful friend, Dave Gregory, to Schwangri-La? Dave talks us though his five Firebirds by way of telling the Firebird story. Needless to say, Dan and I now want to be part of it.
Enjoy the show!
There are no rig annotations today - it should be easy to understand. The signal runs right to left on the pedalboard, and you can see what’s on. The ABY Baby is simply the two channels of the Matchless: B is the 12AX7 channel; A is the EF86 channel.
Gibson Firebirds at Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/75ZgkQ
Gibson Firebirds at Andertons: bit.ly/4btLJmV
Pedals & Stuff used in this show
• TheGigRig Three2One
www.thegigrig.com/three2one
• Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner (link to TU-3)
UK & Europe: bit.ly/3RRfur2
Australia: bit.ly/2B06quU
USA: sweetwater.sjv.io/3eG1rd
• Boss CS-2 Compression Sustainer (link to CS-3)
UK & Europe: bit.ly/4cLuui4
USA: sweetwater.sjv.io/oq7d6m
• Dinosuaral Cogmeister
UK & Europe: bit.ly/3Lbsfsx
• Echo Fix EF-P2 Spring Reverb
UK & Europe: bit.ly/45zErwt
Australia: bit.ly/3RAhCTD
• TheGigRig ABY Baby
www.thegigrig.com/aby-baby
Amps used in today’s show
• Matchless C30 & 1x12 cab with Celestion G12H-75 Creamback
Interesting bits and go to sections…
0:00 Intro
1:50 Welcome Dave Gregory!
3:00 What’s a Firebird?
5:25 Designed by Ray Dietrich
6:50 Firebird 1 1964
10:30 Lightning Bolt bridge
12:20 Let’s hear it
14:20 Using the tone control
15:30 Eric Clapton with a Firebird I
17:43 1963 Gibson catalogue
19:25 Dave and his Firebirds
26:15 Firebird models
30:50 Let’s all have a go
36:15 Non-Reverse
38:20 P90s VS Firebird pickups
48:00 Vocal midrange
50:00 Using three pickups
58:00 Dave’s ‘The Disappointed’ guitar
1:01:00 Firebird V
1:06:30 All hail the Cogmiester!
1:09:00 D&M on Firebird V
1:13:10 Totally unique in the Gibson world
1:14:20 Epi Firebird VII
1:23:10 What are it’s strengths?
1:27:00 Dan’s Matchless
1:27:30 Firebird case - guitar breaker!
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UK & Europe: Andertons Music bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
Australia: Pedal Empire bit.ly/2mWmJQf
The world needs Dave Gregory .
I’d like to propose a new TPS Tuesday episode format: Dave du Jour, in which Mr. Gregory schools us for 10 minutes on a cool guitar and everyone has a nice play.
Love this week's show you could have Dave on all the time and it is a pleasure to watch. He is so humble and knowledgeable!!
Yeah, he’s ace 👍
He is ace and I love this style. Deep dives into a particular guitar, pedal or amp with a special guest
It was really noticeable how much Dave loved watching Mick & Dan getting into his guitars. Seems like a warm, generous soul.
Totally!! Only matched by Dan’s smile when he was holding two of them!
@That Pedal Show TPS is the best show on youtube!!! Thanks gents!!!
Amazing! I rewatch that first video with Dave a dozen times a year at this rate! What a true gentleman and incredible player.
These TPS episodes with Dave Gregory are like mini (and fun!) documentaries. Ken Burns needs to make an electric guitar doc and have Dave on the roster of interviewees!
As a Reverse Firebird owner it was a joy to hear Dave’s experience of these crazy but wonderful guitars. What a lovely, down to Earth guy he is.
Love my reverse! Amazing tone, playability and style!!🎉
I didn’t know what was coming for todays episode…
Saw is was Dave and dropped EVERYTHING.
Dave Gregory is a Treasure! ❤❤❤
In life, I am committed to use the Internet to hear every Dave Gregory interview about any old thing. He just sparks such joy for me. What a killer show! This Firebird world as so foreign and so fascinating. I care about everything about this, but I am here for the joy and the love!!!!
Though you've had stellar guests the last few months, frankly those featuring Dave Gregory are for me, the best. He can out-play and out-geek all of us!
David Gregory is one of the best guests you guys have had. He is always enjoyable and knowledgeable.. and a great player, to boot! Please keep bringing him back.
Moo!
This is awesome. I could sit and listen to Dave Gregory talk about and play guitar all day.
Dave Gregory and Firebirds, I'm in my happy place today
I love your shows, Dave Gregory is such a gentle soul, lovely gentleman. I could listen to him talk about guitars all day long.
I heard someone describe the tone of firebird as sort of the strat of gibson, and now I know what they meant, thanks to Dave. Love you guys!
Dave's kindness, knowledge and humility shine so bright, it is hard not to love him. Having met him briefly at (what turned out to be the last) Tin Spirits gig at The Victoria in Swindon I can attest to the fact this comes across in person too. Just wonderful!
What a pleasure this video and Dave's company, I want a Firebird now!
Mick, Dan, your value has become dear. Headphones on all the way through. It's a feast. Pauses aplenty to study XTC, Big Big Train cuts on Spotify, a little bio reading on Wiki, and I settled in to learn the nuances of Firebirds. Dave's in my age sandbox. I'm connected to you two already, gosh just an uplifting 90+ minutes. You dialed the Matchless and my ears jumped for joy with memories of the tones in classic beloved tunes. It's 2:15PM here in the states. I meet my Music Teacher at 7:30AM in the morning. I'm gonna share this episode with her because music is ageless, crosses all generations. She's just 25 and a degreed music theorist. And then at Service on Sunday, my tour mate of 23 years who is 73 will love this. Your content is peerless, honestly classic and ageless. WE find ourselves set sail on the sea of privilege. Absolutely Grand!
Hey Samuel, Mick here. Just want to take a minute to thank you for these thoughts, for sharing the moments that have connected you with us, with Dave, with music and with your teacher. We’d never have dreamed that this bit of fun we started to have almost 10 years ago could ever resonate on such a fundamental level. I just had a feeling of satori that connected us all in that moment thanks to your kind words. Big love from us!
If you have a guitar with a PAF at the bridge and a Firebird PU at the neck you never get any mud because you set your PAF to be killer fat on the neck. The neck is NEVER spikey because the gain of the amp takes that completely away but leaves you a nice bright high end with great definition when doing chords. It all works so incredibly well that it is beyond common sense that Gibson has not offered it on a guitar.
Back in the Cream days Eric Clapton was very kind as he let me have 15 minutes to play his Firebird at the end of a Cream concert. I was playing an LP at the time and was having issues with mud in my neck PU and it gave me the idea.
Excellent show. Dave was an absolute pleasure to watch & listen to. I learned more about the Firebird guitars in this 1-1/2 hours than I learned in the past 50+ years.
Dave is a treasure. All sunshine. And I love how he sneaks a tasty flurry of notes in just when you don’t expect it.
I was absolutely thinking the same thing. He is a treasure for sure.
Fantastic episode, Dave G. is such a cool guy. The Firebirds were all amazing looking but all sounded very different, such a versatile range of tones from them all 👍🎸😄
Mick Taylor’s insight and analysis is just mindblowing. A lifetimes knowledge and experience there for free, every single week. Thanks Mick. (Luv ya too Dan!)
Bless you Ged, thank you!
Loved this one! Dave seems like such a genuinely lovely man.
What an intro! I can tell by the smiles on everyone’s faces how good that sounded in the room. Rock on Dave. Dead set living legend.
AWESOME! Love Dave and his knowledge, and his Pooh Bear voice should say Oh Bother lol. Great video for the ages guys!
A gifted player who made it to the top and STILL has the enthusiasm we had as kids when we first got the bug for amazing guitars...love this guy!
Saw the "... with Dave Gregory" in the title and couldn't have clicked faster. Welcome back, Dave!
Great episode! Also hats off to you guys managing not to knock the guitars together even once despite the amount of shuffling around and how long and awkward they are. No small feat, that!
This is mega. Thank you all. 👏🏻
Now everyone that doesn't already own every XTC album: Go out and buy them!
What a lovely chap! Awesome show as always. Thanks, guys!
You’re not alone Dave. You’d have to have no ears at all to think woods don’t impact tone enormously. Those things scream mahogany! Excellent video as ever. Always a pleasure to see Dave.
Tones to die for. Goodness
Great video. Love me some Firebird action.I think Johnny Winter and Paul Stanley made me take notice of them.
I've never felt more smug....I'm sat watching this with a lovely cup of coffee in my house just outside Swindon ...to my left, sat next to me, is my Firebird 1, which is one of the most inspiring , stunning and yet simple of all guitars and on the floor in front of me is my pedal board...and guess what takes pride of place ...yup it is my cogmeister hooked into my neunaber spring reverb... I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better....maybe if I had a matchless but then my Peavey valveking does a pretty Stella job.....and guess what I learnt about two weeks ago... If I pretty much roll the treble all the way down and turn the amp up It sounds otherworldly....it's a hell of a sound for classic rock...thank you for sharing such a great video and letting all the TPS audience into one if the best kept secrets...see Swindon isn't that bad....we know a thing or two here.... 😁
Yay Dave. So nice to see you again! You’ve given us so much great guitar playing and for that I thank you.
I remember watching the old videos Dave was apart of on repeat for a few weeks, and it’s always a pleasure to see more of him on the show.
It’s so great to see Dave again!
What joyful playing from such an authentic storyteller. Great episode guys!
I’ve been anxiously awaiting this episode for quite a while. I was not disappointed at all. So great to hear the guitar and the stories Dave shared. Being of a later vintage than Firebird it’s so special to be able relive something of that through His memories. Thanks for putting this together guys!
My first time seeing Dave-what a gentleman! I really like him and his Firebirds.
Hell yeah! Firebirds for everyone!
Thank you, Dave, for (finally) explaining the model numbering of the Firebird/Thunderbird range!
What a delightful gent. Fantastic show!
Fantastic episode, I knew very little about Firebird’s before this and Dave’s knowledge and passion is wonderful
OMG. Just blown out of my mind over this show amongs shows!
Amazing and heartwarming. Dave seems such a wonderful guy. Revealing, as well, what with all that contemplation of "chopping".
It's such a joy to watch you guys playing these instruments and to experience how happy you still are to try new(old) stuff. It seems that the whole thing never get's old to you. TPS - still one of the most joyful and best guitar related shows in youtube land. Carry on!!!👏👏👏👏👏
What a wonderful man, Dave… am a huge fan. Love your show, love the conversations and find them extremely useful. Cheers!
It's Firebird Day with the Greeeat Dave Grergory!! Excellent!! I have the Supersession DVD - It's chaotic bliss!! Thanks for sharing this wonderful episode
I love Firebirds too. Thanks for a great show. I listened to the whole thing. Dave is a cool dude. Nice playing by all of you!
Awesome. I’ve been playing an Epiphone Firebird for about a year and I love it. Cant wait to watch this!
Great show guys! Some killer tones from those awesome vintage Firebirds!
Proud owner of a spledid Ferrari Red Non Reverse Firebird (not vintage unfortunatelly, one of the 2015 Gibson made for the Japanese market).
When i got it 4 years ago (it came from a Uk store and it was an NOS, i don't know why no one bought it) it was such a different playing experience. I felt like my whole body was shifted to the left. I loved the look but found hard to play. Now, i cannot live without it. I love the tone that i have now with proper wiring and proper firebird pickups (not the terrible ceramic one that Gibson use/used).
They are such amazing guitar.
I heard a proper vintage Reverse Firebird live once played by Martin Gore of Depeche Mode in a stadium. I was in the front raw and when he was rocking out with the Firebird into his rig (i think he plays some kind of Rivera amp) i felt like someone was ripping my face out. It was a proper rock n roll experience.
Dave, thanks for being here! Big XTC fan been to Swindon, know Andy well. Questions are the mini humbuckers from the Epi NYC years, like the LP Deluxe?
There is a ToneQuest interview with Gibson engineers about the wrap around bridge and how they worked it out to sound like a Tele string through.
Dave, XTC was hitting my ears at that time.
Dave, I think TonePros has a screw with a larger diameter top which helps a ton to keep the bridge vertical and true.
Not a fan of slide switches always seemed cheap to me.
Dave, Mick & Dan thanks great show!
My friends dad was asked to join XTC as guitarist back in the day I assuming before they found Dave
This fact always blows my mind
What a sight to find on my notifications, a video about Firebirds and Dave Gregory in one video
what a sight
Amazing to hear these stories. You guys deserve major thanks for documenting such detailed and important insights.
Oh no, my gas is flaring up again!
Also what a lovely player (and person) Dave Gregory is, really a joy to listen to him play
Always happy to see Dave on the show. He seems like such a friendly guy. I'd point him to Music City Bridge products (produced by Glaser Instrument Repair out of Nashville) that might help some of his firebird issues. Especially their locking bridge studs that eliminate tilting and the studfinder wraparound bridge - developed in cooperation with Uncle Larry. Thanks for what you do!
Great show, many thanks. Although I first met Dave 60 years ago, I never did see him in XTC. I loved attending Tin Spirits gigs every time I could, wonderful. I also saw Dave play in the Swindon based The Teddy White Band". Fabulous and memorable times. Thank you all again.
Such a great show. I really appreciate what y’all do! It has helped me so much on my musical journey!
Best video I've seen in ages! Dave is like kid in a candy shop, and I learned so much from his presentation style. I've never owned a Firebird, but I'm interested in them now.
Awesome Episode ! Dan & Mick, You Are Just Brilliant to come every week with an original and educational episode. TPS is much more than just talking about gear ! Tnx A Lot.
Great tone that these instruments produce! Very unique, very clean.
Great episode! Thank you!
Amazing piece gents. Thank you kindly.
This was a great show. The Face of Dave’s face when you both played the firebird one was a joy to watch. Please ensure that when you have guests, we all want to see you both play their gear. It’s important and joyful to watch
Thanks Leg End and especially Mr Dave, what a wonderful show I remember drooling over a Firebird at John Beebe's Guitar shop in Crouch End ( London ) in about 1973 or possibly 1974 this was when Crouch End was as cheap as chips. Long before Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox opened their recording studio, in fact the church that their studio was in was still being used as an Animation studio it's where Trumpton and Campbellwick Green were made ( Sorry enough history although I think The KINK'S konk studio was up and running at that time ) anyway thanks again. P.S WHAT A PLAYER DAVE IS . PEACE AND LOVE TO EVERYONE ❤❤.
Great episode! I built a firebird VII from a kit and did a heather poly nitro finish and mojotone Johnny Winter firebird pickups. I wired mine with 3 volumes and a master tone so that the middle pickup can be blended in, in any position. So with the volume off on the middle pickup it’s a standard Gibson two pickup setup but can blend in the middle pickup.
That was lovely. As well as getting a comprehensive guide to all the original models released, we got plenty of music history attached to these wonderful guitars as well. Dave seems like a proper humble gent, who loves to share his passion to anyone who wants to listen… we’re all ears!
I was blissfully unaware of these guitars. Now i’m spoiled and have to have one! Damn you Dan and Mick!
That firebird 1 absolutely loved Mick. So interesting. Great video guys. Thanks!
Great stuff. Loved this.
Really, really liked and appreciated this episode. Firebirds are my favorite, and to see an entire TPS episode dedicated to them made my day. Thank you for taking the time out to do a deep dive into this admittedly niche guitar, and treat it with genuine interest and respect (so often, people see a Firebird and go "oh yeah, those things. Some people like them, I guess. Johnny Winter." and then that's the end of the analysis. Not you guys though, and that's why y'all are the best.
I was looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. My Karl Longbottom Fulvia has Firebird style pickups, which is a very cool, unique sounding offset.
So strange! I bought a firebird v today jump in the van to put you guys on and yer latest video is about Firebirds.....mental. they are a beast of a guitar. Delighted!
Watched Ron Wood ripping it up on a firebird last night in Vancouver. 30 years earlier my first concert was the Rolling Stones 1994 tour in the same stadium. Last nights show was just as amazing…and even had me tearing up during Wild Horses. They played as many different guitars as I’ve probably seen through a show. One thing that was clear is that Mick, “Keef” and Ronnie still got it.
My word what a resonant guitar especially that single pickup version played by mr Gregory……..awesome.
Cool show! I’ve never ever seen a Firebird in the wild! Thanks!
Great to see the Firebird get the props it deserves! 😎
Damn hell yasssss! The massive Johnny Winter fan in me is super stoked on this ep.! Good work, gents!
Made me happy to see the trusty old CS-2. My favorite comp, and I have owned most comps.
The non-reverse is the best! Thanks for doing an entire show about them!!!
(and I'm a guy that hates blues licks!)
Love that Dave knows all about them.
I think McCartney used a left handed non-reverse on the RAM album in the photos I've seen.
The sound Dave had at the beginning was absolutely great - I love mini humbuckers. Proper dirty!
Firebird pick ups are a humbucking pickup unto themselves. Different than a PAF mini humbucker.
Thanks so much TPS gang for giving us this wonderful history lesson (with some great playing)! I've been mesmerised by the Firebird ever since I saw that amazing photo of Phil Manzanera on the inner sleeve of For Your Pleasure, but never tried one. As an SG and Jazzmaster fan I think I'd dig it!
Great surprise to see Dave G back on the stool! Awesome show! Such a gracious guy and awesome player! The P90 version was tits!
Always great when Mr. Gregory visits.
"Ernie's" an all! 😂
Best. Simon in Australia.
This is fantastic!
On my TPS Friday I watched the football and missed this😱. It will have to be self-flagellation Saturday or I can just watch England this evening for my penance. Love Dave Gregory so I'll watch this more than once no doubt.
A great talk through the Firebird history
I think it's worth mentioning that the great Tom Bukovac has been known to change the pots in a firebird to 250k ohms in order to mellow out the piercing top end, to great effect one might say
Dave! How cool! What a nice surprise! I’d love to see a show where he discusses his use of the Line 6 Pods to record albums.
That’s such precise playing! Good work sir 🫡
Now I want a non-reverse.
Yes! Been waiting so long for Firebird's to be on here
That was great!
What a wonderful human being and a great episode.
That opener played by Dave, had all the tone i could ever need for a blues, all i can say is wow wow wow.
My favorite episode of the year so far ! (John Smith and Chris Buck are close though ^^)
I have always been fascinated by firebirds pickups and this was a treat ! Really helps me in my voyage trying to get my first "vintage" an ES 325 that surprisingly has the same mini humbuckers.
You guys are just the best, from the bottom of my heart thank you ! 👍