This is a 100% all original 1963/1964 Firebird VII and about the coolest guitar on the planet...

PJ Harvey looks so cool with the VII. And 60 years ago Brian Jones played one. So did Ronnie Wood when he was with The Faces in the 70's. And let's not forget Keith Richards when he still was known to be as Keith Richard (thanks to Andrew Loog Oldham, quoted saying: “Richards... That’s not very ‘pop,’ innit. Besides, Cliff Richard does allright with that name, doesn’t he?”)

And they're not just cool looking. These birds sound awesome as well!

Gibson only made about 20 Firebird VII's in 1963 and 173 in 1964. Given the change from Reverse to Non-Reverse in January '65, it is safe to say there are only about 200 original Gibson Reverse VII's ever made on this planet. If they all survived that is. Let alone one with an intact headstock... There's super limited edition Les Paul’s that have more copies!

Gibson launched the Firebird design in 1963 with four main models: the Firebird I, II, V, and VII. Each was distinguished by different pickup and hardware configurations, though they all shared thru-body construction and a unique "reversed" body shape with a large lower horn.

Of those, the Firebird VII was the top-of-the-line model and used gold hardware, a bound neck with block inlays on an ebony fretboard, a "long" Maestro vibrato tailpiece, and three Firebird pickups - not to be confused with more standard "mini-humbuckers" that Gibson would use later on Les Paul Deluxe models.

This super early 1964 Gibson Firebird VII has some super sweet ageing, checking, craquelé, dings and small dents throughout the original glossy sunburst finish front and back of the body and neck. The gold hardware has nicely aged over the years and looks very nice. These birds are built with a mahogany body and a 9-piece mahogany/walnut/mahogany C-shape neck-through construction, full 42,8mm nut width, bound ebony fretboard, block inlays and headstock truss rod adjustment. All these birds have a super nice low action and it plays ever so easy..

There are no headstock cracks or breaks which is pretty rare for a 60 year old bird. The original Gibson patent number sticker Firebird pickups are strong and powerful. The neck pickup sounds extremely full and warm, the middle position has a great warm “strat-sound” and the bridge is punchy with lots of mids and bite.

The untouched electronics, pots (1376343 week 43 1963), capacitors, wiring, 3-way toggle switch and volume/tone controls for the neck and bridge pickups are all original as well with untouched solder, as is the hardware, pickguard (cracked in a few places so we know it's real ;-) ABR-1 wire bridge, Lyre tailpiece, FB banjo tuners, knobs, switch, strapbuttons, plastics etc.

This bird comes in the original Gibson rectangular hardshell case with yellow plush lining in great condition with only 1 latch missing. The yellow interior is in great shape as well with no funky smells and no wear or damage.