CONCEIVED IN THE BACKSEAT

The Gibson Firebird 7

Cars have inspired plenty of rock ‘n’ roll songs. If you’ve ever put on a Bruce Springsteen album you’ve heard several of them. But the auto industry’s influence on rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t stop at allusions to route 66. In 1963, Gibson enlisted automotive designer Ray Dietrich to help create a new line of guitars that would become the Gibson Firebird.

At the time Gibson was losing the cool battle to Fender as many of their hollow body guitars were seen as old fashioned. This makes the choice of Ray Dietrich all the more head scratching. He was 66 and retired when Gibson approached him. Sure Dietrich had had an illustious career having been a player during the golden age of American automotive design. Dietrich Inc. was behind many custom luxury automobiles of the day creating designs for Lincoln, Ford, Packard and Studebaker. Still not the grooviest of choices for a guitar manufacturer looking to connected with young musicians. The result however was cooler than a convertible, although not immediately embraced.

The starting point for the Firebird was the Gibson Explorer, with the goal to create something more rounded. Upon seeing the end product, Fender felt the inspiration was more Strat than Explorer, in particular the headstock, and lawyers were called.

Most remarkable was this guitar’s reverse body with a treble horn longer than the bass horn. Models that followed would come in non-reverse, but the 2015 Firebird V and Firebird 7 are in step with Gibson’s trend for retro staying very close to the 1963 original.

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