Gibson guitars are some of the finest ever built. Period. Their latest guitar is strapped with Gibson's most advanced digital sound technologies yet to help you shred like Hendrix—or whoever it is you want to sound like.
The Firebird X takes a classic Gibson guitar design and loads with with an onboard effects rack, which allows you to dial in your sound to everything from phased-out Eddie Van Halen tone to nu-metal crunch without ever stomping down on a pedal. The effects are controlled by two selectors on the guitar's body and faders on the the guitar's top. Basically, you use the selectors to pick an effect—like distortion or echo—and then you use the faders to dial them in to, say, "80's distortion with a little extra bite." One selector switches between distortion, compression, and equalization and the other between reverb, echo, and loopy-sounding modulation. The guitar also features some legacy technology like their automatic tuning system. Oh and let's not forget the three awesome sounding mini-humbuckers—analog technology made Gibson famous in the first place.
The miracle is that Gibson was able to build all of that complicated functionality into a guitar system that actually looks really easy to play. Awesome, assuming the effects sound as good as this axe looks. Gibson says the Firebird X's analog to digital conversion is the best in the industry, and they've clearly put a lot of thought into making the guitar's sound endlessly tweakable. The variety of sounds still can't be everything to everyone, and with a limited release and a $5,570 price tag—it won't be. [Gibson USA]