Epiphone Firebird - My One and Only Issue With This Guitar

In this video I go through my one issue I have with the firebird... and Epiphone guitars in general!

Let me know your thoughts!

[davidp]

Some good advice. I had the same issue with my prs se. I used 3m green scrub pads on the back of the neck. Tape off both ends for a nice neat look

[rigilborromeo]

I have the same guitar. I love it. My main problem with it is it does not sustain when i use it with a glass guitar slide.

[boogerz]

have you thought about scotch brighting or sanding the back of the neck

[PT_English]

Fab playing. 2 cents > Sell it and get a $500, 000, 000 Gibson, you know you want to feel the overwhelming guilt at having paid an enormous amount of dosh for yet another guitar. Welcome to the world of guitarists bro!

[TheWorstManOnEarth]

Man ! It's a 1000% question of taste. Some love it, some don't.

I have dry hands, my hands never go sticky. I've played for over 50 years now. I play from be-bop Jazz to anything like heavy rock.
I need a glossy clear coat for my thumb to grab on, and I can't stand the "chalky feeling" of matte finishes.
I'm OK with the wood grain of some unfinished necks, but these can only be modern equipment with woods which have been treated to withstand the test of time 'cause unfinished wood will adsorb moisture and also dry out, so unfinished woods on guitars have to be basically "baked/roasted woods".

Import Epiphones, or any import guitar for that matter, will never have nitrocellulose finishes, because 1stly nitrocellulose is dangerous (highly flammable, even when cured and dry), 2ndly nobody uses nitrocellulose except the American guitar manufacturing industry, 3rdly nitrocellulose wears out very very rapidly on musical instruments which are used intensively (like on a daily basis), and such South East Asian companies, like "World Musical Instrument Co." in Incheon, don't want to deal with additional trouble like premature wear of their products.
Quite frankly, the quality of polyurethanes which are in use nowadays as finishes for musical instruments is simply outstanding : extremely hard and thin finishes can be obtained with these. Polyurethane is basically a type of epoxy glue.

2 little anecdotes:
_ I have a recent 2015 Gibson Les Paul Less Plus P-90 GT Gold Top. Of course it's with a nitrocellulose finish. I'm extremely careful with my guitars (I have about 45 guitars now). Well, this Les Paul Gold top already has CRACKS everywhere on the finish, that's how bad that type of finish is. My luthier (who's an absolute genius) will soon entirely strip and refinish that Gibson with the exact same gold top color but in the best polyurethane available, and this guitar will look good, again.
_ I have a recent 2014 Gibson Midtown Custom Ebony. One day I was jamming at a friend's house. He opened a bottle of finest Scotch and invited me for a glass. Unfortunately, one tiniest little drop of that Whiskey fell on the top of my black Midtown. If it had been polyurethane I would have wiped it out, but you can't wipe out alcohol on nitrocellulose because alcohol is a nitrocellulose solvent, so now I have a tiny little alcohol drop mark on the top of that guitar which never fails to irritate me whenever I pick that guitar to play it.
My luthier says he'll polish that mark away.

Now, apart from these technical considerations, my personal opinion about nitrocellulose as a finish : It's for "cork sniffers" and people who listen to them.
If you really don't like the glossy finish on the back of the neck of your guitar, then you'll have to actually "damage your guitar" and sand it to matte, or remove it in which case you'll have to treat the bare wood with a special anti-moisture sealant that penetrates deep inside the wood fiber (special oils, etc) otherwise the wood of the neck will eventually warp due to repeated phases of drying out and absorbing moisture.

Look at what Jeff Beck was using for his hands. He was playing Fender Strats with finished necks. He was using ... drum roll ... baby powder (talcum) :

Now, there are 2 major advantages in a traditional Firebird architecture : the multi-ply neck-through architecture which insures a great neck stability and rigidity and therefore sustain, and the fact that the strings go in a straight line right through to the tuning posts. Well, due to the placement of the tuners on these Epiphone guitars, the strings don't go in a straight line to the tuning posts anymore, and that slight angle can sometimes be a cause of tuning stability ... but the cure for that is quite simple : use some lubricant in the nut slots.

Anyway, have fun ! Play loud !

[Gary_Robinson]

My one and only issue with the Epiphone Firebird… they don’t do a lefty version. Same with the DG335, left-handed players (apparently) can’t have nice things 😂

[Zoso]

So, you want a Nitro finish on a $650 guitar?

[TechMule]

Ya know what I hate... is when the first thing out of YT'r mouth is - PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBRE-Blah, blah, blah... STFU and get to the content. I'm so sick and tired of this ME ME ME crap. BTW, if ya don't want a poly finish spend 4x the money and get a Gibson.