Epiphone Slash Firebird: An affordable version of Gibson's $7699 'SlashBird'

Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

Epiphone Limited Edition Slash Firebird · Source: YouTube/Epiphone

The new Limited Edition Slash Firebird is Epiphone’s latest signature guitar for a man who’s famous for wearing hats. And playing guitar in Guns N’ Roses. A very nice-looking guitar it is, too.

Epiphone Limited Edition Slash Firebird

The brand-new Slash Firebird features a rather attractive AAA Flame Maple top that comes in a subtle Translucent Black finish that shows off that flamed top nicely. The main body and neck are mahogany, as you would expect. It also has a CITES-friendly Pau Ferro fingerboard.

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One Cool Bird

The guitar is loaded with a pair of Seymour Duncan “Slash” open coil humbuckers and has Sprague “Orange Drop” capacitors in the wiring for the tone pots. You get the usual “two Volume, two Tone” control layout of a traditional Firebird. This model even has the correct vintage style Top Hat knobs.

I like that Epiphone has opted for a set of Kluson Reissue Firebird banjo-style 12:1 ratio tuners. They should hold down the tuning well in conjunction with that Epiphone LockTone ABR Tune-o-matic and Stopbar bridge setup.

Epiphone Limited Edition Slash Firebird Premium Package

Skull & Tophat

This guitar is available in a few versions, like a standard edition or Premium one with a limited edition case with Slash’s “Skull & Tophat” logo. The premium version is hand-signed and -numbered by Slash himself. The former is limited to 900 guitars worldwide and the latter is only 100, so expect an upcharge for the autograph.

On paper, this looks like a good buy. I have purchased some great Epiphone guitars myself in the last few years, like the Brent Hinds Signature V, so I am expecting something good here.

What I really love is that it gives players and fans the opportunity to get a Slash Firebird for considerably less than the 2017 Gibson version, which although lovely was bloody expensive at USD 7,699!

RRP – TBC