Paul Gilbert’s new Ibanez Fireman
Paul Gilbert designed the Fireman guitar by flipping an Iceman in Photoshop, creating a love-it or hate-it body outline with a sweeping upper horn. The original model was hand-made in Japan by the Ibanez custom shop, making it expensive and a very limited edition. But now they’ve announced that a new production model will be made for Ibanez in China, dubbed the Fireman FMR-100TR in transparent red.
Chinese guitars get some bad press, but with the right quality control in place, manufacturers can turn out quality guitars at keen prices. The spec on the new Fireman includes some features not normally seen at this level – a set neck, genuine DiMarzio pickups (Paul’s signature set of Injector neck and bridge, with an Area ’67 in the middle), there’s even a custom designed tight-tune stoptail bridge and tailpiece, which have locking studs and saddles for maximum tuning stability.
The first model’s neck was built with a chunky neck profile, ideal for someone with the hands of Paul, but for this revision the neck’s been slimmed down to a shallower but still hefty depth. The prototypes have been out on tour with Paul Gilbert and there’s plenty of videos of him performing using this model, apparently stock with just a custom set-up.
I want one.
