In another life, I would have been a rock star. Unfortunately, in this life, I don’t possess the superior talent to succeed in this arena. Even so, when I stumbled across the much anticipated and talked about Gibson Firebird X, the rock star alter ego buried deep inside of me rejoiced. The Firebird, affectionately dubbed the ‘super guitar,’ truly is one sexy little creation. For the muso, it is like a candy jar filled to the brim with musical treats.

So what super powers does the super guitar possess? A long list of them it appears: fourth generation robot tuners (enabling automatic tuning), onboard effects based on computer plug-in technology, and wireless Bluetooth pedals for superior usage onstage and in the studio. So as you can see, the Firebird is a super guitar fit for the super star.

The engineers have also managed to squeeze in a few more treats, such as compatibility with hardware and applications designed by other companies, not just by Gibson, which is an industry first. This is possible because of the ‘Pure-Analog’ engine in the Firebird; however the applications must be bought from an authorised store selling Gibson-compliant Apps.

So what can this revolutionary new guitar do? A lot – potentially too much – according to reviewer Joe Charupakorn "With three silver-covered mini humbuckers, and a piezo pickup, the Firebird X’s pickup configuration offers a whole lot of options—more than 2,000.”Charupakorn goes on to talk about option anxiety, a term he adopts to describe the anxiety brought on by the many different buttons, togs and switches used to achieve the many different effects the Firebird is capable of.

Physically, the guitar comes with a lot of toys, all packed into a well-stuffed briefcase-like accessory pack that includes two big pedals – the Blue Lightening pedal board and the switchboard – the G- Node 48k 24-bit audio interface and an accompanying stereo cable, eight rechargeable batteries, along with a multitude of cables, chargers and straps.

All in all, the Firebird sounds like a pretty rad little number, equipped with everything a rock star could need and more. It comes in two unique swirl finishes - redolution and bluevolution, inspired by the way the floor of Gibson’s Nashville factory looked after the flooding in May 2010, and is happy to go home with you for a cool $5570.00.