With the Firebird’s changeover from the original “reverse” body to the squatter “non-reverse” style of 1965, Gibson seemed to lose more than the innovative ideas of Firebird designer Ray Dietrich. The company lost a sense of model identification that it had established ten years earlier in the Les Paul line.

The lowest model in the Les Paul, SG, and Firebird lines had always had a single pickup. Now the non-reverse Firebird I had two pickups, but now the Firebird III had three pickups as well. The Firebird V and VII did have humcukers while the Firebird I and III had single-coils – a difference that was shared with the Les Paul and SG lines – but all four models had the lowest of Gibson’s fingerboard ornamentation: pearl dot inlays and no binding.