I love the old Gibson Firebirds that were made from 1963-65. I once had a '64 Firebird lll in the same sunburst as yours, along with an Epiphone Thunderbird -- the bass version. Johnny Winter, The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Stephen Stills and The Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell seem to agree with me about them. :)

I especially like the classic black-into-brown 'burst that was the Firebird's standard colour; I consider it THE Firebird look.
Fun Fact: Gibson offered custom colours like Fender did, but in Gibson's case they weren't nearly as popular as Fender's custom colour option. Why? Gibson's dealers didn't like it. If they ordered say, a blue and a red one to display and hopefully sell, the customers would see the colour chart and want the green or the gold one. Dealers who ordered gold or green ones were faced with folks who asked for blue, red or some other. They always got stuck with the ones they had, so the dealers soon stopped ordering them. * guitar nerd out* ;)

Lovely shot of a very nice addition indeed...and it has the perfect amount of chrome on it!

*ding-ding-ding*
What do we have for the winner, Johnny?

I've seen Firebirds in various colors and they all look great. But I have to agree with you. This brown burst is the one that pops into my head immediately as the signature Firebird finish (well and the finale to Stravinsky's "Firebird" but that's another story).

Here's a tiny detail that is easy to overlook. The phoenix on the Mandobird pickguard is looking toward the headstock while the phoenix on the Firebird looks toward the tailpiece. It isn't that the image is flipped, only his head is turned.

Thanks for the trivia about the custom colors. The more you know...

very beautiful...

Vix

Another electric mandolin. Don't let the 4 strings fool you.
And thanks. I think it's beautiful too.