I've had the guitar for a couple months now and thought I'd give it a review. Personally, I prefer to wait until the novelty of it being a new toy wears off to talk about it. Anyway, here goes:
The guitar is similar to this model
here. I couldn't find any specs or stores that had my particular model but it says "Limited Edition Epiphone Custom Shop" on the back of it and was about a $200 price difference. So what do you get for the extra $200? You get a neck-through design instead of the set neck that is on the studio, trapezoid inlays and mini humbuckers. I don't know the specs on the pickups but if they are anything like the ones on it's Gibson counter part, they are high output. Oddly enough though, they don't overdrive my amp, whereas my Jaguar's supposedly low output humbuckers do. So the cleans do come through bright, brighter than your typical humbucker. It definitely won't get twangy but it's still crisp. With distortion on it isn't the fat sound I'm used to but still pretty gritty. Sound samples can be found
here.
The guitar is lightweight, which actually tends to be a bit of a problem. The body is so light the neck droops down if you let go. Now, it won't fall to the floor, it'll stop almost perpendicular to the floor, with the headstock pointing up a little. Since it won't drop to the floor, the neck being heavy isn't a problem if you wear the guitar higher on your body. If sling it too low, you may have to hold up the neck while you play. Speaking of the headstock, I do like the reverse headstock. It is a personal thing but I find reaching under the headstock to tune it while standing is more comfortable than having to reach over it.
Overall, it is an excellent guitar my only issue being the neck heavyness, which was fixed but me shortening the strap. The neck through I've been told is bad but really don't know why nor do I have issues with that. I can't comment on it's versatility because my amp isn't very versatile. It does clean or ripping in your face distortion. Doesn't do the bluesy overdrive thing (neither does my pedal), but I have been told Firebirds are blues axes. The guitar cost me $900 and I definitely got what I paid for and would recommend it to anyone else.
