Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Gibson’s Dark Fire is here!
Posted by Jon in • Cool Guitars,

Gibson describe it as “The Most Versatile Tone Monster Ever Made.”
The Gibson Dark Fire combines two of Gibson’s most popular pickups - the P90h in the neck position and a Burstbucker 3 in the bridge position. Both are capped with new carbon fiber-like pickup covers, impeccably designed to match the Dark Fire’s advanced fade.
This new offering also has acoustic capabilities:
The Dark Fire also gives you the ability to adjust and blend the acoustic sound from the piezo bridge pickup with the sound from the guitar’s traditional pickups. It does this by utilizing a revolutionary rotary potentiometer which is part of the pickup selector toggle switch. By twisting the switch’s head clockwise or counterclockwise, you can blend the piezo acoustic sound from zero percent acoustic sound (100 percent traditional pickups) to 100 percent acoustic sound (no traditional pickups).
Additionally, the Dark Fire features improved locking tuners, a Teflon-based frictionless nut, a bridge that locks to the studs and a chambering system that gives each one near-perfect tone, balance and weight. It also makes the Dark Fire one of the best-sustaining Les Pauls ever produced.
Teflon nut? Thats a good idea!
Each of the Gibson Dark Fire Limited Edition First Run guitars features a dramatic Dark Fire nitrocellulose finish created especially for this exclusive run. It is one of the most striking finishes ever to leave a Gibson factory and is achieved by combining the time-tested techniques of applying a standard nitro finish with several new procedures that help bring out the natural beauty of the wood. The result is a stunning, deep gloss color that naturally highlights each piece of wood’s distinctive grain patterns. The mahogany back and neck of the Dark Fire are given a satin finish, while the top and peghead face are sprayed with a gloss finish.
It does look quite special I have to say! The black binding around the chambered Mahogany body looks stunning. And of course the technology from the original Robot Guitar has been given quite an upgrade making this guitar the most technologically advanced guitar ever created.
The redesigned powerhead tuners on the Dark Fire are significantly smaller and lighter, and more in line with the size and weight of conventional tuners. They’re also radically faster. You can now access any preset tuning in less than one second, which means you can realistically change tunings in the middle of a song, if needed.
For a full overview of the technology used on this guitar check out the Tech page.
Also Gibson players who bought the original Robot will be offered an opportunity to convert their guitars to Dark Fire specs with an upgrade kit that will be made available at a price significantly lower than its standard retail price (in fact, very close to cost).
Oh and you lucky US citizens have the chance to win one of these stunning guitars, check out the Contest page for details.
UPDATE: Gibson have uploaded a few sneak peak videos to YouTube, check out the “World’s first look at Dark Fire Teaser 3” video which has just been uploaded.
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