VG+++, this pre-production Firebird is a mixture of a Firebird III and a Firebird V - it is the earliest Gibson we have ever seen with neck-through-body construction (has a rounded neck heel only seen in the earliest pre-production models). The mini-humbucking pickups with original metal mounting rings are the earliest we have ever encountered. The peghead has a Brazilian rosewood overlay (production models did not use rosewood) and the truss rod cover has a three-ply plastic "Gibson" stamp. This guitar has a professionally repaired peghead crack (barely visible) and has been oversprayed but is in perfect functioning order. A historically important and fully functional professional grade musical instrument used in numerous Nashville recording sessions, SKB HC