FIREFLY Anyone?

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
My Epiphone Dot Black Royale was $189 on a Thanksgiving sale when I got it, so not that far off from the Firefly. But I've always wanted a red one too :)

guitarra-epiphone-dot-black-royale-D_NQ_NP_438601-MLA20387926743_082015-F.jpg
 

blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
I don't know if this is the same (?) Firefly guitar, but the story is a little different than I expected...

FIREFLY GUITARS are custom designed, hand crafted guitars built to make the world better.
They are fundraising, music making machines.
FIREFLY GUITARS began in 2012 when founder Kory Van Sickle was tapped to design Brennan Rock & Roll Academy, a world class music school providing underprivileged children free music lessons. Kory created the name, logo, mission statement and interior design. Within the logo Kory included an "ampersand" guitar between the "Rock" & "Roll" and then expanded the vision by bringing the ampersand guitar to "life" as a full size, hand made, custom designed guitar.
FIREFLY GUITARS has produced over 300 guitars for the Academy and played a major role in their fundraising and awareness. In 2014, FIREFLY GUITARS teamed up with the Edith Sanford Breast Foundation and created the Pink Firefly. The pink ribbon guitar was designed to raise awareness for breast cancer research and treatment. In doing so, artists who perform at the Denny Sanford Premier Center are gifted a guitar as well as asked to sign a guitar for the Foundation. Every dollar raised by the sales of the guitars is invested in genomics research.
In 2015 FIREFLY GUITARS partnered with LifeLight, the largest free Christian Music Festival in the U.S. with over 300,000 attendees annually. LifeLight Firefly Guitars are signed by the festival's headliners and used to raise money, sponsor support and awareness for LifeLight's world mission. In 2015, the Hero Firefly (yellow ribbon) was created to support U.S. troops and their families. The guitars were signed during the "75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally". The first Hero Guitar to be auctioned was sold at Charlie Daniels 79th birthday at the Palm in Nashville and 100% of the proceeds benefited Charlie's foundation, "The Journey Home Project" providing all types of aid to U.S. troops and their families.

Website
http://www.fireflyguitars.com

Year Founded
2012

Company Type
Sole Proprietorship

Size
1-10 employees
I like that. That's good news.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
...mine ‘ll be here tomorrow! (Sunburst). I’ve always wanted a semi-hallow (335), so I could play jazz like Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Wes Montgomery, etc. So far I’m two-for-two with recent, on-line purchases - a MIM Strat (for BGU Live) and Fender acoustic (for ABGU!). And that’s not to mention the monoprice and fender amps! Griff (and you guys) should definitely be getting commissions!
Well, did it get there? If so what do you think of it??
 

jmin

Student Of The Blues
I like that. That's good news.
I liked it too, but I'm not sure we're talking about the same guitar. There are lots of "Fireflies" out there. After I saw MikeR's post, I realized I had made my post about the company back in May, and never did confirm if it was the same. I don't think it is. Amazon says this one is designed by "JSN," not Kory Van Sickle. I'm pretty sure I got it wrong, but the fireflyguitars.com website doesn't work, so it's hard to confirm.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Not yet. (I thought it was coming yesterday, it's supposed to be today).
Get yours?
Not yet, supposed to be delivered today, and it is out for delivery. We'll see if the USPS guy will actually overcome his/her laziness and get out of their damned truck to walk it to the door or just leave an "attempted delivery" notice in the mail box.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Here is a great video about those Bare Knuckle Mule pickups I have that will go into this guitar. If you can get through their banter, these two know their stuff. The Mule stuff doesn't start until 27:59.
 
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Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Well, mine just arrived! I am elated to say it is AWESOME! Not a single ding in the box, it was very well double-boxed. Not a single imperfection to be found ANYWHERE! Finish is just gorgeous, well on par with any other guitar I own, exceeding the finish on my EPI 339 PRO! There isn't much grain showing through the translucent blue, but it imparts a luscious blue "glow"! Directly under a good light you can see some very nice grain there though. Not a single tiny itty bitty flaw anywhere including all the binding! And there is really nicely done binding in the F-holes. Switches and pots feel good. Tuners feel solid and for the first hour, after strings settled in, seem to hold their tune just fine. It wasn't in tune, about two steps flat on all strings. But set up and action are perfect didn't have to do ANYTHING to it except tune it up! Intonation is spot on. Plays like a gem! No fret buzz ANYWHERE. NO sharp fret ends! Frets are all polished and shiny, smooth as a baby's butt. It has 10's on it and I play nothing but 9's, finding 10's usually just too stiff for me, but I have no problem playing this one with 10's. Once I put 9's on it, it will play like butter! Sounds really good too. No real need to swap out the pickups, but as you know, I'm going to. It isn't EXACTLY like the one pictured in the ad though. It has black speed knobs instead of the silver-topped "witchhat" knobs in the ad, and the horns are not as round as on a real 335 … they are like the blue one in the video at the start of this thread. The ONLY thing I can find "wrong" with it is that when they put the knobs on, they aren't all set the same. When they are all set at max, one of them says '10', two of them say '0' and one of them says '8'. Nothing any dolt with a small brain can't correct in 5 minutes. As it is, right out of the box, I will be proud to gig with this thing anywhere. After my up-coming pickup swap I will take glee in blowing $3,000.00 Gibbys away. :whistle:

Oh … the "Firefly" logo and whatchacallit between the string posts aren't inlays … they are VERY cleanly done screen prints, but under the clear coat so you can't feel them at all.

To sum it all up, I am nothing short of ECSTATIC with what I got for a lousy $139.00 !!! For that kind of money this thing is nothing short of STUNNING! If all of these Firefly's are as nice as the one I got, this has to be the deal of the century!
IMG_0620.JPG
 
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steve o

Student Of The Blues
Well, mine just arrived! I am elated to say it is AWESOME! Not a single ding in the box, it was very well double-boxed. Not a single imperfection to be found ANYWHERE! Finish is just gorgeous, well on par with any other guitar I own, exceeding the finish on my EPI 339 PRO! There isn't much grain showing through the translucent blue, but it imparts a luscious blue "glow"! Directly under a good light you can see some very nice grain there though. Not a single tiny itty bitty flaw anywhere including all the binding! And there is really nicely done binding in the F-holes. Switches and pots feel good. Tuners feel solid and for the first hour, after strings settled in, seem to hold their tune just fine. It wasn't in tune, about two steps flat on all strings. But set up and action are perfect didn't have to do ANYTHING to it except tune it up! Intonation is spot on. Plays like a gem! No fret buzz ANYWHERE. NO sharp fret ends! Frets are all polished and shiny, smooth as a baby's butt. It has 10's on it and I play nothing but 9's, finding 10's usually just too stiff for me, but I have no problem playing this one with 10's. Once I put 9's on it, it will play like butter! Sounds really good too. No real need to swap out the pickups, but as you know, I'm going to. It isn't EXACTLY like the one pictured in the ad though. It has black speed knobs instead of the silver-topped "witchhat" knobs in the ad, and the horns are not as round as on a real 335 … they are like the blue one in the video at the start of this thread. The ONLY thing I can find "wrong" with it is that when they put the knobs on, they aren't all set the same. When they are all set at max, one of them says '10', two of them say '0' and one of them says '8'. Nothing any dolt with a small brain can't correct in 5 minutes. As it is, right out of the box, I will be proud to gig with this thing anywhere. After my up-coming pickup swap I will take glee in blowing $3,000.00 Gibbys away. :whistle:

Oh … the "Firefly" logo and whatchacallit between the string posts aren't inlays … they are VERY cleanly done screen prints, but under the clear coat so you can't feel them at all.

To sum it all up, I am nothing short of ECSTATIC with what I got for a lousy $139.00 !!! For that kind of money this thing is nothing short of STUNNING! If all of these Firefly's are as nice as the one I got, this has to be the deal of the century!

Congrats Jim!!! Pics?
 

chemeagle

Blues Newbie
thanks for the review. I had my delivery delayed until next Monday. I am in Paris right now. I have a cherry epi dot. The blue fly should make a good mate. Scott.
 

CVTOT

Blues Newbie
Guess I'm gonna have to lock my credit cards in the gun safe and forget the combination for a week or so.
But I to would like to see pics.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Guess I'm gonna have to lock my credit cards in the gun safe and forget the combination for a week or so.
But I to would like to see pics.
Just posted a pic. I am not the best photographer in the world, and the pic just in no way does it justice. When I said the finish on mine is flawless, I wasn't kidding … it is just gorgeous. Open your gun safe, sell a gun, and GRAB ONE OF THESE! :ROFLMAO:
 
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