Gibson has launched a signature acoustic guitar for country star Miranda Lambert that reimagines the Hummingbird as the Bluebird, finishing the instrument in stunning Bluebonnet nitro lacquer in honour of the official flower of her home state Texas.
The Miranda Lambert Bluebird certainly wears its new colour well, and is thematically appropriate for Lambert, who won Best Country Song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021 for her double-platinum hit Bluebird. You even might have seen her perform it with a Gibson Hummingbird. Well, why not a Bluebird?
The spec is very as you would expect. After all, Lambert has long played the Hummingbird; there is no need to wholly reinvent the instrument. Fundamentally, they are the same instrument, and for many players – particularly songwriters looking for something with the lungs to make open chords sing – it doesn’t get any better than the Hummingbird.
The shape is iconic. There are those square shoulders, the open-book headstock, the keystone buttons on the gold Gotoh tuners. The build is similarly a classic Gibson acoustic recipe, with solid Sitka spruce on the top, traditional hand-scalloped X-pattern bracing, and solid mahogany on the back and sides.
Multi-ply binding has been applied to the top and back of the guitar, with single-ply on the fingerboard. The mahogany neck has a rounded profile and joins the body with a compound dovetail joint that has been set with hot hide glue.
The Bluebird has a belly-up Indian rosewood bridge and matching 12” radius rosewood fingerboard, replete with mother of pearl split parallelogram inlays, a 43.815mm nut width, 24.75” scale, 20 frets and a bone nut but Tusq saddle and bridge pins.
Peering into that soundhole, the eye is first drawn to the bright orange Gibson sticker that lets you know, as if there was any doubt, that this is a high-end acoustic guitar, but a quick look around will reveal the discretely mounted volume and tone controls for the onboard electronics, which once more come from an LR Baggs VTC undersaddle pickup and preamp system. The 1/4” end-pin jack is similarly discrete.
Other specs include the two-ply bell-style truss rod cover, and this Bluebird ships in a hardshell guitar case. It will be interesting to see how that nitro Bluebonnet lacquer ages over the years, and whether it will take on a greener hue in the decades to come.
The Miranda Lambert Bluebird is out now, priced £4,599 / $4,649. See Gibson for more details.
