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Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:33 pm
by strumminsix
What an incredible find and a fantastic story. What's even better is that it looks like it's been played and loved for 50 years!!!
I'm not gonna jump into a big, long, over discussed (fought) post but it's important to say this... Lieber has been accused by many of overstating his position under Doug and exaggerating his accomplishments during that era.
No matter, he makes some cool looking instruments. I talked with him about this one years ago but never could make it work...
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Mon Feb 21, 2022 2:27 am
by Dave M
Thanks for telling me about Tom Leiber.
I will write to him.
Dave
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:44 am
by Thomas Lieber
This guitar is called the Firedrake...it was a combination of the Garcia and the Pendulous designs!
best,
Tom
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Tue Feb 22, 2022 8:06 am
by ssmug
So cool!
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:00 am
by lbpesq
strumminsix wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:33 pm
Thomas Lieber wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:44 am
This guitar is called the Firedrake...it was a combination of the Garcia and the Pendulous designs!
best,
Tom
I don’t see much of Irwin’s design in this one. It reminds me more of the wonderful, somewhat rare, Daion 555 Headhunter.
Bill, tgo
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:44 am
by strumminsix
lbpesq wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:00 am
strumminsix wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:33 pm
I don’t see much of Irwin’s design in this one. It reminds me more of the wonderful, somewhat rare, Daion 555 Headhunter.
Bill, tgo
The guitar i posted was his Spellbinder. Think he's telling the name/model of the guitar from page 1
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:29 pm
by lbpesq
Either way, I take anything he claims with a large grain of salt.
Bill, tgo
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:15 pm
by TI4-1009
lbpesq wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:29 pm
Either way, I take anything he claims with a large grain of salt.
Bill, tgo
Maybe so..... maybe not. Neither of us were there.
https://www.lieberguitars.com/blog/garc ... gin-story/
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:33 pm
by lbpesq
True, but Doug was. And a friend of mine was there on a few occasions. Finally, Lieber once contacted me, unsolicited, about a guitar I was thought might be an Irwin. He emphatically insisted that Doug never made a bolt-on guitar. Around that time I also received some cool pics (from a different source) of a bolt-on Tele style guitar that Doug built.
Bill, tgo
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Thu Nov 24, 2022 3:53 am
by Dave M
Thomas Lieber wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:44 am
This guitar is called the Firedrake...it was a combination of the Garcia and the Pendulous designs!
best,
Tom
Hello Tom Lieber!
I am glad to have found a way to write to you.
I believe you are the builder to who my friend Jim sent a bunch of pictures of the guitar and you gave Jim a brief early history of the guitar. you wrote in mid October, 2020.
I was heart broken for a while. I needed time to absorb your news.
I am worried that despite having bought the guitar from Guitar Center in Hollywood, in reality I should not have been able to buy it and despite loving it for fifty years, I don't know what to do now.
Jim can't connect with Doug Irwin anymore. I suspect he is mad at maybe me. I want to do the right thing without going into too much explanation.
Can we speak about it through Jim in a more private way?
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:18 pm
by TI4-1009
Dave M wrote: ↑Thu Nov 24, 2022 3:53 am
Thomas Lieber wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:44 am
This guitar is called the Firedrake...it was a combination of the Garcia and the Pendulous designs!
best,
Tom
Hello Tom Lieber!
I am glad to have found a way to write to you.
I believe you are the builder to who my friend Jim sent a bunch of pictures of the guitar and you gave Jim a brief early history of the guitar. you wrote in mid October, 2020.
I was heart broken for a while. I needed time to absorb your news.
I am worried that despite having bought the guitar from Guitar Center in Hollywood, in reality I should not have been able to buy it and despite loving it for fifty years, I don't know what to do now.
Jim can't connect with Doug Irwin anymore. I suspect he is mad at maybe me. I want to do the right thing without going into too much explanation.
Can we speak about it through Jim in a more private way?
https://www.lieberguitars.com/
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Wed Apr 08, 2026 8:15 am
by Dave M
Hello Tom Leiber,
I believe you told my guitar collector friend Jim that this Firedrake guitar was one of five prototypes that Jerry didn't choose to buy and Doug then gave it for rental to an equipment hire company from which all their equipment was stolen. That would be a plausable explanation of how it ended up in a Guitar Center store in Hollywood where I bought it not knowing a thing about what it was except that it was amazing and I loved it.
It took this many years to find out what it was and that maybe I don't own it and so that's what I said when I talked about doing the right thing. Is this a fifty year old crime that needs to be put right? If you can shed any further light on your letter I would be very grateful.
Many thanks,
Dave M
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Wed Apr 15, 2026 3:54 am
by Dave M
just heard that Doug died over the weekend
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Wed Apr 15, 2026 7:07 am
by Dave M
no, sorry,
Doug died late March,
I only just heard about it today.
Re: Irwin guitars update
PostPosted:Wed Apr 15, 2026 11:20 am
by Jon S.