Firefly FFLGS (Fake SG) No-Shill Review: Should You Buy?
Thanks to their slave-labor prices and a questionably legal assortment of shapes and colors, Firefly guitars have made quite a splash on the internet. C-list influencers across YouTube have long touted their immaculate fretwork, legitimate maple tops, and Gibson-quality pickups. At just under 200 bucks, what do you have to lose?
A fair bit, it turns out, if you don’t know what you’re doing. You see, Firefly guitars are kind of a gamble. Some of them are set up well while others seem to have been given only the bare minimum of attention by the methhead shift workers who poop out hundreds a day.
Naturally, hearing this from some guy on Reddit, I thought: What a perfect opportunity to spend my hard-earned cash. Here’s my Firefly FFLGS review.
Where Did Firefly Come From?
Firefly is a China-based guitar company that retails guitars on their exceptionally Chinese-sounding website, Guitarsgarden.com. Almost all of their guitars sell for under 200 USD, and they come in all the models you’d expect from Les Paul copies to faithful Telecasters. They also offer some odd choices, like Buckethead’s signature Les Paul or a Gretsch-looking hollowbody that would normally sell for considerably more.
If you feel like you’ve suddenly heard more about Firefly guitars than you ever have, you aren’t wrong. The company only became popular in the 2020s, and much of this had to do with endorsements from YouTubers like Guitar MAX, who appear to give balanced, positive reviews of budget guitars. Whether such reviewers receive kickbacks from the good old PRC is a subject of much debate, but the marketing strategy has clearly worked.
Guitarsgarden frequently lists batches of products that sell out in mere hours. The instruments that remain are usually odd colors and shapes, so prospective buyers often check the website frequently for updates. This artificial scarcity has also worked wonders for Firefly’s desirability, and impatient buyers sometimes buy axes at insane markups on eBay and Facebook Marketplace.
What Is a Firefly FFLGS?
The FFLGS model is a lawsuit-worthy ripoff of the Gibson SG. The only real difference is a slight offset in the body pattern. Fortunately, this offset is much more symmetrical than other SG copies, making for a more appealing look than offerings from, for example, Harley Benton.
The guitar features a set neck, “bone” nut, 24.75-inch scale length, a three-way toggle switch, and a tune-o-matic bridge. The wood inside is mahogany or mahogany with a maple cap and a rosewood fretboard.
My new baby boy swathed in styrofoam blanket.
The ever-popular "puke yellow" version.
But Why Is It So Cheap?
I’m not qualified to speak much on economics, but the monkey version of this is: you buy a ton of CNC machines and cheap labor, and you can start making enough products to sell for far less. Still, Epiphone and Gibson have CNC machines and bulk supplies, so why aren’t they cheap?
I’m not saying those companies are perfect, but the difference in cost in a Firefly or Glarry usually comes down to parts and quality control.
If you’re going to buy a cheap guitar, don’t expect nice electronics. This is usually the first thing to go. Pickups and pots are bound to be the cheapest thing around.
Theoretically, much of the price you pay for high-end guitars comes from setup. Getting nut slots filed, frets level, and action low takes time. Time costs money.
You’ve probably heard loads of people complain about the prices of top-tier Gibson guitars. Having built a few guitars myself, I think the real complaint should be, “How in the hell is everything else so cheap?”
Even with a CNC, guitar building takes time, concentration, and skill. While factory processes and assembly lines speed things up, some things still require a lot of effort. Painting, finishing, binding, intonation, and fretwork are consuming processes. When you’re paying five or more people to do them, you quickly build up a tab well more than the cost of your average Squier, Glarry, or Firefly.
Trust me when I say that things at FF’s garden of guitars are probably pretty hectic. Some products are slipping out of the factory with decent setups and finishes, but others are coming off the line with only the most cursory of QC glances.
No matter what you do, your FF experience will be a roll of the die. If you know about intonation, frets, nuts, and electronics, this might not be such a big deal for you. If you don’t, I’d be very wary.
What Was My Experience?
Because I’m a huge simp for SGs in Les Paul colors — in my eyes, a criminally rare finish — I opted to buy my FF on eBay. Yes, I rewarded a scalper, but I also had the opportunity to ask someone about the guitar before I got it. I don’t think the guy knew much about instruments, but he at least confirmed that everything was working and playable.
I got lucky, and the guitar played ok out of the box. My only complaint was that the low side was set too low, causing some buzzing on the low E. Surprisingly, a small adjustment fixed the issue, and I didn’t need to do anything else to set it up. The high frets needed some fine-grit sanding, but all in all, a very lucky buy.
I found the bridge pickup a little weak for my taste, though it was far better than my Harley Benton’s. The neck pickup sounded good straight away.
Once I slapped a Gibson 2000s pickup in the bridge, this thing sounded and played unbelievably well. Since I paid so little for it, I’m now — sorry to say — more likely to pick it up than my Gibson, which makes me feel like I’m holding an infant in that I’m afraid to drop on its head.
Should You Get One?
Only you can decide whether a cheap guitar makes sense for you. If you’re handy, experienced, and confident that you can fix any problem a block of wood might throw at you, then go for it. If you’re disturbed by stories of weird production materials, half-cooked products, and the awful working conditions of Chinese laborers, then maybe stay away.
And that’s it for today. And as of today, I’m announcing the beginning of my guitar repair operation! Having finished plenty and built a handful from scratch, I can tackle any headstock breaks, electronic issues, fret problems, and setups. if you have a guitar that needs work in the Bordentown, NJ, or Philadelphia area, contact me using the form below!