Damn, I was just about to pull the trigger on a Firebid X

Timing is everything.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gibson-guitars-destroyed/

Use that money to buy a nice guitar.

Looks like a crime of compassion to me. I remember walking into the Gibson booth at the NAMM Show when these guitars were unveiled and just shook my head when I saw them. Wrong on so many levels. I remember feeling sorry for the poor Gibson Rep trying to tell me how great they were.

They laid them out so close together that I saw some come out unscathed - they couldn't even destroy them right!