Gibson Byrdland

The Gibson Byrdland is a short scale, hollow body, electric guitar. The scale length is 23 1/2 inches, an inch and a quarter underneath the standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. It was developed in the mid-1950′s by Gibson’s legendary president in that era, Ted McCarty, in conjunction with jazz guitarists, Billy Byrd and Hank Garland. The guitar was named after them.

The Byrdland, introduced in 1955, was the first in Gibson’s Thinline series to be brought to market although there have been indications that there may have been earlier factory prototypes constructed. The idea behind the guitar was to give guitarists a smaller, lighter, less bulky hollow body guitar than Gibson’s flagship hollow body archtop, the L-5. The specs called for a body depth of 2 1/4 inches, considerably thinner than the L-5′s 3 3/8 inch girth. During the design process, the two jazz guitarists decided that a shorter scale would also be useful since it would allow fingerings that would be more difficult for most guitarists on a longer scale guitar.

The Byrdland entered production in 1955 and remained in the regular Gibson line-up until 1969. After that, it appeared in limited production runs in 1977, 1978 and 1992. There were also custom made versions made in off production years and, since the guitar didn’t usually sell too well due to the high price and specialized nature, it wasn’t unusual for them to hang on a guitar shop’s wall for years. In 1976, a 12 string model was made available to 20 lucky purchasers. Recently, the Byrdland has been available as part of Gibson’s Custom Series so the instrument at a very substantial price tag of $10,471.

The early models, from 1955 through 1958, used a single coil Alnico pickup. This was switched to the new Gibson PAF humbucker in 1958. All years featured separate tone and volume controls with the typical Gibson 500K pots. A three position toggle switch is used to activate either or both pickups.

The body style of the Byrdland varied over the years. The original version, made between 1955 and 1960, had a single Venetian cutaway. This cutaway is rounded. During the 1960′s production runs the Florentine cutaway was used which comes to a sharp point. The most common body colors were a sunburst or natural finish although a wine/burgundy and ebony colors are sometimes seen in production runs. There are rarely seen custom colors and refinishes said to be out there though.

The short scale, 23 1/2 inch, neck is made of five-piece curly maple and has a 22 fret ebony fretboard with pearl block inlays. The neck joins body at the 14th fret and has an adjustable truss rod. In the hardware department, the Byrdland features an adjustable Tune-O-Matic bridge and standard Gibson tuning pegs.

Beyond the two inventors, the Gibson Byrdland was regularly played by John McLaughlin and the guitar was a regular member of many country and jazz studio musician’s arsenal. However, the Byrdland is most associated with rocker Ted Nugent who used the guitar extensively, and often suggestively, in his acts. The Nuge is said to have liked how easy the guitar was to play during is very physical sets and continues to use it today.

A vintage Gibson Byrdland can fetch well over $10K, depending on the condition and originality of the parts. Newer production runs may go for less but they’re still quite pricey. While the Gibson ES-350T was originally intended as a low cost alternative to the Byrdland, it’s reissues have been standard scale, not short scale. Also, the Byrdland or a close match to it hasn’t been issued by Epiphone as an inexpensive choice for the budget minded guitarist.

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