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No. A friend has 4 Gibson Byrdlands... we compared the Epi Elite Byrd to those...
There were as many variances between the Gibsons as there was to the Epi... from another room listening without seeing.. neither one of us could identify the Epi from the others.
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04-28-2012 02:47 PM
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My number 1 is a '57 Byrdland. I've never understood the gripes about the scale length. Its kind of like saying that you can only play in one key. Some eras have skinny necks, but so do some eras of L5s. That said, enough people complain about it that I must concede tgat there's something to it...I just dont experience it.
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it's like playing a capo'ed guitar. i was wary at first, but i feel more connected to it than i do to other guitars. it made me do things i didn't know i could do. people sat and listened to me play. something happened to me in the store that day. i was literally angry that this guitar had made me buy it.
i eventually got over that.
as for the neck, its actually chubbier than other guitars i have. still not fat by any means, but a hair thicker than my les paul and two hairs thicker than the sheraton. all three are epiphones; from the same plant, even. nut width is the same as most anything else you'll come across.
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I had a brand new '76 way back when, my first really good jazz guitar....really dug it, but in retrospect, it did have a slightly brighter tone than I was looking for. Now I know enough to realize how that might have been influenced by amps, choice of strings and picks, pots, cables, etc.
I wish I still had it, but over the years, I've come to appreciate the 24 and 3/4" scale the best, so not sure I would dig the shorter scale today. I have an L5 that makes me feel just slightly uncomfortable in the other direction ( at 25.5").
Ironically, way back then, it was a picture of Clapton playing one with George Harrison on the Concert for Bangladesh, along with my new found love for Wes at the time (there was a double album re-release with him on the cover, and a new blonde L5) that motivated me to buy the thing... I figured at the time the shorter scale would help with jazz.... I was young and spent too much time thinking. Maybe I still do!
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I Have a 68 Byrdland, which I am trying to restore. I am having a pick guard made since the original is disintegrating.
Does anyone know what the original knobs would be on a blond Byrdland?
Thanx in advance
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A '68 should have witch hats.
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Hey All,
From just eyeballing it, it appears that the modern Byrdland neck is about as wide as an L5 neck, but something tells me I might be misleading myself...
Does anyone play a modern Byrdland from the Custom Shop? Do you happen to know if the neck is as wide as an L5 or Super 400? I know the scale length is shorter, but just wondering about the string spacing.
Thanks!
Lux
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If the modern Byrdland follows the design of the original Byrdlands, then the neck is thinner than the L5 as well as shorter, something like 23.5 or 23.75 inch scale. I had a 61 Byrdland and didn't like it at all. The guitar that to me is the closest to the Byrdland with an L5 neck is the L5CT or the George Gobel model. I would have loved to try one of those out because I liked the thinner body of the Byrdland and could tolerate the L5 neck. If I had a real choice (if I went to Heritage for a custom piece) and I wanted a Byrdland-like instrument, I would order a 17" thin body (or even a 16" thin body a la Sweet 16) with a 24.75" scale and a neck similar to the H575. That would be a comfortable guitar.
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My Byrdland is 1-11/16" at the nut, which I think is the same as the L5. OTOH, the Custom Shop produce several different L5 models, so there may be some variation.
Last edited by antirealist; 09-21-2012 at 03:38 PM.
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The modern Byrds I have seen had 1 11/16" nut widths. So "normal" string spacing. But I am a poor historian and can not say when the narrow Byrd nuts were no longer the norm.
As for the scale of 23 1/2", consider that on a 25" scale guitar, the distance from the first fret to the uncompensated bridge position is abut 23 5/8".
So if you can play music up a half step without getting the vapors, then the Byrdland scale is the same as that in terms of space between the frets.
Chris
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Isn't the Johnny Smith model with it's 1-3/4" nut width, Gibsons' only non 1-11/16" guitar?
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I have a copy of the dimensions of Mr. Garlands' Byrdland. But they don't state the width at the nut only at the first fret. That was 1.75. The guitar was basically a copy of his Stromberg in dimensions.
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I think that pretty much ensures it is 1-11/16" at the nut.
Originally Posted by Archtop Guy
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With all those measurements, I must have had a custom Byrdland then. Back then, you could get a narrower neck if you wanted. Mine was just not comfortable to play. It was just like a Rickenbacker I used to have. Why I spent the money on that thing, I have no idea.
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narrow neck form it's introduction circa '55 I believe, but when Gibson returned to the 1 11/16" nut on their guitars in late '69 they changed the Byrdland to 1 11/16" as well and has remained there since
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Thanks for all the responses!
Does anyone happen to know how that compares as you go up the neck, say, at the 12th fret? Is the modern Byrdland neck as wide there as an L5? Or is it implied that, if the nut width is the same, so is the width at the 12th fret?
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My Byrdland measures exactly 2" at the 12th fret. That's fractionally narrower than my other archtops - a Benedetto Bambino and Godin 5th Ave - both of which are 1-11/16" at the nut.
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Lux, Those are the same measurements on Mr. Garlands original Byrdland and his Stromberg. 2"s at the twelth fret. Originally Posted by Lux
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Actually the narrow neck was introduced in 1965, though there are casuistic reports of a few guitars from late 1964 also having them. They were phased out in 1969. Originally Posted by wintermoon
The narrow necks (nut width) is not to be confused with "fast" thin necks (front to back) which was a characteristic found on the 1961 guitars. I have a 1961 ES175 and it has the thin neck with the normal 1 11/16" nut width. I loved the thin neck for many years until I began to buy other archtops with more standard neck thicness which I got accustomed to, and now the '61 175 feels a bit odd.
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"Actually the narrow neck was introduced in 1965, though there are casuistic reports of a few guitars from late 1964 also having them. They were phased out in 1969."
on the majority of Gibson guitars [w/the exception of the Johnny Smith] they changed to 1 9/16" in late '65 but the Byrdland was already narrow from it's introduction in '55
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Originally Posted by wintermoon
ouch, vintage buyer beware. i wonder when they changed back?
certainly by the early 70's if my old ES335-TDW counts, and certainly by '79 which was the vintage of my L5CES ("Norlin era". groan everybody).
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"i wonder when they changed back?"
late '69
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I noticed that the MF listing for the Byrdland claims a 1 5/8 nut width.
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Interesting...I just picked up a 1996 custom shop model today and I believe the nut is actually closer to 1 3/4". I need to measure, I will post the width...
Neck is bigger/fatter than I was expecting as well, more a 50's reissue, I guess! Has a factory bigsby as well!
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Wow Lux, That must be a winner. That 1 3/4" is more important than the scale length IMO. And the Bigsby! Photos please.
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