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Hello,
I recently acquired an Epiphone Byrdland Elitist, and I must say that I am very pleased with it! Before purchase, I was apprenhensive about the scale short length (23.5), and the relatively thin body (2.25")--all with regard to producing mellow jazzy tones. I can say that I have banished such concerns, now that I've played it for a bit. I will swap the pickups with some Lindy Fralin unbuckers (as I like their unbalanced coil design), however the stock pickups are not bad sounding. The Gibson Byrdland would have been $3000-4000 more than the Epiphone, so I avoided that, but I have no doubt the Gibson is even better.
I would be pleased to hear of any other Byrdland experiences (Good or Bad) that others may wish to share. I am also pleased that this forum is here to help satiate my inner guitar geek!
Here is a link of a gentleman coaxing some nice sounds out of a Epiphone Byrdland Elitist:
Best Wishes!
Last edited by helios; 06-27-2010 at 04:05 PM.
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05-30-2010 03:58 PM
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Most players of the era (1950's) stuck up their noses at the Byrdland. The short scale offended them or something, I don't know. Never played the Epi reissue but the original played pretty nice to me. Thing is, it's now more than an L-5 of the same era for some reason. Might as well get the full-sized box for that giant amount of money.
The Epi version is certainly the right price.
Enjoy it.
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I think I would have bought one by now if it werent for the scale. I have an Epi EmpReg and a Gib 165. The 165 is a better guitar but the 25.5 scale and 17 in body FEELs right. I dont think I could swing (no pun intended) a 23.5 scale guitar. I have a 59 Fender musicmaster and.. uh.. no thanks.
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The Gibson L5 is a fine instrument, however I dislike it's 25.5" scale. The 23.5 scale of the Byrdland appealed to me, as did the ergonomic thin body. I have been pleasantly surprised by the Byrdland tone.
To the gentleman who posted the Anthony Wilson clip, I had heard his fine playing on the Seattle radio, but I had no idea he used a Byrdland-thanks for the post!
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Well, to offset that, I will offer a clip of a much more famous Byrdie player. Cheers!
Originally Posted by helios
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Bet you guys never actually saw Billy Byrd. Go to the halfway point, there he is!
Last edited by Steve Hoffman; 06-01-2010 at 02:11 PM.
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I never have seen Billy Byrd, and I do notice he's playing an L5. Now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a video Hank Garland actually playing a Byrdland either! Thanks!
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I think Hank really liked the ES-345. Who knows? He played a Fender Jazzmaster on his famous licks from Elvis' LITTLE SISTER.
Billy Byrd had his demons and didn't play much as his disease took over.
Sad but two very great players.
Just wanted you all to see them actually as people and not just names on a guitar.
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I read somewhere that Denny Dias (founding member of Steely Dan-soloed on "Do it again") had gotten his jazz oriented "chops" from Billy Byrd.
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Interesting. I've only heard Billy Byrd on old Ernest Tubb records. He strikes me as a very clean "no frills" type of player. I'm sure he could jazz it up with the best of them though.
I once flagged a taxi in Nashville in 1986 and was astounded to find my taxi driver was THE Billy Byrd. I had heard he was driving a taxi but only half believed it. It was very weird sitting in his back seat and longing to talk to him. He was NOT talking though. A shame but such is life. He seems so nice in that YouTube clip above. See how he winks at the camera during his solo? A great player.
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Does the modern Epi Byrdland have the narrow neck like the originals? I had a 50's ES350T for a short time and really wasn't very happy with it...the earlier 350 is more my cup of tea
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The one I tried did, yes. But it did NOT feel like a vintage Gibson Byrdland. It was sort of unique.
Thing is, the guitar has two things I'm not fond of. The Florentine cutaway and the short scale.
The thing was designed to be comfy and easy to play while standing up with a strap (like those country gee-tar dudes have to do). If you can play sitting down, why bother with it?
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There are some Venetian cutaway Byrdlands, but there less common: Nuge's stable can be taken as a random sample Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman
But yeah, the short scale is a deal breaker for me, too. 25 1/2" is my favourite and I want to stay there.
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Even the 25" of the Johnny Smith is OK (like his old D'Angelico) but anything shorter is just weird to me for a full-size archtop guitar..
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It seems that the majority of the Byrdlands I've seen for sale lately on Ebay are of the Venician variety, and certainly all of the Epiphone versions are. Perhaps Gibson/Epiphone should make available the double cutaway Billy Byrd version!!!
The Byrdland short scale makes easy work of stretchy chords, and string tension is lower due to the 23.5 scale-but of course the things some people love about the Byrdland, are the things other's dislike about it. To me, it is an easy and fast player (and sounds great too).Last edited by helios; 06-02-2010 at 01:08 PM. Reason: spelling error
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If Billy Byrd's version ever went up for sale, Ted Nugent would probably buy it anyway! Come on Gibson/Epiphone-Let's get this into production for the masses!!!
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Maybe it goes back to the Robert Johnson deal with the devil...what great guitar players didn't/don't have demons?? Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman
It would be a pretty short list...
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I didn't know anything about the private life of Bill Evans until I read the Wikipedia article recently: Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
Maybe it goes back to the Robert Johnson deal with the devil...what great guitar players didn't/don't have demons??
It would be a pretty short list...
Evans's drug addiction most likely began during his stint with Miles Davis in the late 1950s. A heroin addict for much of his career, his health was generally poor, and his financial situation worse, for most of the 1960s. By the end of that decade, he appeared to have succeeded in overcoming heroin, but during the 1970s, cocaine use became a serious and eventually fatal problem for Evans. His body finally gave out in September 1980, when—ravaged by psychoactive drugs, a perforated liver, and a lifelong battle with hepatitis—he died in New York City of a bleeding ulcer, cirrhosis of the liver, and bronchial pneumonia. Evans's friend Gene Lees bleakly summarized Evans's struggle with drugs to Peter Pettinger as "the longest suicide in history"
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Interesting story about the first Byrdland:
http://www.pbase.com/jroy/55byrdland
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I've been following prices myself, and I don't get it either! In the lower range for a Byrdland (around $5000) you also get holes drilled in or a Bigsby added on! A 2008 Gibson Byrdland sold a few days ago for $7000. I bought the Epiphone Elitist version, and those (in nice shape) don't sell below $2000 (A relative bargin compared to the Gibson). Gibsons (like Harleys) do retain value, and I've no doubt they're much nicer than the Epiphone Elitist. Ouch on the old wallet though!
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Maybe it's people who like Ted N. or something and want to use it for rock stuff? Dunno. The Byrdland is a tough guitar to keep in tune because of the scale. I mean, if one is going to buy a thinline, just get a reissue 335 for 1/3 of the price. Maybe it's the hand-carved aspect? No idea. Fun watching the stuff on eBay. Sometimes there is a better deal there than the actual archtop dealers on line. THEY have outragous prices, like calling a Norlin 1978 Maple volute LES PAUL a "vintage classic" and charging 5k for it. Shocking. Some kid will buy it, thinking that it's so old it must be good or something.
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Hi and Happy New Year
I am new to the Forum, so have patience with me if i ask dumb questions. I just got an Epiphone Byrdland, 2003 model in Sunburst. The guitar is stunning, but apparently had a lot of under the bed time. The nut was loose, the truss rod was loose and the tuner nkobs were loose, the strings were dead, bla bla bla. But virtually not a scratch. Paid 1900 for it, which i don't know if it was a good deal or not, but i have waited for one to come up for sale for ever, so i jumped on it. Gibbys you can find(but can't afford), but Epi's are nearly impossible to find for sale, and after seeing this one, i know why. But it is not without issues, so here goes. I was interested in the short scale, because i have small hands to begin with, that are presently Arthuritic, and getting worse by the day. Wanted something that frets like butter. I play Country, Blues, Classic rock & roll, and my own stuff. Im not, or have never been a great picker(3 cords and a capo), but getting used to this guitar is a new experience and ther are some changes i think i need to make. It frets like butter, but there is a slight string buzz at about the14th fret, which i think is a high fret. The tuners are grover super rotomatics with imperial knobs, and it seems like if you LOOK at them they go out of tune. They are ajustable for tension, but that hasnt seemed to last, and they seem so touchy to ajust. I am thinking of changing the tuners to Grover Imperials with a 16:1 ratio. (wish they were 18:1) and having the fretboard PLEK'ED and need some input on doing those 2 things.
This guitar has a totally different sound than i was expecting, but i figured since Chuck Berry, Roger MgWinn, and Nugent played them, they would handle anything i could want to do, but it is not the sound i was expecting. I have a Fender Champ, a Fender Acoustasonic SFX and a Fishman Solo. Are these amps the right paring with the Byrdland or would i be better off with, say, a Blues Deluxe or something along that line? Im sort of Flying Blind here, but i have friends that play the same type of music, I do, on a 335, or an L5 or L7, Gretchs, ect. so how much different is the Byrd going to be from any other of these F holes.
Thanks
J.W.
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Epiphon Byrd-I owned this model few years ago.
OK.Good looking and exelent wood and work...but
I prefer bigger box.
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I paid $2300 for my Epiphone Byrdland (in mint condition), so I certainly don't think you over-paid for yours. I did do some modifications to mine. I intonated mine with a strobe tuner after centering the the floating bridge, marked the exact location of the bridge, and with a thin layer of epoxy on the bottom of the bridge, set it in place permanently! I disliked the fact that the bridge would move around causing a tuning/intonation variable (carpet/two-face tape will also secure a floating bridge, without the potential devaluation of the instrument). I also put on a set of gold plated locking tuners. I now experience little or no slippage after tuning. I also like Lindy Fralin Unbucker pickups, so I put in a set of those. The stock pickups were pretty decent however-I just happen to like the unbuckers. I enjoy the ergonomics of the Byrdland, and Santa brought me a Peavey Delta Blues amplifier to go with the Byrdland. The Delta Blues is an EL84 powered amp like my Mesa Nomad, but it is cleaner sounding.
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Good afternoon, Helios, and New Year greetings... Originally Posted by helios
No pardon needed, you're doing fine. Very nice playing (not my sound, but that's just me...). I've been working on 'Misty' for a while, and I like what you doing with it. I'm attempting 'chord/melody', so I have to keep the chords, bass and melody going somehow, all at once. I might try a backing track version; yours sounded nice and fluid.
Congratulations.
Byrdland? Out of my class, I'm afraid. Samick 335 copy does me (and a Hofner Committee, but that would be off topic...).
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