Why isn't the Byrdland scale more popular?

[mr. beaumont]

I've never tried a Byrdland, but I did have a short scale (23.5") Larrivee parlor for a while...it was a great sounding guitar, but it always felt weird to me. I blamed the scale.

But that's coming from "Mr. Telecaster" over here, so...

[equenda]

Hello friends.
In 1992 I tried a Gibson Byrdland and it has remained my favorite guitar ever since.
Unfortunately in all these years the price has gone up incredibly and now a Byrdland is completely unattainable for my budget.
Let's say I missed the train….

For some time I have been thinking about an Epiphone Byrdlland Elite / Elitist but I see that in the last few months the price of this guitar is also going up a lot.
On eBay USA I see one over 4,000 USD and in England we are talking about over 3,000 USD.

I'll probably miss this train too.

I'm a little sad...

ettore

[Jim Soloway]

I've now had my 24" Mustang for several months. There's not a lot else that I love bout the Mustang but I love the shorter scale length. For my very old hands, it's a real blessing and pretty much the only way that I can play in standard pitch. The efforts to get Soloway Guitars back up and running are going remarkably slowly but they are moving forward and I'm pushing the idea of a model with a 24" scale length as hard as I can. I'm not sure how long it will take but I do think it's going to happen.

[JohanAbrandt]

I've now had my 24" Mustang for several months. There's not a lot else that I love bout the Mustang but I love the shorter scale length. For my very old hands, it's a real blessing and pretty much the only way that I can play in standard pitch. The efforts to get Soloway Guitars back up and running are going remarkably slowly but they are moving forward and I'm pushing the idea of a model with a 24" scale length as hard as I can. I'm not sure how long it will take but I do think it's going to happen.

I bought a squier bullett mustang and swapped in a rebel 90 p90 and new pots and now it sounds just wonderful. The scale looks wrong, but if I close my eyes it works fine

[Jim Soloway]

I bought a squier bullett mustang and swapped in a rebel 90 p90 and new pots and now it sounds just wonderful. The scale looks wrong, but if I close my eyes it works fine

Mine is a MIM with no trem and none of the Mustang style switching. I put in a Fralin hum-cancelling P90 and it too sounds pretty good. I would like a wider nut width (and a wider neck in general). Mt experience with another 24" guitar is that a 1 3/4 nut width makes up for some of the lost real estate on the fingerboard resulting from the shorter scale length.

[Hammertone]

...I think a regular width and regular24&3/4” scale would have been a better option for Gibson...

This solution is easy enough to implement. Here's one, renecked with a 24 3/4" scale:

[citizenk74]

Hello friends.
In 1992 I tried a Gibson Byrdland and it has remained my favorite guitar ever since.
Unfortunately in all these years the price has gone up incredibly and now a Byrdland is completely unattainable for my budget.
Let's say I missed the train….

For some time I have been thinking about an Epiphone Byrdlland Elite / Elitist but I see that in the last few months the price of this guitar is also going up a lot.
On eBay USA I see one over 4,000 USD and in England we are talking about over 3,000 USD.

I'll probably miss this train too.

I'm a little sad...



ettore

[JohanAbrandt]

Mine is a MIM with no trem and none of the Mustang style switching. I put in a Fralin hum-cancelling P90 and it too sounds pretty good. I would like a wider nut width (and a wider neck in general). Mt experience with another 24" guitar is that a 1 3/4 nut width makes up for some of the lost real estate on the fingerboard resulting from the shorter scale length.

Yup, fixed bridge and a 3 way on the bullet as well. I had a 78 mustang some years ago and as I remember that neck was sligthly narrower. Could be that it was just the 7 inch radius that made it feel that way. Real fat u neck though.

[ScattinNBeboppin]

I guess the jazz elites want to pretend he doesn't exist, even though no one has done more to make The Byrdland famous.

[ScattinNBeboppin]

Ted Nugent has been recording and performing with Byrdlands for over five and a half decades. And no mainstream artist has made the guitar more famous. I've seen nor heard any evidence of Page or Hendrix ever playing the Byrdland. If you could provide some I'd gladly admit I'm wrong.

[customxke]

Ted Nugent has been recording and performing with Byrdlands for over five and a half decades. And no mainstream artist has made the guitar more famous. I've seen nor heard any evidence of Page or Hendrix ever playing the Byrdland. If you could provide some I'd gladly admit I'm wrong.

Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

[DawgBone]

Fenton played a Byrdland....

I'll take a shorter scale anytime. 24 3/4. I just can't afford a Byrdland to give it a try. I suspect the limited upper fret access would be a bigger problem than the short scale.

[pcjazz]

Fenton played a Byrdland....

I'll take a shorter scale anytime. 24 3/4. I just can't afford a Byrdland to give it a try. I suspect the limited upper fret access would be a bigger problem than the short scale.

The big problem with the Byrdland is the narrow neck.

[tbeltrans]

I once borrowed a Byrdland for a gig and I loved the scale length (and very low string tension). But I did find the pickups to be a bit to close together and I kept hitting the neck pickup with my pick. I think I could get used to that, but the price has been an obstacle. I have sixteen guitars. Eight are 24.75, Six are 25.5 and two are 26.25. While I can adapt to each one, I like the 24.75 the best and I suspect I would like the 23.75 scale of the Byrdland the best if I had one. Current prices of Gibson archtops makes my getting one anytime soon unlikely.

Reading the comments in this thread informs me that I am a contrarian and that is probably why the 23.75 scale never made it in the pantheon of guitar production. Most guitarists, it seems, do not like it.

And for the record, my hands while not large, are above average in size. Until playing the guitar with your dick is a thing, discussions regarding dick size are probably best left out of this thread. Just sayin'

Hmmmm. Slide guitar.

Tony

[starjasmine]

The big problem with the Byrdland is the narrow neck.

To each his own. I sought out the narrow nut intentionally and I love it.

[DawgBone]

The big problem with the Byrdland is the narrow neck.

I have a Guild X-170 with a narrow nut, no problems. It's actually real comfortable and fast playing. I've played on thin slim tapers, great necks, just a pain to keep adjusted. I've had jazzmaster necks on strats that were pretty thin and narrow, no problem. I also like vintage frets on Fenders. Some people "can't" play those either.

Scale length, nut width. We are talking about a tiny amount of difference spread over 22 frets and maybe what, a 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch in width difference at the nut? To me it sounds mostly like an excuse. I have large hands and it ain't a problem. My fingertips are like swisher sweets and I manage to squeeze them in there down low. Stay in good playing shape and none of this is an issue.

[Tim Clark]

To each his own. I sought out the narrow nut intentionally and I love it.

Same here. The 1 9/16" nut width and shorter scale is the reason I love my ES125T. I think an older Byrdland might be a dream guitar but I've never played one...

[Chris236]

I have an early 70’s Byrd that has been my main axe for the last 6 or 7 years until recently. I’m 6’2” and have giant hands and also go back and forth between 25.5 scale guitars and the Byrd frequently without it ever feeling strange. The difference between 24 3/4’s and 23.5 is decernable but negligible at best. As the scale length gets shorter, the tone warms up typically and these guitars love heavy strings. The necks on these guitars are actually pretty robust, round and I’d imagine pleasant for anyone who wasn’t looking for an extreme at either end of the spectrum. These guitars have 22 frets and ,despite what has been said in this thread, playability in the upper register is quite good if set up correctly and the right fret wire employed. I’ve had three other Byrds, another couple early 70’s and a late 60 florentine - - it was interesting to find that the scale length, depth and bracing was different on each one. After going down that rabbit hole I ended up sticking with the 1st one I acquired…..playability and sound was the best on the most beat up instrument although I did try to find a sparkly new one back when they were ‘affordable’, Lol.

sidenote - these guitars are 16.5” at the lower bout as opposed to 17” which is almost exclusively reported.

[Chris236]

Some slightly amplified noodling on Rhythm Changes, recorded on an iPad:

[Chris236]

first two offloaded, last one kept.

[starjasmine]

first two offloaded, last one kept.

What's the story on that tailpiece?

[Chris236]

What's the story on that tailpiece?

I’m guessing someone harvested the original - This guitar had some damage around the input jack and was out of commission for a while. When I bought the guitar the story was that the current tailpiece was a prototype off of an early Byrdland (It’s obviously old and has ‘Byrdland’ etched into it) . That said it looks like it came off of a 40’s Vega archtop to me!

[starjasmine]

Scale length, nut width. We are talking about a tiny amount of difference spread over 22 frets and maybe what, a 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch in width difference at the nut? To me it sounds mostly like an excuse.

Yet, you can feel the difference between those two necks, or the difference between .010s and .012s... playing guitar, and muscle memory, relies on some pretty finely-tuned sensory input. So I think the difference can be felt, it's just a matter of preference.

I have large hands and it ain't a problem.

I have smaller hands, which is why the short scale length is great for me. I work less to make larger stretches. That said, I also have longer-scale necks like a Parker Fly and a Charvel 6. And I am comfortable on those too. It's just more work to fret a chord that contains a semitone, and maybe that's not doable in the lowest positions.

I'm one of those guys who has never liked Strat necks. IDK what it is about them, but they just don't feel so good to me. I try one once every 10 years or so just to double-check :-)

Stay in good playing shape and none of this is an issue.

+1 on that. Playing a lot every day goes a long way towards overcoming any obstacle...

[starjasmine]

When I bought the guitar the story was that the current tailpiece was a prototype off of an early Byrdland (It’s obviously old and has ‘Byrdland’ etched into it) .

So it does...! I had to download the image and blow it up to see that. Interesting!

[DawgBone]

Some slightly amplified noodling on Rhythm Changes, recorded on an iPad:

Bro, nice playing and tone!

But damn, smile a little bit. You're playing great, on a Byrdland, which is a dream guitar of mine. You're looking at the camera like you plan on kicking my ass! lol