The Byrdland is an electric guitar made by Gibson. Its name derives from the names of guitarists

Billy Byrd William Lewis Byrd (17 February 1920 – 7 August 2001) was an American country music, country lead guitarist (with some jazz leanings) and studio musician who performed with Ernest Tubb, the Oak Ridge Quartet, Tex Ritter, George Hamilton IV, Jim ...

and

Hank Garland Walter Louis Garland (11 November 1930 – 27 December 2004), professionally Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and released a jazz al ...

for whom Gibson originally custom-built the guitar.

Thinline series

The Byrdland is the first of Gibson's Thinline series. Many guitarists did not desire the bulk of a traditional

archtop An archtop guitar is a hollow electric or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz, blues, and rockabilly players. Typically, an archtop guitar has: * Six strings * An ar ...

guitar such as Gibson's L-5, one of Gibson's top models. The Byrdland, with its overall depth of , is thinner than the L-5's depth. Gibson's president,

Ted McCarty Theodore McCarty (October 10, 1909 – April 1, 2001) was an American businessman who worked with the Wurlitzer Company and the Gibson Guitar Corporation. In 1966, he and Gibson Vice President John Huis bought the Bigsby Electric Guitar Company. At ...

, sought opinions and ideas about new products. The suggestions from Byrd and Garland led to the development of the Byrdland. The Byrdland, first made in 1955, is essentially a custom-built, thinner, L-5CES (Cutaway-Electric-Spanish). Later, the two specified a shorter scale and narrower-than-standard neck. Guitarists who had an opportunity to play Gibson samples liked the Byrdland's short scale neck (), which facilitated intricate single-note patterns and unusual stretched chord voicings. The Byrdland then became a regular production instrument. One thing which hampered the instrument's popularity in the ensuing years was the narrow neck width ( at the nut, as opposed to Gibson's standard nut width of ). Gibson developed the ES-350T from the Byrdland using less-costly hardware and detailing, and offered it as a less expensive model. While that model was also designed with jazz guitarists in mind, it became synonymous with Rock 'n Roll star

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

through the late 1950s. From 1955 to 1960, Gibson made the Byrdland with a rounded Venetian cutaway. (The illustration shows the Venetian style.) From 1961 to 1968, it used the sharp-edged Florentine cutaway, returning to the Venetian in 1969. The model was in production from 1955 through early 1969 with the narrow nut width. In 1969, the nut width was changed to the standard , although some 1970s examples were produced with the narrower width. In the mid-1960s, guitarist

Ted Nugent Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock ...

began using a Byrdland, an unusual choice considering Nugent's high-volume style of music. The hollow-bodied design of the guitar caused feedback at higher levels of gain and volume, which would normally make it impractical for hard rock and similar styles, but Nugent controlled this feedback and incorporated it into his playing. British guitar player John McLaughlin used a sunburst Byrdland with a scalloped fretboard. Other famous Byrdland players are Anthony Wilson, Louie Shelton, David T. Walker and

James Blood Ulmer James "Blood" Ulmer (born February 8, 1940) is an American jazz, free funk and blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar. His guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging". His singing has been called "ragg ...

. The guitar is currently available as part of Gibson's Custom Series and is made with the Florentine cutaway. In 1976 only, Gibson offered a twelve-string version, but made fewer than 20. The famous jazz club, Birdland, filed a lawsuit against Gibson over the name. The court dismissed the suit when Gibson showed that the name was made up from the names of two people.

Thinline series

Notable Byrdland players

References

Bibliography