One of a Kind!

The only Byrdland Special with a 335 body! This phenomenal guitar weighs 9.00 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a short scale length of 23 1/2 inches. Laminated maple top, back, and sides with seven-ply binding on the top and three-ply binding on the bottom. Two-piece maple neck with a mahogany center strip and a wonderful thick profile. Ebony fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl flowerpot inlay. Individual Kluson Sealfast tuners with bell-shaped metal buttons. Two "double-black" PAF humbucker pickups with outputs of 7.89k and 7.22k. Each with a small rectangular label on the underside "Patent Applied For". Original black plastic pickup rings with "MR 491" / "M69 7" and "MR 490" / "M69 8" stamped on the underside. "Long" five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. ABR-1 'non-retainer' Tune-O-Matic bridge with metal saddles. Factory Bigsby tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. Inside the treble 'f' hole is the original oval Gibson orange label with Model "Byrdland Special" in black ink and the serial number "A 27771" stamped in black. Inside the bass 'f' hole is the FON (factory order number) "D3828 2". The FON number and the Orange label have been lightly varnished over - possibly at the factory before shipping. The tiniest amount of belt buckle wear (almost invisible to the naked eye) on the back and a minuscule amount of finish checking. The gold is not tarnished. This guitar is in mint condition! Housed in its original 'Gibson' "Stone Case Co" brown 'five-latch' hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00)Complete with the original "Humbucking Pickup Adjustments" sheet and also the original "Tune-O-Matic Bridge" instruction sheet. Also included is the original case key and intonation adjustment screwdriver in the original small manilla envelope and an original? guitar cord.

"Named after famed 50s guitarists Billy BYRD and Hank GARLAND, the [$550.00] Byrdland was unveiled in 1955 as the top-end model in the then new thinline series. Patterned after the L-5CES, save for a shorter and narrower neck [designed for easier fingering of 'twisted' chords and faster playing speed], the Byrdland went through the same evolution in terms of pickups and body style. Three main variants can be successively distinguished up to 1965...The first variant of the Byrdland [with a round Venetian cutaway] is characterized by its Alnico pickups with six individually adjustable rectangular magnet poles...In early 1958 the Alnico pickups were replaced by humbuckers. All the other specifications remained unchanged...The same year, two prototypes of a [Barney Kessel-style] double cutaway Byrdland were built for the Summer trade convention, i.e. #A27910 and #A27912 registered on 18th July 1958, but they never materialized into a production model...In late 1960 the body was restyled with a pointed Florentine cutaway to facilitate access to the fingerboard" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, pp. 220-221).

According to Walter Carter, this Byrdland Special was shipped to a client in Illinois on June 16, 1958. A few Byrdland Specials were made with Barney Kessel-style bodies (double Florentine cutaway shape), but this guitar is the only one with a 335 body (double cutaway shape with rounded horns), but with seven-ply binding on the top and three-ply binding on the bottom, similar to the 355. This guitar has spent most of its life (99.9%) in its case, sitting for nearly forty years before being discovered in a basement in Illinois around ten years ago. A spectacular and unique example! Because this guitar was specially ordered, the original price would have been significantly higher than a standard Byrdland.

The Gibson Shipping Ledger shows the following entry: "BYRDLAND A-27771 Spec (double cutaway) Guzzardo Music, Rockford, Ill. June 16 1958."