Probably One of Only Three Dark Cherry-Flame PAF Byrdland's

This unbelievably rare single Florentine cutaway 'dark cherry' top-of-the-line 17-inch-wide thinbody (2 1/8 inches deep) guitar weighs just 6.70 lbs. Carved spruce top reinforced with two parallel braces, solid 'flamed birdseye' maple back and sides.mNine-ply binding on the top of the guitar, five-ply binding on the back, five-ply binding on the headstock, three-ply binding on the fretboard plus two white lines on either side, and single-bound f-holes. Three-piece highly flamed maple/mahogany/maple neck with a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a wonderful medium profile. Headstock with seventeen degree peghead angle and inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl flowerpot ("torch") inlay. Two-layer (black on white) truss-rod cover with "Custom" engraved in white. Black-painted headstock rear face. Serial number ("63262") impressed into the back of the headstock. Individual Kluson Sealfast tuners with tulip-shaped metal buttons. Short scale length of 23 1/2 inches, Ebony fretboard with pointed end and 22 wide jumbo frets with inlaid pearl block position markers. Two original PAF humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and outputs of 7.50k and 7.39k. Tortoiseshell pickguard with five-layer (white/black/white/black/white) plastic binding. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles on a rosewood base and an original factory-ordered Bigsby. All hardware gold-plated. With the original Gibson orange oval label inside the bass f-hole, the style ("Byrdland") written in black ink and the serial number ("A 34698") stamped in black. Stamped in black inside the treble 'f' hole is the factory order number (FON) "R 4551 1". This fine example is one of only one hundred and ten Byrdlands made in 1960, and most probably the only one that year in the special factory-ordered Dark Cherry Flame (we know of only two other Dark Cherry Byrdland's - an April 1959 guitar, serial # A 29577 and an October 1961 guitar that we sold several years ago - serial # 35016. There is some very fine finish checking on the back of the body and some very slight surface finish only cracks around the strap pin by the neck and the jack input on the side of the body. Otherwise this exceptionally rare and unbelievably beautiful forty-nine year old guitar is is exceptionally fine-to-near mint (9.00) condition. Housed in its original Gibson brown five-latch hardshell case with pink plush lining (9.00).

This guitar is is one of the very first of the third variant Byrdlands with the pointed Florentine cutaway. According to the Gibson factory shipping records (copy included) this specially ordered guitar was entered in the ledger on October 5th, 1960.
It is identical in every way to the other 1961 Dark Cherry Byrdland (serial # 35016) that we sold nearly five years ago, which we had aquired from the private collection of Norman Harris and is featured on p. 138 of Norman's Rare Guitars: 30 Years of Buying, Selling and Collecting.

Named after famed 1950s guitarists Billy Byrd and Hank Garland, the $550.00 Byrdland was unveiled in 1955 as the top-of-the-line model in the then new thinline series. Patterned after the L-5CES, except 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. In late 1960 the body was restyled with a pointed Florentine cutaway to facilitate access to the fingerboard. The newer shape entailed the use of a slightly shorter pickguard. The Byrdland is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful guitars ever made.