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

This top-of-the-line 17-inch thinline guitar weighs in at just 7.00 lbs. and has wonderfully fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a short scale length of 23 1/2 inches. Carved spruce top with single-bound f-holes, solid maple back and sides, two-piece rock maple neck with center mahogany strip, and multi-bound ebony fretboard with 22 wide jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block positions markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl flowerpot inlay. Individual Kluson Sealfast tuners with tulip-shaped metal buttons. Two original PAF humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and perfectly matched outputs of 7.86k and 7.85k. 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 retainer bridge with nylon saddles on a rosewood base and an original factory-ordered Bigsby. All hardware gold-plated. This fine example is one of only ninety-seven Byrdlands made in 1961, and most probably one of only two in the special factory-ordered Dark Cherry Flame. Apart from some minor surface checking, a tiny chip on the bass side of the headstock binding, a tiny crack on the treble side of the fretboard binding (by the nineteenth fret), some minor crystallization in two small areas on the pickguard, and a few tiny marks on the top, this is in near fine condition. Most of the gold-plating on the pickup covers is worn and there is some minor tarnishing to rest of the gold-plated hardware. An exceptional example -- we know of only one other in this color! Housed in its original Gibson brown hardshell case with pink plush lining (8.75).

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.

This guitar is 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.