One of the Most Beautiful Guitars Ever Made

This top-of-the-line 17-inch thinline guitar weighs in at just 6.70 lbs. and has nice fat nut width of just over 1 5/18 inches, a medium-to-thin neck profile, and a short scale length of 23 1/2 inches. Two-piece carved spruce top with single-bound f-holes, one-piece solid maple back and sides with nine-ply binding on the top and five-ply binding on the bottom. Three-piece rock maple neck with center mahogany strips, 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 patent-number humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and outputs of 7.94k and 7.20k. 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 ribbed-side conical-shape "Witch Hat" knobs. Style number ("Byrdland") and serial number ("954067") on the orange oval printed label inside the bass f-hole. Gibson Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with metal saddles on a rosewood base and specific three-loop tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. This is an exceptionally fine (9.00) example, with just a couple of wear spots either side of the neck at the first/second fret position. Some slight tarnishing to the gold-plated pickup covers and the minimum amount of finish checking. There is some oxidization of the pickguard which has one tiny hole. It is one of only one hundred and ninety-four guitars shipped in 1969, out of a total production run of 1,189 between 1955 and 1970. Complete with the original Gibson instruction manual / guarantee. Housed in the original Gibson Byrdland five-latch black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.00).

This is a transitional example from 1968 which does have "Made in USA" on the back of the headstock - but does not have "Union Made" on the orange label.

"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. The newer shape entailed the use of a slightly shorter pickguard…Subsequently, the neck was changed from a 2-piece to a 3-piece mape lamination for added strength in mid-62. About a year later, the Byrdland was no longer systematically built with a solid 2-piece maple back and one-piece laminated maple backs were brought in" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, pp. 220-221).