Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[dubkitty]

well, now i’ve done it. i was browsing on Reverb when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a miniature sled and eight…no, wait a minute. it was a Greco copy of a Gibson Byrdland. now, some of you might not recall that i’m rather obsessed with short-scale guitars and have lusted after a Byrdland for a quarter of a century, to the extent that i seriously considered a Chinese copy off eBay even though they all have the Florentine cutaway which i hate. unfortunately, due to their rarity and Gibson badge they seldom go for less than eight thousand dollars, which is obviously out of my range (in my figuring system, “four fucking White Falcons”). but this was only $1750, and i had $7000 available on PayPal Credit so i went for it. i felt like this was probably the only chance i’d have for the rest of my life.

needless to say, i’m chuffed. i have enough electric guitars now that there aren’t many i still want, but Byrdlands have been a white whale for me for decades. i also wanted a proper jazz archtop…i love my White Falcon, but it’s really more of a rock guitar than a jazzer. the only issue is that the outside layer only of the multi-ply plastic binding around the body is deteriorating, but it doesn’t appear to be coming off in chunks. and even if i eventually have to have the binding redone it’s still 1/4 the cost of a “real” Byrdland. share my joy. come to me, my Australasian baby.

https://reverb.com/item/93309000-1976-g ... t=93309000

[dubkitty]

FWIW the seller also has a number of other Grecos and other Japanese makes for pretty reasonable prices though the shipping is costly.

[Chankgeez]

Nice score, dubs! Yeah, I'm watching more than a few of those.

[dubkitty]

i can’t think of anything else that would compel me to jump immediately other that a B-Bender Tele that works well and is less than $1000.

[le lambin]

Let us know how it is when you get it dubs! There is a super cheap Greco les Paul custom nearby with serious issues but it looks cool…always curious about those.

What is short scale on a Gibson? Shorter than 24”?

[dubkitty]

23.5”. tucked neatly between my 24.75” guitars and the 22.5” Duo Sonic which i love but wouldn’t be great to play jazz on.

come to think of it, medium flats could make the DS a Jazz Monster.

[dubkitty]

ooh, maybe it’ll be here for Christmas. i still want a full-depth archtop, though; the Falcon and Byrdland are both what they call “thin-line” in archtop world—NOT to be confused with “thin-line” semihollows like the ES-335 and Starfire—i.e. about half/60% the depth of an L-5.

i checked, and Pickguardian does tortoise acrylic triple-bound Byrdland pickguards so that’ll be sorted. it also has the wrong tailpiece, but WD sells a replacement that looks adequate. i suppose Greco may have been trying to not make an exact clone in hopes of avoiding problems…1976-78 was around the zenith of the Lawsuit Guitar Years.

the tuners are also wrong, Gotoh with kidneybean Grover buttons, but they’re good quality and the correct nickel or chrome keystone buttons are a fairly common aftermarket item. if i was super cheap i could de-plate the gold keystone buttons from the parts box, but it’d be much easier to order them out.

[dubkitty]

oh, now i get it…the seller is the biggest used guitar store in Sydney. no wonder they have so many lawsuit specials, which would have been easier for Aussies to afford than US or European imports.

[dubkitty]

while looking at Gibson Byrdlands to see how their appointments differ from the Greco, it struck me that a previous owner must have systematically removed the original gold hardware, which remains in the very corroded but visibly gold-plated bridge. it’s possible that the plating corroded everywhere, or that the PO had a pathological aversion to gold hardware. anyway, first i’ll need to see how the non-original pickups and tuners are, and then decide whether or not to redo everything in gold. i’m not that huge of a gold hardware fan, but if i have to replace stuff i might as well go deep and that bridge looks pretty beat. sometimes i wish i didn’t care about shit like this, because it’d make my life much easier.

[Blackened Soul]

Well it looks like you have to work up a reggae version of cat scratch fever… (rimshot )

[dubkitty]

doesn’t Ted play a pointy one (i.e. Florentine cutaway?)

[dubkitty]

“Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” would make a better reggae song. “she wants to bang an orang-a-tang-a-tang-a-tang in the band” in one of those sweet Gregory Isaacs voices would rule.

[dubkitty]

a big influence on whether i re-gild the Byrdland will be if the pickups, described by the seller as “generic humbuckers,” are any good at all. if i have to replace them it’s simple enough to get gold covers, tuners are easy, and bridges and correct tailpieces are common. the biggest asspain would be wiring, so insh’allah i can just splice new pickups into the leads for the old ones. not free of asspain, but lessening the problems. i do not relish the idea of spelunking in an archtop.

[Blackened Soul]

Some times you luck out.. if they the pickups are made by maxon they should be as good as gibsons

[dubkitty]

the seller says that the electronics were all changed out (as were the tuners) and that the ‘buckers are generic. that doesn’t mean they’re bad, but makes Maxons less likely. i’d think lower-output pickups which i’d expect from generic would be more appropriate. we shall see what we shall see. i’m entirely open to replacing the covers, and maybe the polepieces if the correct size is available, for Byrd Bling rather than changing them altogether which obviously is also cheaper. i honestly think someone back in its history just really, really hated gold hardware. or as previously noted, it could just have gone bad all over…Sydney of course is on the sea, and salt air HATES gold plating especially when mixed with summer sweat. i’m curious what cans of worms await.

i just remembered that i have a full set of gold Grover-compatible keystone buttons in the parts box of unknown origin somewhere back in the mists of the early century. which means i can put Imperials on and change the buttons.