bfritsch1 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 My dear old dad left me this MPN: 614433 Gibson Byrdland Archtop guitar I got it Professionally restrung and set up. Vintage condition with some surface scratches and wear. Beautifully made with very low action, fast and slow styles and playability for jazz/blues. A lovely instrument to play and own but I do not know much about it or owning it as an as an investment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimR56 Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Hi bfritsch1, Congrats- that's a very nice item to inherit. We can get into a discussion about its value and investment potential, but there's something I noticed right away that I feel I should alert you to. The plastic pickguard on your guitar is beginning to break down and de-compose. This is very common for pickguards of this age. The gas that is released by the decomposition of this plastic is pretty nasty, and will corrode metal and metal (gold, in this case) plating. You need to remove that pickguard, and perhaps take the guitar back to the professional that set it up, and see if they can't help you find a replacement (and clean up the plating). I would also vacuum the case, and air it out as much as possible. Your guitar was made by Gibson while it was owned by the Norlin company, which (unfortunately) is not a good thing, relatively speaking. It's still a very nice guitar, just not as valuable or desired as it might have been otherwise. You can look at ebay completed auctions to see what these have been selling for (be sure to compare it to examples of the same era, 1970's), and you can also go to gbase.com and try a search to see what dealers are asking for Byrdlands of this vintage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Yes indeed, lovely guitar, but get that pickguard off of there now. Keep it so a replica can be made & store it away from the guitar. Btw, very cool burst color! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Yes, remove the pickguard and store it away from the guitar. Keep the pickguard binding; it can be reused on a new pickguard. Collectors love that. Norlin era it may be but it is still worth a lot of money, in a nicely aged patina and fine condition as the one you got. Norlin era Gibsons get an unfair bad rap; the Norlin "rot" affected mainly the acoustic steel string guitars and solid-bodies such as the Les Paul. The archtop department craftsmen who built Gibson archtops pre-Norlin were largely the same ones who built Gibson archtops during-Norlin. OK, plain looking non-figured maple was used during the Norlin era but plain looking maple is fine sounding maple. It just looks plain. Does not mean that it is inferior tonewood. Word has it that Norlin ordered the craftsmen to use up whatever plain maple was in the inventory instead of "wasting" them. It was also said that Norlin turned over the wood-buying duties from an experienced old Gibson hand to a newly minted MBA and the MBA bought a big batch of plain looking maple! (A few of the old Gibson archtop hands stayed behind in Kalamazoo when Gibson upped and left for Nashville. One of them is Aaron Cowles. Others such as JP Moats, Jim Deurloo, Marv Lamb, founded Heritage Guitars.) If you are knowledgeable of what you have, you won't allow a buyer to use "Norlin" to knock the price down. The Norlin era archtop department largely survived the Norlin influence because archtops were not a money-spinner and hence not a big concern in that era. Archtops came out in a trickle, measured in the tens annually. If it is a fine sounding and playing axe, it is a fine sounding and playing axe. And players would pay for that. Your 1971 Byrdland probably does not have the neck volute and that makes it more desirable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Beautiful guitar! Got to agree with what Jabberwocky has said - nothing at all wrong per se with Norlin-era semis and archtops, sure the wood wasn't always top grade visually but that didn't matter really. I'm in UK and any guitar dealer here would ask £3k(GBP) for your Byrdland, possibly more - they wouldn't get it in the current economic climate but..."it's worth what someone will pay for it" as they say. Get it insured if you are going to keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JO'C Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Beautiful guitar! Congrats! I've always wanted one of these. I love short scale guitars. They make for extreme bending possibilities. I tried to buy one at an auction last year and it went for $5000, about $1000 more than I wanted to pay. They do seem to be highly sought after amongst the right crowd, although if it was a couple of years older, it would be worth lots more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 . Welcome. My oh my . . . that's a beautiful burst. What a great legacy gift from your dad. Heed the comments above regarding your decaying pickguard. Regarding owning as an investment: Keep it in it's case. Protect it from temperature extremes. Play it if you like. Check/play it at least once a month (especially if you're storing it in tune to pitch) so you can stay on top of any changes that might occur. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 What a great legacy gift from your dad. What he said.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundjunkie Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 I've wanted a Byrdland since Ted Nugent immortalized them. What a gift! I wish Gibson would bring back more color options and the Florentine cut. You have a beautiful guitar there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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