ELECTRICIZED

Gibson Byrdland

1955-Present
Spruce, Maple, Ebony

The name Byrdland is a mashup of the names of Billy Bird and Hank Garland the two guitarists who participated in its design. They had requested a short scale archtop that would be less bulky than the traditional hollowbody, and this is basically what they got: A short-scale thinline L5CES.

P90s, PAF pickups, venetian or florentine cutaway, the Gibson Byrdland went through several phases, but was always seen as a remarkable and prized instrument. Some of Gibson’s finest. Hear it

Photo: Georgesmusic

Fender TC-90

2004-2007
Ash, Maple, Rosewood

Ever tried to pull a Gibson sound from a Telecaster? Perhaps this thinline TC-90 and its two Seymour Duncan P90s could help.

Double cutaway, neck-through, the Korean made TC-90 is not your average Tele, but according to Scott Grove, it “smokes the american stuff”. The Jim Adkins model (JA-90) released in 2007 is originally a single cutaway version of the TC-90.

Photo by terminal3

The guitar Gibson copied: Greco Super Real RS-90
1989

Greco is one of the first and most important “lawsuit guitar brand” of Japan. This means they were making copies of american guitars, often too close to the real deal, close enough that Gibson and Fender alike felt compelled to sue them, more than once. Greco’s copycat era climaxed in 1981 with their “Super Real” series, which are highly collectible and extremely rare models.

Although the Super Real Project supposedly lived only through 1981, the 1988 Greco RS-90 (or RS-900) sports the “Super Real Project” label.  Even more interesting, it might be an original design. The Gibson ES-137, closest sibling of the RS 90, was release in… 2002. Did Gibson copy a japanese maker?

Edit: Before the ES-137, there was the much older ES-135. The ES-137 is very much inspired by the ES-135, so this is a bit of a stretch. But the trapeze tailpiece on the ES-135 doesn’t work with this “Super Real Project” scenario. Kudos to Bay State Vintage Guitars for the comment.

Fender Coronado XII

1966-1970
Maple, Rosewood

Roger Rossmeisl was an outstanding luthier. Before collaborating with Fender, he had worked for Gibson, Rickenbacker and perhaps Mosrite. His first contribution at Fender came under the form of the Coronado series, a set of semi-hollow and thinline guitars sporting DeArmond pickups. Whether the “Hockey cross” headstock was an answer to a design problem or simply a touch of fantasy remains unsure,  but it made the Coronado XII one of the most peculiar and unmistakable Fender ever made.

Edit: The hockey headstock was actually designed a year earlier by M. Leo Fender himself for the Fender Electric XII. Hats off, Leo…

1990 Fender Telecaster Thinline “Bajo Sexto” Baritone guitar. Probably unique Prototype of the Bajo Sexto (not thinline) that would be produced between 1992 and 1998.

luthiermark:

Framus tenor guitar

Lovely. 1959 Peter Kraus Thinline. Tenor as in “4 strings”