Gibson's Byrdland was named after two of Nashville's best guitarists of the 1950s - Billy Byrd and Hank Garland. This 1966 Byrdland has the additional notoriety of having been owned by the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and by noted guitarist Perry Lederman.Lederman and Garcia met in the Berkeley, CA, folk scene in the early 1960s. When a fire destroyed Lederman's home in 1979, Garcia gave him the Byrdland so he would have a guitar to play. They stayed in touch, and around 1992, when Garcia sent Lederman documentation about his previous ownership of the guitar, he also contributed to Lederman's medical bills for lymphoma.
Garcia last saw Lederman when he invited the family backstage for a Dead concert at the Boston Garden on September 27, 1994. Lederman died eight months later, in May 1995, and Garcia died three months after that. Both were 53.
The guitar is a typical 1960s Byrdland with Florentine cutaway, except for the obvious - the Bigsby tailpiece that came off a Gretsch. In excellent condition, with a notarized letter from Garcia and original hard case, this guitar is now offered at $40,000.
For further appreciation...
FedEx pack in which the letter was sent
