Burns' Guitars Showcase

[(doctorno)]

I just wanted to let you know that I have re-recorded my instrumental version of George Harrison´s "Something" today. It is available for download on my website:
http://homepage.mac.com/markushorn/guitar/guitar.html

It is a very simple recording and shows the sound of the Burns Marvin very well, I think, because I used only one guitar, one bass guitar and a drum machine using my 8-track tape recorder as a 4-track machine (overdubbing the solo) - there are a few minor mistakes in the recording, but nevertheless I like it - I highly prefer the old fashioned recording method with a tape machine - you have got to practise before you play and play the whole track at once - no editing and no messing around with a mouse and a computer screen .

The idea was to play lead and rhythm at once. I used the middle pickup straight into the top boost channel of my VOX AC30CC1. No effects at all - except for a little reverb and compression on the stereo master.

[(admin)]

Markus: Well, that is really something.

I really enjoyed this recording. The tone of the Burns certainly adds a sparkle to the beginning and I like the gritty tone that you work up to. It builds nicely to the "instrumental" which is another surprise for the listener.

Thanks for taking the time to record this great song. There is certailny something in the way you move this guitar. Well done.

[(royclough)]

Here's some guys who capture that Burns period well

[(admin)]

Thanks, Roy. Nice Burns' tone from the Wild Roses.

[(sgstandard)]

I recently received my new Fiesta Red Burns Hank Marvin Signature guitar. It's hard to believe that this guitar is not more popular. For approx $1200, and that included the shipping across the pond, Sperzel locking Tuners, hard case, leather tool pouch and tools, leather strap, manual, an exotic guitar that virtually NO ONE has, and a vibrato that actually stays in tune - it's a pretty sweet deal, considering many PRS's are over two grand. For those interested in more distortion, the Stratocaster is easier to dial in, but the Marvin can be distorted with proper settings. However - the guitar shines most on clean settings. This gives the Rez-O-tubes a chance to work their magic. This guitar will MAKE you want to use less distortion - but echo and reverb sound lovely. I'm not particularly a Shadow's fan, or anything like that, but this guitar makes you not want to play anything else. Though called "Fiesta Red", the color is more like a salmon pink. Partnered with the mint green pickguard, the maple fingerboard, flamed maple neck, and the aluminum vibrato plate, and chrome, the guitar is very eye-catching. Interestingly, the neckplate on these red ones is different than on the white models. The white model has a black neckplate that says "Marvin - 1964". The red ones have a WHITE neckplate that has a silhouette of the Shadows members, and says "The Shadows". This same "silhouette" emblem appears on the vibrato plate of the Marvin legend Custom Deluxe. According to Barry Gibson, these were made in error. Both neckplates were supposed to be the same. Here's a quick pic-Better pics soon.

[(jfine)]

I've been a big fan of Burns guitars since I saw the Honeycombs with their Bisons on TV back in the '60's. I'm fortunate enough to have a modern Nu-Sonic (the '90's version that looks kind of like a Telecaster) that Barry Gibson (the head of the current Burns company) built for me in 2002. I saw a review of one in a British magazine and had to have one. A friend of mine here in California, who collects Burns guitars (he's got a couple of Legends, the '90's reissue of the Hank Marvin model), put me in touch with Barry, who told me the Nu-Sonic had just been discontinued and there were none left, but he'd be happy to build me one on special order. Wow! I couldn't turn that down, and I wound up with a one-of-a-kind Nu-Sonic. Swamp-ash chambered body with a chili-pepper-shaped soundhole (the regular ones were solidbodies), three Rez-O-Matic single-coils, 5-way pickup selector, two-knob (volume and tone) setup with a push-pull on the tone control to add the bridge pickup to the neck or neck-and-middle positions (the production versions had a four-knob setup and a piezo bridge, which Barry said he couldn't get the parts for anymore), and a birdseye maple neck with an ebony fingerboard bound in white pearloid (regular ones had rosewood with no binding), and a Marvin-style scroll headstock. The guitar is in Burns' Greenburst with a black pickguard and a light amber tint on the neck. Just a gorgeous thing, and I'm lucky to have it! I'll try to get some pics of it up sometime.

[(martynwelch)]

This is my greenburst Marvin that I sold a while back to fund yet another strat - lovely neck to handle and some great tones but was strat-obsessed at the time and needed the money.
Should have kept it . . .

[(somebodyelseuk)]

Hi. My first post.
I kind of feel like an intruder as I don't actually own a Ric. Have lusted after a 36-/12 for years, but to be honest they don't suit my music and I can't justify spending ~£2k on a 'living room' guitar... I did get the next best thing yesterday, though an Italia Rimini 12. It has that vibe about it and it was cheap (£400)... anyhoo, getting to the point.
I own a Burns Marquee. My opinion. It's a very well made instrument, feels and plays great. It's let down by the tremolo and the pick ups, though.
The guitar sounds like a Strat copy. The pickups are cheap Korean things with Burns covers on them - not the same pickups as on a Marvin.
The trem is a licenced Korean copy of the Point trem, and I believe there have been a lot of issues with substandard material used in the fulcrum points leading to failures.
It was never going to sound like a Marvin - different wood, pickups and tremolo, but with a good set of pickups it would be a great alternative to the Strat.

The Marvin has a more gritty edge than a Strat (more mids?), which (IMHO) is partly down to it's pickups and a lot to do with the trem unit.

FWIW. my Dad played a Splitsonic in the mid 60s. He bought it in 63, though he'd gone out to get a Strat, because he could get the Burns and an AC30 for the price of the Strat. He often gets nostalgic about the Burns, so when I saw one on eBay recently I was going to get it for him... until he confessed, it was actually not very good and he regretted not getting the Strat and sticking with the amp he'd been using. I actually bought the Marquee for him, but I was so disappointed with the sound, that I didn't want to give it to him. He plays two old Strats now. He'll be 70 next year, so I'm hoping to be able to get him a Marvin.

[(admin)]

Julian: Welcome to the RRF and thanks for your interesting comments regarding Burns instruments. As you will certainly note, we talk about many guitars here not just Rickenbackers. You have to love the Shadows' Burns period. A very unique tonality and a sound that set Hank apart from other guitar instrumentalists of the day.

[(somebodyelseuk)]

Cheers, dude.
Nice to know it's not one of those places where nothing other than 'insert brand' exists. I'm a massive fan of Rics, but at the time I started playing, I don't think they were even being imported to the UK (I think Rose Morris had been marketing a knock-off and Ric pulled the plug on them). I have a mid 80s brochure somewhere from when they first re-introduced them to the UK and it still makes me drool.
I own quite a few guitars now, 15 or 16, mostly Strats & Teles (Fenders, Levinson & ESPs), a Takamine, a couple of Yamaha SG, the Burns, a couple of Vintages and the Italia.
I don't want anyone to think I was slagging the Burns off. It is a exceptionally well made instrument (like the Italia). The quality of instruments being produced in Korea now is on a par with what we were getting from Japan in the mid 80s. I can't help feeling that Rickenbacker is missing a marketing opportunity by not producing outside of the States. Whilst a Ric is perhaps not a mainstream instrument like a Strat or Les Paul, as the Italia is showing, there is a market for a budget/midrange Rickenbacker-esque instrument. I understand and respect why Ric are sticking to their guns on this, but if they were to produce, say, the 330, 360 and 4001 bass under license in the manner that Fender do with Squiers, ie make it clear that it is a Ric product, but with a 'sister' brand name and close, but not quite exactly like the real thing from a timber point of view, they'd sell, they wouldn't hurt the parent company as long as they aren't quite the real deal (don't put the Rickenbacker name anywhere other than in small letters underneath the main brand name). They'd need to be good enough to maintain a reputation of quality, but with enough 'missing' (eg. stereo output, double trussrod, sharkfin inlays etc) to keep people lusting after the 'real thing'.
In some way, maybe that's the whole point of the Burns Marquee, afterall?

[(admin)]

Julian: Since RICs introduction of Rickenbackers in the heyday of the Beatles fame they have never looked back. They have continued to maintain their quality throughout their manufacturing career by keeping tried an true policies in place. Fender's model has compromised their quality over the years in ways that I will leave to the historians. As a consumer I have owned Rickenbackers crafted in the 1960 to 2000s, each one of the finest quality. If it's not broken, as they say, don't fix it.

Burns guitars have changed over the years too, at least as far as I can determine from the reviews I have read and the few that I have played that have been produced off-shore. It is disappointing when someone says they have a Vox, a Burns, a Fender, a Gretsch and the next question from the listener is oh what year is it or is it a real one or where was it made? When you say you have a Rickenbacker that is all that needs to be said. End of story.

I would still like to get my hands on a Marvin to see how it stacks up.