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That is indeed true.

I had the proofs for a long time but they got lost when i closed my music shop and moved everything to another. Hank booked the photographer and was then left to pick up the bill!! The firm was run by a guy named Tony Gypp. Him and a Rep delivered two guitars to my shop and we asked how much discount for cash. They said 'is it real cash' and when we said it was they knocked 40% off!! We gave them the money and they split it outside the shop, went off in different directions and I never heard from the company again!!

JimN wrote:

drakula63 wrote:There's a clip of Hank on a Norwegian or Dutch TV show from about 1981 using a 'new' version of the Marvin. It has a lighter fretboard (Maple?) and a conventional tremolo arm. I think there was some suggestion that these were going to go into production and that the Shads (or at least Hank) would endorse them by playing them. Obviously it never happened for one reason or another...

But it DID happen!

I had one of those 1981 Littleport-built Marvins.

I must admit, this surprises me. I have never seen any other appearance by them or mention of them apart from that TV appearance. I have to assume that Hank can't have been that impressed or he would have used said instrument more than once. Perhaps it was never intended that he would use them apart from the initial promo stuff? For my part, it never looked 'right', some how. A sort of hybrid of the Burns Marvin and the Fender Strat. Interesting to know that it did go into production as I had assumed it never got beyond the prototype.

StuartD wrote:That is indeed true.

I had the proofs for a long time but they got lost when i closed my music shop and moved everything to another. Hank booked the photographer and was then left to pick up the bill!! The firm was run by a guy named Tony Gypp. Him and a Rep delivered two guitars to my shop and we asked how much discount for cash. They said 'is it real cash' and when we said it was they knocked 40% off!! We gave them the money and they split it outside the shop, went off in different directions and I never heard from the company again!!

Incredible. Sounds dodgy to me. Maybe they were inspired by Arfur Daley from 'Minder' - or Del Boy - and just wanted to make a quick buck? I wouldn't have thought that they displayed much by way of good business practice.

I don't think that it was a bad guitar,however it sounded and felt nothing like a Marvin (or a Strat) the pickups were in different places due to the 22 fret neck and truss rod adjuster, they also had ceramic magnets, the examples that I have seen had chunky necks and the trem was a cheap Strat copy job, Jim had made a prototype mini rezo-tube unit from the normal strat unit I guess that it was too expensive to manufacture!

Any images of these Marvin S?
Or website?
Thank you

Moderne wrote:The 1980s Littleport Marvins did go into production and they turn up on eBay from time to time (I think there's one on there now!) ...

I notice this post appeared on Sept 23 last year. By a strange coincidence I bought this on eBay only a month later. Are we talking about the same thing?

Sorry for the delay in responding, but yes, that's a Littleport Marvin, from the Jim Burns Actualisers era, circa 1981 (or maybe just very early 1982).

Fenderman wrote:Is it true that the Burns guitars are too heavy?

I recently bought a greenburst Burns Shadows Bass and I must say it's somewhat heavier than my Fender Precision Bass, Fender Jazz Bass and Gibson Thunderbird.

JimN wrote:Sorry for the delay in responding, but yes, that's a Littleport Marvin, from the Jim Burns Actualisers era, circa 1981 (or maybe just very early 1982).

Thanks for that Jim. One thing I didn't mention at the time was the frets; they're very low and wide! Fine on a Les Paul Custom, but for a guitar like this they're about as far from ideal as it's possible to get. This means it's not much fun to play and more than once I've wondered whether I should refret it.

Forgot to mention that the serial number on mine is 20713, engraved on the neckplate. Looks like it was done by hand.