Burns & Baldwin Serial Numbers

[gbh46]

My Baldwin Marvin bought new in 1970 serial number 20686.
It developed a fault, the neck box cracked so I took it all the way back to the factory just as they were winding things up.
Luckily they made me a new body and neck, I left it there and collected it the following week with a much better neck than the original.
I lived near Bradford in Yorkshire at the time so it was a bit of a trek.
I think it must have been just about the last Marvin to leave the factory before Baldwin closed it all down.

[mgeek]

That's really interesting! Do you know for sure that they made a new neck rather than taking a nos one off the shelf and spending the time reassembling and setting it up?

If you could manage pics it would be wonderful to see if there's a date stamp on the neck

[beeflin]

My greenburst Burns Double Six has the serial number 2038, dating it as early January 1963. It's unusual in that its neck has a natural finish rather than matching the body.

[TIM-W]

This is a subject that has been discussed at length on other sites and written about in books relating to Burns production.
the serial numbers of guitars made can only be relied on as a guide to their production dates as the neck plates were produced in large quantities
and fitted to instruments as they came out of the box (so to speak)
My Marvin is serial number 19371 and the scratchplate date is NOV1965, the lower scratch plate says BALDWIN, my friends guitar had a later number and an
and an earlier scratchplate date, JUNE 1965 and had a BURNS logo fitted.
If I remember correctly, even Eddie Cross found this subject confusing when asked about it.
My own guitar has taken a beating over the years, it was probably the first to be fitted with a 5 way selector in 1966
my father worked for DECCA electronics and they carried out the mod.
the truss rod failed and a new (scroll) neck was fitted. the windings on the pickups corroded and Burns no longer
making guitars a set of Kinmans were fitted , these have now been replaced with a set of Burns Noiseless and it
still sounds as good as the day I first got it.
Out of interest,I have a Bison 64 I got with all the electrics stripped out ( for some unknown reason) and I have rewired it using Entwistle noiseless
and they are just as good as the Burns version with the addition of a coil tap option.

[JimN]

PXL_20231205_234701396-picsay.jpg

My greenburst Burns Double Six has the serial number 2038, dating it as early January 1963. It's unusual in that its neck has a natural finish rather than matching the body.

Whatever the serial number is, that guitar is most unlikely to be from early 1963. The model had not then been finalised and prototypes were differently-shaped and still using the Burns cradle-type vibrato units.

Not earlier than 1964, I'd say, and probably later than that.

[losttango]

I have a Baldwin 12 string semi-acoustic, sunburst finish, serial no 71,627

I'd be interested to learn what that signifies in terms of date, model name etc