Does anyone know anything about this Burns?

[Tone]

Interesting looking guitar on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI. ... SS:GB:1123

I haven't heard of this one but if it's genuine the opening price seems very cheap. Comments anyone?

Cheers.

Tony

[Gatwick1946]

Thanks for the heads up on this one Tone. I shall follow the sale with interest

Kindest regards

Christopher

[JimN]

The sales claims from the auction:

This guitar was handcrafted by James Ormston Burns in late 1966 and given to Hank Marvin in 1967 complete with a special custom made flight case for Hank's gigs...the case is included in this sale...
Note the distinctive difference in the guitar head, machine heads and hand signed pickups. different from the Marvin guitars that were mass produced for general sale in the 1960's...less than 400 Marvins were ever made.
This was designed for Hank and as such is not like the ones sold back then or the Chinese re-releases you see today from Barry Gibson current owner of Burns London guitars...
This guitar was owned by Hank until 1971 when James Ormston Burns acquired it back from Hank, Jim Burns owned the guitar for 9 years until my cousin Bobby bought it directly from Jim Burns in 1980 and he has owned it now for 32 years and counting...
Jim Burns himself explained the history of the guitar in great detail on the day of purchase back in 1980 at Symphony Sounds music shop Silksworth Row Bank Sunderland...
This is a unique guitar as there is no other like it and makes it a highly desirable piece for a collector...
It is showing it's age with chips and cracks in the pickup cases, chips, cracks in the finish and wear marks on the body as it has been regulary played over the past three decades and the sound it still produces is spine tingling. Makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you listen to the rich tones it still produces today...
The guitar is fully original right down to the wires...nothing has been touched...
Comes with all the original plates on the back that have all the original serial numbers and pattern numbers on them.
We also have a box of five original custom 1966 machine heads,that was bought at the time as spares, these will be included in the sale...

The instrument looks like a late 1960s/early 1970s Marvin from the Baldwin era, albeit with a Burns-logoed treble-side upper-bout small scratchplate. It has the flattened Baldwin headstock and side decorations and the pickups are not Rez-O-Matiks but are the type fitted to the Baldwin GB66 (and later versions of the Vibraslim). It may well have been made up from the then-abundant factory-sourced parts which became available when Baldwin closed production, c.1970.

The case is not a flight case by any stretch of the imagination. It looks, as it happens, very Japanese. The part of the story which places that case (containing a guitar with that headstock) in Hank's hands in 1966 is likely to be just wishful thinking (at best). Additionally, Hank, to my knowledge, was never seen playing a Marvin with the Baldwin-type headstock. He did use a model with a bound neck in the late sixties, but it still had the original violin-style scroll headstock - rather like the Chinese "reissues" sold by Barry Gibson.

The guitar certainly isn't worthless; it is a genuine UK-made instrument (if not quite from the glory days of Burns) but nevertheless, considering its features and the condition, the starting price is probably a wise move. Honest wear may add a certain something to an early sixties Strat or Jaguar, but it adds nothing to a Burns.

I don't believe any of the stuff about Hank. There's just too much circumstantial against it.

JN

[Graylion]

Doesn't it look like the earlier type of angled selector switch? Difficult to see from the pics but I thought the later type were like the anniversary model with the switch aligned vertically. Without any documentary provenance, all the claims should be taken with a large pinch of salt! Let's hope that the buyer isn't taken for a ride! Cheers, Lionel

[Tone]

Thanks for the info' Jim and Lionel. Jim, you're a fount of knowledge as always.

I've put the guitar on my watch list and I'll be interested to see how much it makes. I won't be bidding on it, though!

Cheers.

Tony

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi all.
Definitely a guitar from the 1965-70 range "The Marvin" but still a very nice guitar.
Regards Geoff.

[George Geddes]

Jim is spot on, there is no evidence to suggest that Hank owned this - the headstock in wrong, and his white Burns (as we know) was stolen in 1971...

Incidentally, I was in Denmark Street last week and Hanks are selling a green Marvin 'S' which they claim was 'ex-Hank Marvin'. No price, and I didn't bother asking.

George

[JimN]

Additionally, the passage "This guitar was owned by Hank until 1971 when James Ormston Burns acquired it back from Hank" does not ring true.

Jim Burns sold the Burns London company to Baldwin in 1965. All deals would have been taken over by Baldwin, and it would be Baldwin to whom any loan guitars would be returned. By 1971, Jim Burns was deeply involved in the Hayman brand for rival distributors Arbiter (having also been active in a minor way with his mooted "Ormston" brand which effectively provided the prototypes for Hayman's range).

One quick aside: I'm sure it was 1972 when Hank's guitars were stolen. He was seen on BBC TV using a Marvin in spring 1972 (the Cliff Richard Saturday teatime show) and it was 1972 when Cliff and MWF were doing their Palladium summer season. I was living in London that year, only about four miles from Oxford Circus. I still can't work out why I never went to see the show...

JN

[AlanMcKillop]

I'm pretty sure when The Shads toured abroad in 66/67 and used the white prototype guitars (Australian Bandstand), Hank's guitar did have the Baldwin flattened head stock. Bruce's was the traditional Burns headstock and it was said that when they arrived back in the UK, the guitars went back to Burns, but the bodies were destroyed. I'll check my pics.

[George Geddes]

Slip of the keyboard, Jim, I think you're correct about the date.

George