Vibra Artiste with Maple Neck on You Tube demo

[Billyboygretsch]

There is on You Tube quomamuk a demonstration by the poster of a Burns Artiste with a maple neck. The guy does not seem to know much about the guitar and I am pretty sure the fingerboard has been replaced. However it is worth a look just to see an original finish Artiste with a maple neck. It has the early cream secondary plate but has a tremolo arm fitted. It also has the bulbous switch.
Although it looks like a maple fingerboard replacement it may not be which would make it an oddball and extremely rare
Sorry don't know how to put link onto the site but will try

[Billyboygretsch]

http://youtu.be/nVAFhITceC8

This is the link I copied

[RayL]

Hi Bill

You can see a picture of just such a guitar in Paul Day's 'The Burns Book'. It's the 1960 version of the Vibra-Artist with features inherited from the Artist, including the maple fingerboard and the smaller secondary plate. The main item missing is the bridge cover, otherwise it looks to be all original.

Can anyone provide a translation for the commentary on the video?

Ray

[Billyboygretsch]

Yes I agree Ray. I checked it out in the Burns book. The guy is Difficult to understand for sure. The only things I would query are the width of frets and the size of the neck position markers. They look much larger than on the rosewood neck models but I can't see the detail from Pauls photo. The tuners look original and again differ in that they are round and are not of the nut style. You will probably be more aware having a maple neck on yours. He states that it is a Burns Artist launched before the Viper series ? Never heard of them. Not sure what he is saying about the nut. Interesting that he states the rhythm switch is a phase switch ! Can't really see the controls to see if the knobs are original.
However the guitar looks and plays extremely well.
Would like to contact him to find out who owns it ( I think he mentions a Scot from Dundee but again cannot understand) and if it's up for sale

[cockroach]

From memory, with my Vibra Artiste which I had in 1967), the three position blade Fender type switch gave neck, all three, and bridge- you could get all the combinations in the mid position using the individual volume controls- the small slide switch was just a rhythm/solo switch.

Everything on mine was rusty or corroded, and the blade switch was evil- you could cut yourself changing settings on stage...

The pickups were quite powerful, and the neck was very slim, but the short scale was a bit fiddly

I still have the full set of machine heads (oval cream buttons) and that funny bar fitting which goes between the bridge and vibrato arm if anyone is interested?

[dusty fretz]

John

PM sent. Hope to hear back from you soon.

[burnsbonkers]

I'm not convinced it's totally original.
The board looks replaced to me. And them dots are just way too big.