Good Looking Burns

[Billyboygretsch]

Nice looking original paint job. Perhaps Jim should have considered these more vibrant colours like Fender. Could have appealed to a wider market

[BrianD]

I remember seeing that guitar in David Crozier's Old School Guitars (Newhaven) two years ago. Is it yours now?

[dusty fretz]

I’ve checked out more pics of this example on the relevant website and, although at first glance it looks good, the whole guitar is actually a bit of a dog’s dinner. Burns certainly offered custom colour pastel shades at appropriately extra cost, but I’ve never seen another in Surf Green and back then this particular shade wasn’t exactly abundant here. Nor have I known Burns stamp colour codes in neck pockets, so perhaps ‘SG’ was simply an abbreviation to denote ‘Short Scale Guitar’. If so, it’s a pity this wasn’t heeded, as the body is obviously a Jazz Split Sound and unfortunately it’s been mated to a neck that belongs on a Vista Sonic/Split Sonic. The latter is an odd and ill-informed choice, as it employs a 24 3/4” scale, unlike the 23 3/8” used by the shorter-scale Jazz models. The resulting mis-matched combination means that this guitar will NEVER enjoy correct intonation and I see the bridge saddles have indeed been dragged back as far as possible to try and compensate for this basic design flaw, but there’s far from enough adjustment available to overcome the significant 1 3/8” difference involved. This is a pity, as it’s apparent a lot of effort has gone into completing this six-string special, which features a custom ‘Split Sound’ headstock badge and Van Gent tuners with covers carrying the Boosey & Hawkes logo. To be extra picky, the plastic buttons aren’t correct for the Jazz Split Sound model, the neckplate should be black and the rotary selector is topped with a Vox-type metal knob. However, it IS a hybrid, so some artistic licence is allowable.

In the accompanying text, the owner states he was knocked out by the look of the guitar, which is understandable, although I bet he didn’t feel the same way about the inherent intonation problems. This could explain why he subsequently sold it and I’m just glad I wasn’t the one who shelled out £1199 for a unique but unoriginal and more importantly, untunable example!