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Picture supplied by Jeremy Farrell from 1961

Paul Day offers the following info on the photo

" Jim on his own-built, twin-neck Hawaiian guitar and Phil Sweet playing that one-off, twin-cutaway, three-pickup semi, with a couple of the Tele combos in the foreground."

Jim would have been 36 in April 1961 (does it sound disrespectful to say he looks older than that in the picture?).

Does the fact that Louise Farrell is there suggest that it was before the move to Cherry Tree Rise?

The fact that Jim and Phil are wearing Hawaiian lei suggests that the picture was taken at a function - maybe in a room at a pub?
Unlikely to be a regular event - the opportunities for Hawaiian-style gigs was pretty small in 1961!

There is a third speaker (or maybe amplifier/speaker) on the chair to the right that has that well-used knocked-about-at-the-edges look so typical of home-made equipment found in pubs at that time.

JB without a syrup makes him look older. I'm pretty sure this was a wedding. I think when the factory was at Cherry Tree Rise they still all lived at the house.

Interesting (though wildly off-topic) fact - Roding Valley, the station on the Central Line just a few steps away from the Cherry Tree Rise factory is the least busy (people entering and leaving) of any of the 270 stations on the London Undergound.

That's interesting Ray. Probably much busier when Burns were drawing in buyers from all over the world !!!

The occasion pictured is the wedding of Peter Farrell, who played a major role in the Burns story, helping Jim build guitars in the basement of 131 Queens Road, Buckhurst Hill. Like his brother James and mother Louise, Peter was a director of the Burns group of companies, together with Jim Burns and Ike Isaacs, at the time of the sale to Baldwin in 1965.

Any clues about the bass player, and why he's not playing a Burns bass?

The 1964 letter to me from Phil Storm (Sweet)

lists seven directors: J. O. Burns (Managing), the Farrell family (A.L., P.W.D. and J.D.), Ike Isaacs, C.F. Black FCA (accountant) and J.F. Burns (Jim's wife?)

Phil Storm as a stage name is understandable, but it's interesting that he used it as his 'business' name as well.
Ray

As I put in my previous posting, the Burns directors at the time of the sale to Baldwin were Jim Burns, the three Farrell family members and Ike Isaacs. Only these five signed the contract of sale dated October 1st 1965, so perhaps there had been some sort of boardroom shuffle in the interim.