Burns Recent Production
Posted: 08 Jul 2020, 09:45
Interesting background from Alan Entwistle on Burns production in China
No, the Marvins were made at "Farida" (Grand Reward) which was a Taiwan owned factory, that was about 30 mins drive from where we made the Club series, they recently went into receivership, producing generally mid to high end products, such as the very well made Farida guitars for Dawsons and Tanglewood's excellent Sundance/Masterdesign series, also K Yairi, and Saga instruments. On the electric side they made the Fender Classic Vibe series, and a number of the more unusual Fenders such as the Coronado semi acoustic.They made the Burns Elite series, the Marvin, Dream, Apache, Apache D6, D6, Bison 62, Bison Bass, Steer and Jet Sonic. Some D6's were made at the Club series factory. There were plans fully drawn up to make the Marvin, D6 and Steer (and eventually the Dream and Apache) at the Club/Revelation factory, but the takeover took place before this could happen. All in all the Farida made products were excellent, if not a bit pricey, however there is no doubt in my mind that transferring Elite to the Club, Rev factory would have been seamless, most probably with better price points resulting.
One downside of producing at the two factories, and i can say this now thus laying to rest a serious point of contention, is the use of Burns components such as knobs, switch tips etc, the Club series was often criticized for using Fender parts such as Strat and Tele knobs, etc, this actually came from the top as these specific "Burns" components were held specifically for the Elite series, so as to make a greater difference between Club and Elite.
Also some really stupid contradictory situations occurred between the two factories, for example at one point in Elite production they got a local engineering factory to make the Rezotube units, normally these were made by Booheung in Korea, and these are very good, the locally made ones, not so good, the pickups were another point as on some Elite series guitars the Rezomatiks had been made by Wusung Chorus which sounded rather sterile (Farida were supposed to use Entwistle Rezomatiks and for the most part they did, the Woosung Rezomatiks were used prior to the Entwistle ones, and they had back stocks so they used them up), thus came about the crazy situation where a Club series Bison 64's ended up with the better Booheung Rezotube units, and the correct Rezomatiks, against the Elite produced Marvins with the more inferior locally made Rezotubes, and incorrect Rezomatiks, yet at double the price point!
No, the Marvins were made at "Farida" (Grand Reward) which was a Taiwan owned factory, that was about 30 mins drive from where we made the Club series, they recently went into receivership, producing generally mid to high end products, such as the very well made Farida guitars for Dawsons and Tanglewood's excellent Sundance/Masterdesign series, also K Yairi, and Saga instruments. On the electric side they made the Fender Classic Vibe series, and a number of the more unusual Fenders such as the Coronado semi acoustic.They made the Burns Elite series, the Marvin, Dream, Apache, Apache D6, D6, Bison 62, Bison Bass, Steer and Jet Sonic. Some D6's were made at the Club series factory. There were plans fully drawn up to make the Marvin, D6 and Steer (and eventually the Dream and Apache) at the Club/Revelation factory, but the takeover took place before this could happen. All in all the Farida made products were excellent, if not a bit pricey, however there is no doubt in my mind that transferring Elite to the Club, Rev factory would have been seamless, most probably with better price points resulting.
One downside of producing at the two factories, and i can say this now thus laying to rest a serious point of contention, is the use of Burns components such as knobs, switch tips etc, the Club series was often criticized for using Fender parts such as Strat and Tele knobs, etc, this actually came from the top as these specific "Burns" components were held specifically for the Elite series, so as to make a greater difference between Club and Elite.
Also some really stupid contradictory situations occurred between the two factories, for example at one point in Elite production they got a local engineering factory to make the Rezotube units, normally these were made by Booheung in Korea, and these are very good, the locally made ones, not so good, the pickups were another point as on some Elite series guitars the Rezomatiks had been made by Wusung Chorus which sounded rather sterile (Farida were supposed to use Entwistle Rezomatiks and for the most part they did, the Woosung Rezomatiks were used prior to the Entwistle ones, and they had back stocks so they used them up), thus came about the crazy situation where a Club series Bison 64's ended up with the better Booheung Rezotube units, and the correct Rezomatiks, against the Elite produced Marvins with the more inferior locally made Rezotubes, and incorrect Rezomatiks, yet at double the price point!