Moderne wrote:Jack Golder - who was the Burns factory manager in the '60s and who had his own range of quality 'Shergold' guitars in the '70s - made a few replica Marvins about 30+ years ago, as a sideline to his main kitchen furniture business. I bought one of these - a greenburst Marvin (with the correct neck pocket) - from The Fourmost guitarist a couple of years ago and it is superb. Jim Burns himself made a replica 'Marvin' in the early '80s with his 'Burns Actualisers' company - but this was quite a long way from the original. They came in white, black with black scratchplate (reminiscent of the black Strat Hank was playing at the time) and sunburst. Examples still turn up on eBay from time to time.
The original 'Marvin' was designed by Jim Burns (with input from Hank and Bruce) to be an improved Strat...with tremolo features to get round the Fender Strat patents. Incidentally, does Stuart Duffy still look at this site as his input would be most useful.
Thanks Clive! Very interesting.
There's a Jack Golder Marvin for sale on the Burns facebook page at the moment.
Are the shergold replicas considered as good as the various Burns?