My recent purchase of a Double Six has set me thinking hard about this. There were some features about it that made me suspect it to be a late one before it arrived- natural headstock/black logo being the most obvious, but it's sticker date is 10/3/67. Surely there were almost three further years of production of this model? I'm thinking not:
It's widely reported that Baldwin bought Burns in '65, and manufacturing ceased in '70, BUT, I've been doing some pretty hardcore geeking, and I've found NOTHING from the standard (fully made in the UK) range that can definitely be identified as being from 68-70.
Sure, there are the italian bodied ones, which I guess date from later on, but as far as Marvin/Double Six/Bison and assorted basses go...zilch.
My theory is that whilst these models were still available, Baldwin had such a backlog of stock (and parts) from '67 and previously, that there was either no need for new components to be produced of those models, or they were made in VERY small quantities. Or possibly assembled from ready to bolt together parts off the shelf.
Evidence 1 - As previously mentioned- the apparent lack of identifiable 68-70 Burns/Baldwins
Evidence 2 - Serial numbering seemed to move pretty fast between 64 and 67. Alfons Lahayes list shows '64 era numbers to be 4000-8000, 65-66 somewhere between 10k and 18k. What do we have after that? I don't recall seeing a serial no past maybe...25k? (remember I'm not including the italian bodied models here). I know the serial plates were famously unscientificly doled out, but even so- there was always a pattern if you squinted.
Evidence 3 - Per's book speaks of a backlog by 1966 even...why continue manufacturing if there was so much old stock.
I reckon that the UK Burns factory ended up pretty much JUST making necks for the 601/701s etc from '67 til production fully wound down. Baldwin had failed to sell the pretty darned expensive BurnsBaldwin models in the states, and needed a cheap, sellable product, fast! From '68-70, whilst the Burns products were still officially available, few, if any were actually made from scratch.
Anyone got any thoughts? I'd REALLY like to see a pic of a Marvin/Bison/Double Six etc from 1969 or 70, but I suspect I'd be just as likely to see a genuine unicorn