Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

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Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby Billyboygretsch » Sun Jan 13, 2019 5:44 pm

Korean or Chinese made Burns ? There seems to be many varied opinions on why one is better than the other. Alan Entwistle has been involved with Burns for many years now and I feel his recent comments deserve a prominent feature - so here is

“The Korean made Marquee's are not actually better made than the later Chinese ones at all, it was early days for the Korean production, therefore the guitar was at the beginning of it's development curve so to speak, the differences are this: 1) Pickups, on the Korean stock the Rezomatiks were simply badged ceramic generic ST pickups, on the later Chinese made Marquee's the Rezomatiks were actually dedicated Burns pickups made and specification researched by Entwistle pickups, these have Alnico 5 magnetics and fiber bobbins, as per the originals. 2) Trem, the original Korean production utilized the "point system" trem, which is a good trem but was prone to failure with the actual "points" sometimes collapsing or breaking. present Chinese production use a dedicated knife edge vibrato, which we developed "in house" that has a full size aluminium block, it returns to pitch better and sounds better (more Burnsy). 3) Electronics: the Korean version used a generic strat circuit, augmented by a push/pull, to bring in the neck pickup, the Chinese production uses a dedicated Burns control circuit with different capacitor values and Entwistle "Smoothtrak" pots. 4) Aesthetics: The earlier Korean versions had quite "blocky" bodies with only a 10mm edge radiusing, and rather non-descript necks, the Chinese production have well contoured large radius bodies, made from highly resonant Okume (Central African timber similar to mahogany), and nicely carved necks. 5) Perhaps the most important point is that present Burns models have a much higher level of quality control than those early Korean ones, we are at the factory (which also makes Revelation) all year round, so we do keep a constant eye on production. So hopefully i have put to bed this constantly repetitive idea that old is better than new, or that Korean is better than Chinese!

Also watch out with those pickups, genuine Burns Rezomatiks have ENGRAVED COVERS, not printed ones.

The same pickups are fitted to the Marquee and the Marvin.”
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby anniv 63 » Sun Jan 13, 2019 6:12 pm

That is very interesting information Bill which raises a few points most certainly.
I have a Korean Marquee which I picked some years back for £190 (great value!!)
The neck I find very playable (some think it too chunky) and to me fairly good at
a budget price.
Certainly the tremelo was a pig to set up and came stiff as a board!!
Once balanced and floated and fitted with 11 gauge (Burns Vistasonic) nice and
playable allround.
Maybe with as you say the later Rezomatics it could sound even better, but to use
daily for warmups and if it falls of its stand, then no major financial catastrophe ensues!!!

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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby balston11 » Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:19 pm

Very interesting information thanks.
Bill
see my guitar website www.alston-family.co.uk
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby Uncle Fiesta » Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:40 pm

Generic ceramic pickups eh?

No wonder I never liked the early Korean Marquee I had a few years ago.
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby bor64 » Tue Jan 22, 2019 12:13 pm

Generic pickups used by Burns is more the case, then you think.
A little bird told me, when someone asked a certain Burns staff-member, how they re-developed/resurged the pickups of the just launched Shadow Bass many moons ago. His answer was"The only requirement was, they had to fit in the covers nothing more... We shopped at the pickup factory and chooses the one that fits and wasn't to expensive" The sound was never compared with a original in the development-stage"

How it went with the John Rostill Bass....I don't know.
The official story is they used the original as a benchmark...

Tin hat in place ;)

Cheers Rob
"afterwards everyone is clairvoyant"
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby Billyboygretsch » Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:59 pm

Don’t know what happened there but as A E suggests early Korean were mainly Strat Style. Don’t know about the bass but I suppose I could ask him ?
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby scmitche » Sun Jan 05, 2020 10:27 am

The Bass guitarist in our band has a John Rostill Bass and he says it is wonderful to play and easily holds its own against all his Fender Precision/Jazz/6-string types and also a G&L that he owns.
On the subject of the Korean v Chinese Marquee guitars: I have had a Black/Blue Pearl Marquee since 2000 and have often compared it to more recent Chinese versions. My feeling is that the Korean instrument has a much better neck without that horrible scarf joint I see nowadays. It's chunky yes but very playable and comfortable with a gorgeous flame in the maple fretboard. I made two major improvements to my Marquee: the first being that the ceramic bar magnet pickups (annoyingly advertised as AlNiCo) were replaced with Alan Entwistle AS-57 AlNiCo 5 type and the covers were custom engraved to say Rez-O-Matik plus the lower pick-guard cover was also engraved at the same time as the print was wearing off. The second improvement was that the cheaper Burns Point Classic tremolo was replaced with the deluxe version of The Point Classic made by Woo Sung Chorus in Korea and made a huge difference to both the sound and the tremolo action. The latter modification entailed removing about 1/16" of wood from the rear of the tremolo cavity to make it fit. The wiring was changed slightly to the "Grease bucket" type tone controls with an Entwistle Smoothtrak middle/neck pot, similar to how a modern Cobra is wired. It's recently had a small fret dress by MOR Music in York after 19 years of being played and the action is now incredible. Everyone who hears or plays this guitar is impressed with the sound, playability and tremolo action and I wouldn't ever consider getting rid of it. It holds its own well against all my other guitars including a very nice sounding Stratocaster with the same Burns 7-way style wiring.
Hope this helps.
Steve
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby Uncle Fiesta » Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:51 pm

Nothing wrong with a scarf joint, it helps to strengthen a weak area of the neck/head.
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby Iain Purdon » Fri Sep 04, 2020 9:00 am

bor64 wrote:Generic pickups used by Burns is more the case, then you think.
A little bird told me, when someone asked a certain Burns staff-member, how they re-developed/resurged the pickups of the just launched Shadow Bass many moons ago. His answer was"The only requirement was, they had to fit in the covers nothing more... We shopped at the pickup factory and chooses the one that fits and wasn't to expensive" The sound was never compared with a original in the development-stage"

How it went with the John Rostill Bass....I don't know.
The official story is they used the original as a benchmark...

Tin hat in place ;)

Cheers Rob

I bought the Rostill bass and always use it when I want John’s signature sound. I’ve no idea whether the pickups are what they say they are. But that’s not a worry. The instrument delivers.
It’s also a good gigging bass whatever music is being played. Just a bit heavy, that’s all.
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Re: Early Korean comparison to Chinese Burns

Postby bor64 » Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:14 pm

Hi Iain,

I've played a few originals Burns And Baldwin Shadow Basses and some new Burns versions and The John Rostill versions only not at the same time....so difficult to compare.
Sure they sound good on their own, nothing wrong with that!
Point is, the new Shadow and the Rostill version is advertised like all Burns re-issues as close as can be as a the originals....
The price you pay is for such a product, while the truth is the pickups are selected only on fitting the covers and as cheap as possible.....
A little bird told me the china made Marvin's costed 100GBP a piece off factory.
So why they didn't invest a extra 25 to 50 quid for a decent vintage correct pu system is beyond me!

Cheers Rob
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