Burns Artiste project ideas....what do you think??

[burnsbonkers]

Right.... after looking at the old pic of Ray L's Artist(e) in action in the 60s, its inspired me so thinking of something along those lines would be kind of cool, but also a break from the norm .
It has already got a white scratchplate..
It doesn't have a maple neck , but thinking of how cool it would look with a bigsby, and black mini scratchplate, outweighs it.
Bonkers idea, but what about having the fretboard painted maple effect? With enough layers of tinted laquer, over a light finish should be tough enough. Or maybe a thin maple veneer ? .
Slap me if you think I'm mental.

[mgeek]

*Slap*



That all sounds cool, but painting the fretboard would be kinda crappy imo.

That said- there were so many oddities to come out of Burns...it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the odd early one could have come out with a rosewood fretboard anyway.

Have you seen there's a 60/61 trem for one of these on ebay at the moment, btw?

[burnsbonkers]

Slap accepted. Ouch.....
The maple paint Was just an idea.
A stupid one but still.........
I have seen that trem on ebay. Hmmm
Although It would look very nice with a bigsby on it.
Hmmmmmm.

[burnsbonkers]

Yes mgeek,
There was a lot of oddities , I have pics of a late v.artiste made of sycamore , with black neck blow in! .
It's all original too .

[Graylion]

Congrats to all on using the spelling "Artiste"! Yes, I also have that offending Bell catalogue too but I also have a Burns leaflet with the "e" at the end! It's late and I've only skim-read the postings, but what's that about not having the writing on the tri-sonics? The Artiste should have them. All the guitars I saw in 1961 and 1961 (Artistes and all the Sonics) had a painted white or cream fretboard, not maple - which I thought was rather odd! Mine was the first I saw with a rosewood board - ex "Burnsy" Brown of the local Southampton group Ricky and the Hi-Lites.

The bridge is made from bent pieces of steel, which wouldn't be terribly difficult to make provided you have originals as a pattern. The strings, of course, go over the bridge and wrap around the trem rod. For a metal worker none of the hardware would be too difficult to reproduce from a pattern.
Good luck, Lionel

[Billyboygretsch]

What did you settle for in the end or still hovering. The electrics would be a nightmare and are not worth copying. I have a spare Vibra ARTISTE which I had to ensure I had spares. I have decided on a spare sratchplate using the bubble cap. I can now use a strat style switching 1 x 5 position the usual 3 controls. Do not need to change any routing.Now this is all interchangable as all components on the scratchplate.So can sell as Vibra Artiste or an Artistrat - but will probably keep. If u ever decide to vacuum form bubble caps would pay you to do some for me
Bill

[JimN]

Is the original scratchplate that you have actually white or is it a cream colour? That VA deluxe on eBay was white, but my very early Artist plate was definitely the colour of Devon cream.
Ray

The July edition of "Guitar" magazine had a (small) picture of a Vibra-Artist(e), showing the cream colour of the small scratchplate.



JN

[Graylion]

Bill, what you need is a mold or pattern for the switch top and carve one out of mahogany! Or plastic, or solid nylon - then Paint It Black, as the Rolling Stones said!