Rare Vibra Artiste Picture

[Billyboygretsch]

I found this Vibra Artiste picture (note white pickguard and control switch) in a 1980 Burns promotional leaflet with a partial history of Jim Burns.
The address on the leaflet states
Jim Burns
Actualisers Ltd
Padnal Road
Littleport
Cambs

am not sure what its all about any ideas ?

[Billyboygretsch]

This is the back page

img019 (451x640).jpg

(217.8 KiB) Downloaded 11115 times

[JimN]

I have that brochure too.

I'm fairly sure that the picture of the Vibra-Artist model was copied from one of the pages of Paul Day's "The Burns Book".

[Billyboygretsch]

Do you know who this company Actualisers were / are up in this remote part of East Anglia and the connection to Jim

[JimN]

Do you know who this company Actualisers were / are up in this remote part of East Anglia and the connection to Jim

Yes. I visited the factory once. They made modern (let's be accurate - cheapened) versions of the Marvin and the Bison, plus basses as well as lower-volume models like the original Steer and Scorpion. There was also the Magpie range (no doubt named for Jim's north-east roots).

There were two or three workers at the facility in Littleport near Ely. Jim was there, but not taking a very active day to day role. On the day I was there, he turned up at about 15:30. Make of that what you will (good old Jim!).

[Billyboygretsch]

Thanks for that Jim. At that time I used to travel to Littleport once a week - wish I had known it had been there. I checked out the Burns book but could not find a similar picture although it looks around that era. Probably one Jim kept up his sleeve. I do have a shot of a band using an Artiste with a white plate but poor resolution and it seems to have a black selector switch.
I made up a cream scratchplate with black controls but it just didn't look correct. Since then I sprayed a body black used a b/w/b plate and truss rod cover with a small w/b/w top plate and I like the look of this.

[cockroach]

Isn't there a picture of Paul Day himself with a white scratchplate Vibra Artist in the book '17 Watts'?

[dusty fretz]

Just to put the record straight, the photo of the Vibra Artist was incorrectly printed in NEGATIVE form during the production process, thus reversing the supplied monochrome image of a standard example from the era, so actually nothing special instrument-wise. It's just one of a number of errors to be found in this particular piece of publicity - all subsequently spotted but never rectified and sadly providing something of an ill omen concerning this chapter in Jim's mercurial career.

[HAIRY]

Paul,

If what you say is true the dot markers on the fingerboard would be black on the guitar, in order to 'reverse-out white'?

Kind regards

Harry

[HAIRY]

PS....or have been retouched......