THE GUITARS OF JAMES ORMSTON BURNS

REFERENCE & RESOURCE PAGES:

SUPERSOUND (1958) - BURNS-WEILL (1959) - FENTON WEILL (1960-65)

ORMSTON BURNS (1960-1965) - AMPEG (1963-64) - BALDWIN (1965-69)

SHERGOLD WOODCRAFTS (1967-69) - ORMSTON (1968) - HAYMAN (1970-75)

BURNS UK (1973-77) - BURNS ACTUALIZERS (1979-82) - SHERGOLD (1975-92)

BURNS LONDON

TIMELINE - PUBLICITY - FACTORY

ARTIST - SONIC - VIBRA-ARTIST-DELUXE - BLACK BISON - VISTA-SONIC

BLACK BISON III - JAZZ - TR-2 - NU-SONIC - MARVIN - DOUBLE 6

BISON - VIBRASLIM - GB65 - GB66 - VIRGINIAN - BABY BISON

AMPLIFIERS - ACCESSORIES - PROTOTYPES

BISON RANGE (1960-68)

1961-62: THE BLACK BISON (4-PICK-UP) GUITAR

Let's consider this incredible photo!

Several (but not all) of these Black Bisons are believed to be non-original production guitars recently assembled by MusicGround using reproduction components including etched serial number plates made by Eddie Cross. Original production was limited to a run of 49 guitars, with serial numbers known to run irregularly from 71 through to 174. The serial number plates which Eddie supplied in March 2001 were 77, 89, 94, 98, & 109, followed by 83, 87 & 90 in March 2004, plus 104 & 107 in February 2008. Additionally, those are not all that MusicGround had; they asked Eddie to do more but he wouldn't, so they found another source. Please also be aware that some of those numbers listed may appear on genuine originals. Current owner of the above-pictured herd of Bisons will not reveal the serial numbers, despite having been asked! Variations in the pickup covers (the originals were injection moulded with raised edges and recessed lettering gold leafed from the underside) may be one way to distinguish these MusicGround Bisons. Originals should have pearl-buttoned Van Gent tuners, but while Ivory plastic or metal tuner buttons are not original spec., with a company like Burns, such inconsistancies are rife, and the earliest examples, serial numbers 71 and 72 both have ivory-buttoned tuning pegs, while 95 has nickel plating and metal-buttoned Van Gents. More tellingly, compare the body contouring of the two at front right. The originals had smoothly hand-done softly transitioning body contouring, quite exquisite, no hard lines to be found, as per the example on the far right.

The apocryphal 50th 'coffee table' body (at left, below) was supplied by Eddie to MG for one of these:

Eddie's Bisons

1961 Black Bison Bass Prototype

Comments from Paul Day:

The Artist Deluxe bass is partnered by a pic of the prototype Bison four-string. This earliest example followed in the footsteps of the four-pickup Bison guitar, employing similar styling and the same construction, complete with a heel-less, glued-in neck/body joint. Note other shared features, such as the 'cigar-tube' tuner cover and Ultra-Sonic pickups, although the electrics were more akin to those on the Artist Deluxe. The bridge/tailpiece was also as per the latter, but unusual touches included the white-button Van Gent machine heads, wooden thumb-rest up near the neck, a body-mounted mute device clamped on the strings at the bridge, what looks to be a truss-rod cover aft of the nut and a 23-fret ebony fingerboard. The end result was very unlike the eventual Bison bass design, and also differed to the next prototype that appeared alongside the four-pick Bison guitar in the 1962 Rose-Morris catalogue, although this second version incorporated aspects of its predecessor and the eventual production model.