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Burns Owners Club

#41
John Shillito said:
Did you ever get a wiring diagram? I bought my Vibraslim in Scotland in 1967 but haven't played it for many years as I ended up with a Fender Jazz. Recently I pulled it from under the bed (brought here to Canada about 20 years ago) and tried it out. No sound. I took it to a guitar repair shop but the tech was reluctant to take apart the wiring harness as he was worried about "damage to my vintage instrument". He thinks one pickup is fine, one is very weak, but can't tell where the wiring or component failure is without a wiring diagram.
Do you have any idea where I might find one?
By the way, your post #6 shows a bass in beautiful condition. I tried to look after mine but the lacquer on the back is quite cracked; my colour is cherry red/black edge. Love it!
Click to expand...

Oh wow... I made that post some two years ago. I'll see if I can make some time to have a look soon. Although to be honest, I don't think there is anything particular unique about the wiring in these, just that the various parts are fairly well spread out all over the body, and being a semi-hollow, a real pain-in-the-arse to work on. But I'll see what I can do.

The front of mine might look good, but I assure you, the finish on mine is cracked, too. Especially the back. Would love to see some pics of your burst.

-Alex
 
#42
John Shillito said:
Did you ever get a wiring diagram? I bought my Vibraslim in Scotland in 1967 but haven't played it for many years as I ended up with a Fender Jazz. Recently I pulled it from under the bed (brought here to Canada about 20 years ago) and tried it out. No sound. I took it to a guitar repair shop but the tech was reluctant to take apart the wiring harness as he was worried about "damage to my vintage instrument". He thinks one pickup is fine, one is very weak, but can't tell where the wiring or component failure is without a wiring diagram.
Do you have any idea where I might find one?
By the way, your post #6 shows a bass in beautiful condition. I tried to look after mine but the lacquer on the back is quite cracked; my colour is cherry red/black edge. Love it!
Click to expand...
If the bass was fine before you put it away I'd strongly suspect dirt in the controls. If that's the case some Deoxit should help.:)
 
#44
image.jpeg
Thanks... Here's a picture. I love it; hope I can get it going!
 
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#47
I'm a few years late to this party. Can I join? (Playing my Burns re-issue in my avatar). I bought mine online from Thomann.De (Germany). It was going for a must have price. It's heavier than my Gibson Ripper, had to get a double thickness and width strap to help my shoulders and upper back deal with it...I'm not a big guy nor am I a youngster (a year away from my mid 60's). This is a fabulous bass. I play in a 60's, 70's (and some contemporary) easy listening rock band; we gig most weekends of the year. We're already well into booking up next year (2019) and even have New Years (2019) already booked. I bought this guitar blind...knew nothing about it, just liked the look of it. Turns out it's perfect for the style and breadth of music I play. It's a re-issue (#0104). It can create a huge variety of sounds. I've just got a Peavey Headliner 1000 amp delivered and it matches it perfectly. It was set up by the seller and ready to go...I even love the strings that came on it, kinda like roundwounds but they're not them, they're much smoother and "tighter" if that makes any sense. It's a long scale bass played by a short armed bassist, lol!
 
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#49
Suppose I could join in.
This was my first bass, and frankly not a wonderful instrument, but it did the job.
I don't apologise too much for the dodgy mods and paint, after all I was about 17, and teenagers have done worse!
burnsa.JPG burnsb.JPG
Recently got it out of the case for another thread, and man, it needs some TLC, but while original pickups are now available again I really can't see the point in spending the money on an instrument I haven't really played for 25 years! Still, I'll do the mechanicals.

I looked at the wiring, which seems eccentric. I think this must be basically original apart from the pickups. I'm not sure how to read the values of the caps, which must be circa 1962.
burnswiring..jpg
I'll have to play again looking at the circuit diagram. It seems as if the capacitor at the top, which is a small value, ought to mean that the bridge pickup volume control has some kind of tonal effect even when only the neck pickup is in use. The interactions seem weird, not least because the pickups come into the centre of the volume pots. This doesn't seem to be a teenage error of mine, I've seen another Burns circuit with the pots wired "backwards" like that.

And hey, I''ve just discovered that the Arctic Monkeys are using one live! His is more stock than mine though.
 
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#50
Steamtronic said:
OK TB'ers, be loud & proud if you own a Burns and get yourself a number!

We're after Marquees, Bisons, Vista Sonics, Scorpions, Baldwins & Baldwin Semi's, Signatures, Flytes, Shadows, and any other rare birds out there.

I claim #1.

Burns Marquee re-issue. Gold hardware, White on tortiseshell.

Looks a LOT like this one, actual picture to follow as soon as its back from being serviced. Thanks to A9X for the pic

View attachment 2255269
Click to expand...


(Ive searched and searched and searched but could not find a Burns owners club.If there's already one on TB, please let me know and I can retire this thread. And settle for a higher number.)[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the site. Just out of curiosity, where do you fellow bass players place your right thumb when picking say the 3rd and 4th strings? Paul, New Zealand.
 
#57
Abner said:
There's something you don't see every day. Do you know when it was built?
Click to expand...

Not sure, my guess is sometime in the late 1990s. I can't find a serial number on it anywhere...

When I received it (an eBay purchase) it was set up with baritone strings tuned A -a... I think I put a Fender Bass VI set on it at first, and had a lot of issues that required some pro set-up work to make it playable. Even after that, it was still really hard to play and had some weird string spacing at the nut... I put Chromes on it at some point as I got sick of roundwound strings, but never really used the instrument until I finally learned that the nut just needed some work, and took it to a different tech who deepened and adjusted the spacing of the slots. When I got it back, it was almost like a completely new instrument. Since that moment, any time I've gotten a new instrument, I've taken it to that same tech to have the nut slots fixed as necessary, along with a set-up. I now consider getting the nut correctly sorted as the most essential first step in getting a new instrument into fighting shape.
 
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