ID this Bass, Burns Bison?

[Gilmourisgod]

This little odditty by the Honeycombs keeps popping up on my YT feed. Is that a Burns Bison bass? Never seen one with with that pickguad layout covering most of the top. Interesting jangly guitar tone, and featuring a female drummer, which was pretty rare for the era. Weirdly catchy tune for a band I never heard of till a couple days ago. Dig the bass player's virtuosic one finger technique!

 

[JimmyM]

This little odditty by the Honeycombs keeps popping up on my YT feed. Is that a Burns Bison bass? Never seen one with with that pickguad layout covering most of the top. Interesting jangly guitar tone, and featuring a female drummer, which was pretty rare for the era. Weirdly catchy tune for a band I never heard of till a couple days ago. Dig the bass player's virtuosic one finger technique!

Yep, all Burns. The drummer was the best thing about them. Not in my top hundred British Invasion bands but she was pretty decent and the song has a moody charm.

 

[CaptainLeisure]

The Burns has an unusual three pickup layout. The middle pickup is hidden under that ludicrous three-bar cover. That thing covers about twice the picking real estate as a RIC pickup cover. (Might explain the one-finger technique.)

The Honeycombs were a one-hit wonder in the sixties. Note that the YouTube video linked here is an "extended mix". The original would have been 2 1/2 minutes at the very most. It's hard to believe that a woman drumming was once considered a gimmick.

 

[Blues Bass 2]

I liked the song back then , I'm old though . The lead guitar player in the band I played full time in had a burns and he sounded great but hated the thing . He would have sounded great with about any guitar though .

 

[JIO]

...and the very rare white Bison from 1963 -

Burns of London also made a Baby Bison - this later '60s example badged Baldwin who bought the BoL brand.

FTR, James Jamerson also only used one finger - referred to as 'the claw'.

 

[UNICORN BASS]

Yeah! drums made that song. Lead guitar resembles Davy Jones!

 

[cdef]

Yeah! drums made that song.

It was a Joe Meek project, and Joe was the most innovative producer in Britain at the time. His flat in north London was also his studio. Wikipedia mentions "the prominence of the drums, whose effect was enhanced by members of the group stamping their feet on the wooden stairs to the studio. Meek recorded the effect with five microphones fixed to the banisters with bicycle clips. For the finishing touch, someone beat a tambourine directly onto a microphone."

 

[billiard]

The Hook, not the claw.

Norma out of Japan also made basses with a similar headstock, not that it's one of those.

 

[pholli00]

I think so. Never heard of it, but it's gorgeous.

Image taken from Burns Black Bison Bass 1964 | Reverb

 

[Pet Sounds]

Yep. I was always intrigued by the Burns Bison. Very cool basses.

 

[JIO]

The Hook, not the claw.

Norma out of Japan also made basses with a similar headstock, not that it's one of those.

Right, the hook - I stand corrected. Maxwell Smart dealt with "the Craw".

Japan in the '60s copied a lot of mainstream guitars designs and BoL was one of them, especially the segmented scratch-plate. The Bison went through design changes through the '60s starting with a 4 in-line tuner hs to a modernized 2x2 scroll-style later as shown in post #9 above.

 

[Aberdumbie]

I believe that entire video was a Burns advertisement! And yeah, I do dig the wacky headstock on he bass.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The guitars and bass look like some of the weird Fever-Dream ones I used to see hanging on the wall in the Music dept. at Sears back in the late 60’s. Lots of chrome and knobs…. and 1/4” high action. I was obsessed with the whole whammy bar thing.

 

[JIO]

I believe that entire video was a Burns advertisement! And yeah, I do dig the wacky headstock on he bass.

What was know as endorsement, something of the past -

 

[Fender_Bender]

For those who are unaware, after the war the British government basically banned imports of many goods, including musical instruments, to foster British companies. This ban was in effect until sometime in the mid 1950’s. This directly led to the rise of brands like Burns. The first strat in Britain was directly imported for The Shadow’s guitarist Hank Marvin and was fiesta red with a bird’s eye maple neck and gold hardware. This kicked off a period of many years where fiesta red was so popular there that retailers like Selmers were respraying brand new intstruments red.

 

[Aberdumbie]

What was know as endorsement, something of the past -

View attachment 7300459

I remember reading a piece years ago where the Beatles asked to tour the Rickenbacker factory on their first US tour and were turned down. I bet the folks at Rickenbacker wish they could take that one back!

 

[JIO]

The guitars and bass look like some of the weird Fever-Dream ones I used to see hanging on the wall in the Music dept. at Sears back in the late 60’s. Lots of chrome and knobs…. and 1/4” high action. I was obsessed with the whole whammy bar thing.

 

[devnulljp]

The Burns has an unusual three pickup layout. The middle pickup is hidden under that ludicrous three-bar cover. That thing covers about twice the picking real estate as a RIC pickup cover. (Might explain the one-finger technique.)

I really wonder what on earth the rationale behind that thing was?
I saw similar weird handrails behind the nut on some of the guitars, but that thing is useless. Might as well just leave the bass in its case.

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[GretschWretch]

For shame. You ALL overlooked the one with the drum solo (and perhaps a bit of autoharp?).

 

[GretschWretch]

It's hard to believe that a woman drumming was once considered a gimmick.

But not unheard of. In addition to having a linebacker for the lead vocalist, the Vejtables also had a girl drummer, who later moved to the Mojo Men. You should recognize her name. Her initials are J. E.