ID this Bass, Burns Bison?

[DennyOnBass]

Is that Scott "Wolfman" Pell on bass?

 

[superiorpine]

When I was a wee lad, I had the opportunity to play one of those Bisons. As I recall, the three tubular staples were referred to as "resotubes."

 

[GretschWretch]

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."

Joe Meek also produced "Telestar" by the Tornadoes.



Later, like Skip Spence, he also lost his mind.

 

[GretschWretch]

Of course there are always parodists.

 

[JIO]

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!

Sadly it's one of many mistakes F.C. Hall & co at Rickenbacker have made over the years -

 

[JIO]

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.

Hah! He looks like a brick wall!

 

[JIO]

When I was a wee lad, I had the opportunity to play one of those Bisons. As I recall, the three tubular staples were referred to as "resotubes."

Rez-o-tube was related to the floating tremolo/bridge system on their guitars -

 

[Pep]

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!

Perhaps it is, but I was watching the “lack of rhythm” by the bass player. It’s hilarious.

 

[Fender_Bender]

Of course there are always parodists.

I first came across The Spotniks about 15 years ago in a Rhino dvd called “best of surf and instrumentals”. The goofy space getups undoubtedly did a lot more harm than good but the big Swede , Bo Winberg, could really rock a Strat and was the star of the show. He also apparently built a lot of the electronic gear they used. For The Tornados I really like a song they did called “blue, blue beat”. I heard that the guitarist was the father of the guitarist in The Smiths or other well known band.

 

[MCF]

Sadly it's one of many mistakes F.C. Hall & co at Rickenbacker have made over the years -

Ric did alright with them. George and John both played Rics and they gave Paul a 4001 around the time of their’65 tour and which he recorded with for years.

 

[retslock]

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!

It got a bit of airplay back in the '60s in Australia. I had a thing for Burns Bison guitars but never owned one.

 

[JIO]

Ric did alright with them. George and John both played Rics and they gave Paul a 4001 around the time of their’65 tour and which he recorded with for years.

yes, but sadly (for Hall) late to the party

 

[ac100X]

Burns also produced the "Jazz Bass" This example was after Baldwin bought the company.

 

[JIO]

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.

I knew that story generally, but spraying the new instrument Fiesta Red to encourage sales is so classic early '60s guitar biz.

 

[JIO]

My reason for loving Burns of London basses (and guitars & amps too from afar!) 1963 Burn of London Vista Sonic, which morphed into the BoL Jazz Bass.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The Spotnicks! I think I've watched ALL their videos. hard to beat for pure Retro-Futurist Bizarro. I'm guessing Devo might have been aware of these guys. Those "space helmets" look like slightly deflated potatoes.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The only

 

[JimmyM]

The Spotnicks! I think I've watched ALL their videos. hard to beat for pure Retro-Futurist Bizarro. I'm guessing Devo might have been aware of these guys. Those "space helmets" look like slightly deflated potatoes.

I've yet to hear them mention the Spotnicks, but it's a possibility. Weird musicians do seek out other forms of weirdness. And some of Devo did an album of devolved surf music as a band called The Wipeouters, so there's some precedent with the Spotnicks.

 

[Fender_Bender]

The Spotnicks! I think I've watched ALL their videos. hard to beat for pure Retro-Futurist Bizarro. I'm guessing Devo might have been aware of these guys. Those "space helmets" look like slightly deflated potatoes.

I’ve seen them in a bunch of different space getups, with some of them appearing to simply being made of foam. We tend to forget about it now but everything was “space “ related for a good 10 year period. The dvd I mentioned in post 29 has about 8 videos of them and they’re in different gear in all of them. Bo Winberg can really play guitar though and has shown that off in difficult songs like The Orange Blossom Special.

 

[crobasster]

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

Hey, is that a Burns Flyte on your avatar ?!