Project Vista Sonic (rut row, JIO's at it again!)

[JIO]

A new made-to-order project was born earlier - a 1964 Burns of London VistaSonic bass. It's coming from across the pond so it'll be a bit before receiving it. Here's the sellers pics and some Burns finishes I found on-line for consideration as it will be refinished.

Sketchy zero-fret fb issue - looks like a hack job adding on more material...

Nice tuners these -

"Wild Dog" - yes! I found/ordered some knobs that may match on eBay. Not sure what the post between T/V knobs is (?) Open hole is for a jack.

One missing saddle - need to fab one. I dig the roller saddles pre-dating Schaller's 3D by 20 yrs.

Brown-burst of various shades is the most common. (faded) Burns green - I like the richer/punchier version like I did on my Scarab Deluxe Bass better. Could definitely be what color I go for.

Kind of a nice trans-red/orange. Wood (alder? poplar?) is nothing special. Cream could work if I go opaque. They also did an Olympic white.
Note the bar below the bridge pu - not sure what its purpose is as many examples show it missing. Will be keeping my eyes peeled for that bridge - very specific as it insets into the body cavity for it.

Found this pic of the electronics - note how the original reddish finish faded to amber!

This (body) finish looks to be faded judging by the darker hs finish but they also did an olive burst which looks similar.

Green-burst Vista Sonic ... pretty awesome. Burns flew under a few different flags including Baldwin, Ampeg and Hayman.

 

[Jisch]

Could that bar be a mute?

 

[Slidlow]

Could that bar be a mute?

That's what I was thinking and maybe there should be some felt on the top?

 

[JIO]

Could that bar be a mute?

That's what I was thinking and maybe there should be some felt on the top?

I've yet to see an example showing a mute, but that's a logical guess.

 

[StayLow]

Orange metallic, or sparkle/flake!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Snooty guitarist: "What kind of tone does it have?"
@JIO : "Oh, it goes full on Wild Dog man!"

 

[BishopJP]

I don't know what "Wild Dog" tone is, I just know I want it!

 

[JIO]

Snooty guitarist: "What kind of tone does it have?"
@JIO : "Oh, it goes full on Wild Dog man!"

I don't know what "Wild Dog" tone is, I just know I want it!

I'm just glad it's not "Mad Dog" Worth noting, there was a Wild Dog, and De Luxe Wild Dog guitar and a Wild Dog Bass ('63) which was identical to the Vista Sonic Bass.

 

[JIO]

from the book "Pearls and Crazy Diamonds - Fifty years of Burns Guitars 1952-2002" ;

The Vista Sonic Bass, 1962-1964 This bass was developed along similar lines as the rest of the Vista Sonic range, but was aimed at a lower market than the Black Bison and the circuitry was simplified. One 4-way selector provided "Wild Dog". "Treble", "Bass", and "Contrabass". The bass was fitted with three Tri-Sonic bass-type pick-ups. Standard finish was red sunburst with rosewood fingerboard. The Vista Sonic Bass was quite a popular bass in its time. Retail price: 94 sterling pounds

= $121.47 US by todays exchange rate. The Black Bison was retail: 139 sterling pounds

More on Jim Ormston Burns - Burns Actualizers Guitars Reference Page - many pics included.
Just saw this pic of an '80s Magpie guitar (there was a Magpie bass as well) which curiously has the same shaped 'breakaway' section of the pg as my Scarab has. I designed mine w/o seeing this first although it was inspired by Burns to begin with.

 

[Slidlow]

Looks like the one you got was white also judging by what's left under the bridge.

 

[JIO]

Looks like the one you got was white also judging by what's left under the bridge.

Could be - will need to see what the neck pocket looks like. This 56yr old bass may have gone through a couple different colours over time. My Coral had been repainted a number of times.

 

[wagdog]

I’m betting “Wild Dog” is all three pickups in series.

 

[JimmyM]

Bling it! Sparkle finish!

 

[JimmyM]

Found this, BTW...it's about guitars, but I imagine the same thing applies to basses.
---------------------
If you wanted your own sound from a Tri sonic it was too bad, the guitar already decided for you what tones you required. The rotary switch gave you a choice of Treble, Jazz, Split Sound a forth position labelled “Wild dog.”

Each pickup was actually two pickups with two separate coils and these were switched via a complex arrangement of the rotary control. So with three double pickups there were six coils to switch, sadly the designers limited the outputs of these to just four options.

So, “Wild dog” was actually an out of phase sound with very high treble, “Treble” was the bridge pickup, “Jazz” was the neck and centre pick ups and “Split sound” was a something quite original. The coil under the treble three strings on the bridge pickup was paired with the coil under the three bass strings in the neck pickup. Thus the sound was “split”, the treble strings were very treble and the bass strings very bassy. Actually Gretch once made a guitar with two bass strings and four normal and Chet Atkins made an album with it, just sounded like two separate guitars.

These pickups were actually low impedance with a matching transformer built into the instrument. The coils were not wound onto the magnets as in a Fender Strat type design but were wound separately and then placed into the housing around the magnets. Because of this loose design the pickups could be quite microphonic but they do have a sound of their own, Brian May used Burns pickups in the famous guitar he built and plays.

Sadly, the quality of the Trisonic wiring left a bit to be desired nothing was screened and the whole wiring loom used to be laced up with a single black cable, which they didn't bother to earth. By any standards it could pick up quite a bit of hum and noise, earthing the lacing cable would virtually cure that.

Burns Guitars
----------------------------

And I found this as well that's more bass-centric:

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 3

 

[SactoBass]

I'm just glad it's not "Mad Dog"

 

[JIO]

I’m betting “Wild Dog” is all three pickups in series.

That's possible. I found this description - "...snarlingly out-of-phase "Wild Dog" " Also found out the body and neck are made of English Sycamore with a rosewood fb. The tuners are made by Van Gent, and the finishes were poly - not nitro. As far as the zero-fret fb area, it appears that it had an extended section of rosewood above the zero-fret with a slot cut for a crude wooden "nut", which was actually a string guide since the zero fret was the "nut". (where the strings rested/ended) Will know more once it shows up but looks to be an easy fix. Still haven't run across info on the bar under the bridge pu.

The Vista Sonic was replaced in '65 with the "Jazz Bass" - same everything but with a different body style made of lighter mahogany a little like the 70's Ibanez Black Eagle. Curious how the bridge sits in the recess 'off center'. I've seen others (including a couple in my pics above) with the same location so it must have been deliberate.

 

[SLivinghouse]

"Wild Dog?" That's Flea's natural setting.

Sorry....

 

[Fender_Bender]

Sycamore is much like maple afaik. I’m thinking a cream colour, or even pearl white, would go well with the black guard.

 

[iiipopes]

Sycamore is much like maple afaik. I’m thinking a cream colour, or even pearl white, would go well with the black guard.

Yes, the maples and sycamore used for making guitars are of the Acer genus. There is another genus of sycamore that is not, so like many other woods, there can be confusion.

 

[farace]

Here are my Ampeg Vista Sonic bass and matching Jazz Split Sound guitar. Yes, the bar below the treble pickup is what's left of a mute. In all my searching I have never seen a clear photo of what an intact mute looks like, though I've tried to source one. They must have been awful, and almost universally scrapped.

Odd thing about these instruments that you might not yet be aware of: there is a geared truss rod adjuster in the heel of the neck, not unlike the gearbox in crank-out windows. Burns instruments came with a special tool for adjusting it, but I don't have one, so I found a small sturdy piece of metal tubing and flattened one end to articulate with the flatted rod of the adjuster, and bent the other end into an L shape.

I'm not a fan of the Wild Dog tone setting. For all the possibilities available when there are three split pickups, to have only provided for four, with one of those being Wild Dog, was rather short-sighted.

I think this is the heaviest bass I own; it's a bit of a boat anchor. It's heavier than my Dan Armstrong/Ampeg See Through.

The missing output jack on your bass was a Cliff brand nylon bodied, with a chrome nut. It's similar to the Re'an units.

I have Rotosound Tru-Bass tapewounds on it, only because I read they were designed for the Burns Bison bass. I'm not particularly thrilled with them.

I don't know how many Burns-branded Vista Sonics are in the US. The Ampeg by Burns Vista Sonic is rather rare. I've never run into anyone else with a complete one. I did run into someone with just the body and a replacement neck. Part of the reason for the scarcity was because the import tariff made it an uneconomic purchase compared with, say, a Fender.

Ampeg had Burns making instruments for them until Baldwin purchased Burns, ending that relationship.