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)

 

HAYMAN

1010 - 2020 - 3030 - 4040 - 5050

COMET - WHITE CLOUD - MODULAR

 

HAYMAN 1969-75

 

Ian Feber's enviable collection of Hayman and Shergold instruments.

 

 

 

Hayman Guitars overview

Published in "The Burns Book" by Paul Day, 1979:

 

In 1969 Jim Burns joined ex-Vox employee Bob Pearson to develop a new range of HAYMAN guitars for the Dallas Arbiter organisation. Jim had already formulated some ideas for a new design, as had Bob Pearson, who had also been working on a perspex-body guitar with Beatle, John Lennon. The resultant combination of Jim and Bob's ideas produced a range of instruments with several innovative features and distinctive appearance. The guitar styling, suggestive of a Burns 'Vista Sonic' crossed with a Fender 'Telecaster', was still very 'British'. The designs incorporated many characteristics of the earlier Burns models, so retaining a definite 'family likeness'; the woodwork was by Jack Golder, with truss-rod design by Norman Houlder. Re-An supplied the fittings while the finish was by Derek Adams, these all being links with the previous Burns and Baldwin instruments. The Hayman range can certainly be classed as 'Burns by another name'. All models were worthy successors to previous Burns instruments, if lacking a little of their predecessor's 'flair' and 'character'.

 

The talented partnership of Jim Burns and Bob Pearson came to an end in September 1971, when Jim decided to leave the Dallas Arbiter company. Bob Pearson continued to develop new ideas and additions to the range, and later versions of the original four models featured the new Re-An humbucker type pick-ups. When Hayman came to an untimely end Bob, Jack Golder and Norman Houlder, left 'high and dry' by the Dallas Arbiter collapse, culminating in a Warehouse fire circa Christmas 1974, decided to 'soldier on' and produce their own 'Shergold' instruments

 

 

 

 

 

The HAYMAN range comprised the following models:

1010 - 3 pickup solid-body guitar

2020 - 2 pickup thinline guitar

3030 - 2 pickup solid guitar

4040 - Electric Bass

5050 - Thinline Bass

Comet - 1 pickup guitar

White Cloud - 3 pickup guitar

Modular - 2 pickup guitar (prototype?)

 

Guitars feature Re-An single coil 'Super-Flux' units from 1970-73, re-formatted as Humbuckers from 1973-75

Early bodies were of Honduras mahogany, later sycamore or obeche

Grover machine heads were fitted as standard (except for Comet)

 

Serial Numbers:

OCT 1970-FEB 1972 5 digit series, starting '40', ie 40xxx   Examples: 40582 - 2020 Rosewood 40774 - 1010 in Old Gold, August 1971 40781, 1010 in Old Gold, August 71 40945 - 3030 with "Super Flux" pickups, 24 January 1972

FEB 1972-JUNE 1973 4 digits starting with a '5', ie 5xxx   Examples: 5144 - 3030 , 30th June 1972 5480 - 4040 bass, 15th March 1973 5602 - 1010 (SuperFlux),  31 May 1973 5707 - 1010 (SuperFlux) (not in ledger, which ends June 73, presumed July 73? 5738 - 1010 (SuperFlux) (not in ledger, which ends June 73, presumed July 73?

JULY 1973-MARCH 1975 7, 8, or 9 digits in the format sss(d)d(m)myy where s=serial number, d=day, m=month, y=year   Examples: 5878973 - 2020 sunburst (SuperFlux), 8 Sept 73 60691173 - 2020 old gold (Superflux), 9 Nov 73 61211173 - 2020 Sunburst (Superflux), 1 Nov 73 61321173 - 2020 black (SuperFlux), 2 Nov 73 6xxxx74 - 2020 black (SuperFlux) 6470374 - 2020 Sunburst (Superflux), 10(?) Mar 74 6479374 - 3030H, 9 Mar 74 6518374 - black 3030H, 8 Mar 74 6750674 - vunburst 3030H, 0(?) June 74 7125974 - black 5050 bass, 5 Sept 74 7152974 - red 3030H, 2 Sept 74 71691074 - black 3030H, 9 Oct 74 71841074 - Ian Feber 1010H, 4 Oct 74 72381074 - Ian Feber 3030H, 8 Oct 74 733X1X74 - black 1010H, 73441174 - 4040 bass, 4 Nov 74 75301274 - 5050bass '0' 12 74 7549175 - 1010H, 9 Jan 75 7587175 - Ian Feber Modular, 7 Jan 75 7xx3375 - White Cloud, 3 Mar 75 780xx75 - White Cloud 7859375 - black 3030H, 9 Mar 75 7887375 - White Cloud, 7 Mar 75 7909475 - Comet, 9 Apr 75

 

 

c.1970 Hayman Brochure

 

 

The following supplemental scans are from Andrew Mannering's excellent and authorative Shergold website

 

Early 1970s Hayman Handout

 

 

1974 Hayman Guitars brochure

 

 

 

 

 

c.1974 Advert, source unknown

 

 

 

Late 1974 HAYMAN Order Form

 

 

"Guitars In The Making" feature, 14th Dec 1974

 

March 1975 "Modular" review

 

The Demise Of Dallas, March 1975

 

Hayman 3030H 12-string and 1010H pictured in a German retrospective from 1984