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)
BURNS LONDON
TIMELINE - PUBLICITY - FACTORY
ARTIST - SONIC - VIBRA-ARTIST-DELUXE - BLACK BISON - VISTA-SONIC
BLACK BISON III - JAZZ - TR-2 - NU-SONIC - MARVIN - DOUBLE 6
BISON - VIBRASLIM - GB65 - GB66 - VIRGINIAN - BABY BISON
AMPLIFIERS - ACCESSORIES - PROTOTYPES
BISON RANGE (1960-68)
1961-62: THE BLACK BISON (4-PICK-UP) GUITAR
Let's consider this incredible photo!
Several (but not all) of these Black Bisons are believed to be non-original production guitars recently assembled by MusicGround using reproduction components including etched serial number plates made by Eddie Cross. Original production was limited to a run of 49 guitars, with serial numbers known to run irregularly from 71 through to 174. The serial number plates which Eddie supplied in March 2001 were 77, 89, 94, 98, & 109, followed by 83, 87 & 90 in March 2004, plus 104 & 107 in February 2008. Additionally, those are not all that MusicGround had; they asked Eddie to do more but he wouldn't, so they found another source. Please also be aware that some of those numbers listed may appear on genuine originals. Current owner of the above-pictured herd of Bisons will not reveal the serial numbers, despite having been asked! Variations in the pickup covers (the originals were injection moulded with raised edges and recessed lettering gold leafed from the underside) may be one way to distinguish these MusicGround Bisons. Originals should have pearl-buttoned Van Gent tuners, but while Ivory plastic or metal tuner buttons are not original spec., with a company like Burns, such inconsistancies are rife, and the earliest examples, serial numbers 71 and 72 both have ivory-buttoned tuning pegs, while 95 has nickel plating and metal-buttoned Van Gents. More tellingly, compare the body contouring of the two at front right. The originals had smoothly hand-done softly transitioning body contouring, quite exquisite, no hard lines to be found, as per the example on the far right.
The apocryphal 50th 'coffee table' body (at left, below) was supplied by Eddie to MG for one of these:
1961 Black Bison Bass Prototype
Comments from Paul Day:
The Artist Deluxe bass is partnered by a pic of the prototype Bison four-string. This earliest example followed in the footsteps of the four-pickup Bison guitar, employing similar styling and the same construction, complete with a heel-less, glued-in neck/body joint. Note other shared features, such as the 'cigar-tube' tuner cover and Ultra-Sonic pickups, although the electrics were more akin to those on the Artist Deluxe. The bridge/tailpiece was also as per the latter, but unusual touches included the white-button Van Gent machine heads, wooden thumb-rest up near the neck, a body-mounted mute device clamped on the strings at the bridge, what looks to be a truss-rod cover aft of the nut and a 23-fret ebony fingerboard. The end result was very unlike the eventual Bison bass design, and also differed to the next prototype that appeared alongside the four-pick Bison guitar in the 1962 Rose-Morris catalogue, although this second version incorporated aspects of its predecessor and the eventual production model.
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 71 - with replaced knobs
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 72 - with ivory plastic tuner buttons
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 74 - Nickel chromed fittings
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 89?
Pearloid Buttons on Gold-plated Tuners
Quite new-looking pickup covers, and heavier fingerboard binding than usual
1961 Black Bison 4-Pick-up
Serial No. 91 - believed to have been restored and refinished by Jack Golder c.1980s/90s
1962 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 95
Metal-buttoned tuners, Rosewood fingerboard, Nickel Plating
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 102 - Rosewood fingerboard
Dec. 1961 Sunburst "Black" Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No.111
Pearl Buttoned gold-plated tuners. Rosewood fingerboard
Dec. 1961 Sunburst "Black" Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No.114
Pearl Buttoned gold-plated tuners
Richard Davies' one (I think):
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup
Serial No. 156
Pearloid Buttons on Gold-plated Tuners, Rosewood fingerboard
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 158 - non-original flat engraved pickup covers
1961 Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Serial No. 174 - Rosewood fingerboard
Black Bison 4-Pickup:
Various Unknown Serial Nos.