Baldwin Burns 706v Hollow Body Electric Guitar || ES-335 Style 1967 1968 Sunburst 706

Baldwin came in late to the game with their own ES-335 style guitar, but when they did the 700 series became their best sellers. A 335-inspired hollow body was married to a Burns Vibraslim-like scroll headstock neck. Then it was topped with Filtertron pickups, a Vox/EKO tremolo and a classic sunburst look to get this Baldwin 706-V. The "V" is for vibrato model. Baldwin was jumping in with Hagstrom (Viking) and Vox (Super Lynx) to create an import that would compete with the ES-335. 

A fantastic and fun guitar, with the only major knock being the ill-applied poly finish that was way too thick and could not handle climate change at all. So you will see crazing (widespread finish cracks) all over this guitar, much like Vox guitars of the time. Despite that, this particular specimen was a wall hanger, so aside from the crazing, it has very few signs of wear. Very little fretwear. Very clean with the only significant ding on the side of the headstock. And the "B" that adorned the tremolo was lost years ago. It plays great. I love the zero fret, jagged-tooth rocking bridge, and the unique sound of the pickups.

History lesson time: all the above references to so many other companies are for a reason. Baldwin (famed maker of pianos) wanted to get into the guitar game. At various points in the 60s, they attempted to acquire and actually acquired a few guitar companies. In fact, they even tried to acquire Fender (but were outbid by CBS). Jim Burns (maker of the Bison and other unique designs) was a great designer of guitars but a terrible businessman who found himself in significant debt. So in 1965, Baldwin bought him out. They used many Burns and later, Gretsch parts as well. That's right, Baldwin also acquired Gretsch in 1967. Hence the appearance of the Filtertron style pickups and the Van Ghent covered tuners. (Van Ghents are very nice tuners also shared by Hagstrom and EKO guitars of the era.) While the Baldwin name appears on this, it is more like a mid-sixties Burns and Gretsch got together and had a baby (in England). The 700 series was introduced in late 1967 after the acquisition of Gretsch. So we date this one as a 1967 or 68.

So it is a real piece of history that is starting to get its due respect, largely due to the fact that they used high quality parts already long-used by reputable makers (Burns, Gretsch, Vox) to put these together. Nevertheless, this is priced below the value of all the high quality parts used to build it. Take a close look at the pics. Let me know if you have any questions. As always, I appreciate them and am happy to provide more info or to learn more from others as well. It will be professionally packed and shipped.