Burns of London Guitar

Burns Marquee Club Guitar in very good shape for an almost 23 year old guitar.  There is one good nick on the body and one other area of paint wear on the bottom edge of the body and the Burns logo also wore off the bottom pick-guard from playing. The construction is solid on this guitar with a tight neck/body joint and seems to be slightly darker blue than other Marquees I’ve seen. I’m not sure if it a slightly older hue or if it’s just what happens to the paint color with age. IMHO it’s a very classy British blue and in a condition I don’t think you’ll find at this price and quality stateside.

 It’s still a very cool guitar from the UK Burns of London guitar designers. I just realized that I forgot to shoot pictures with the tremolo arm attached. Yes it does have a tremolo arm and it works amazingly well. It’s definitely included in the purchase price. Sorry, I missed that small detail. Oh and yeah, it stays in tune after many deep dives. You won’t get the ultra-deep, strings flat down on the neck dives as you could with a Floyd Rose tremolo but it’s pretty darn awesome for a 23 year old guitar!

I was an award winning model back in the early 2000‘s with a push-pull knob on the 2nd tone knob which activates the bridge pickup along with the middle and neck pickups so in conjunction with the 5 way pickup selector blade so it offers 7 potentially different tonal pickup variations As opposed to the norm of 5 pickup variation. It was the first guitar I owned with a “zero fret” ( (a fret bar located just in front of the nut which aids the nut from string binding) which adds to the intonation and tuning stability which I’ve seen only on some select Danelectro models and Supro Martinique Deluxe Americana Series guitars. It was way ahead of it’s American competitor’s Stratocaster back in the ‘60s and it still give it a run for the money even today!

Other than showing a bit of wear and tear from years of actual playing, all the electronics work perfectly fine with great low string action.  It’s still a very classy looking guitar IMHO. I accidentally hit the “reliced” button and it won’t allow me to unselect it but the scars are organically there from real playing use and time worn and NOT some poser pre-relic product.

In short-Burns of London is to the UK what Fender is to the US and it outshines the Fender with the zero fret, the push pull 7 pickup configuration and the scroll headstock is not only a classy touch but it adds that extra heft to the headstock (something Fender folks realized by creating a product called the ‘fat finger’ which is nothing more than a weighted metal clamp to add weight and add sustain to the Fender headstock) so in at least a few ways it clearly out performs the Stratocaster for a lot less money.

WARNING: I have truly learned a lot (technically) from this guitar and found it very hard to list it since it is such a classic, understated beautiful working and playing guitar so if it doesn’t sell soon I will gladly return it to my collection. It nearly was sold 2 X, once a friend was seriously considering it and another person. actually purchased it but cancelled just before I boxed it and shipped it so I issued an immediate refund.The current price listed is my bottom line and no lower offers will be accepted.

SAVE ON SHIPPING: I can accommodate FREE LOCAL PICKUP in your choice of 2 potential location-Southern Westchester (Yonkers area) or in Northern Bergen County (Dumont, NJ area) after the purchase has cleared on REVERB saving you (buyer) any shipping fees but please select the LOCAL PICKUP option when purchasing. :)

IMHO this blue is one of the most classy colors offered in their series. I was lucky enough after acquiring this beauty and learning just how more superior it was to it’s competition to find it’s White (RARE) 12 string variety. The Double-Six IMHO beats the well known Rickenbacker, Danelectro IMHO as I owned a beautiful Rick 360 in Orange glow to compare it to but this truly won my heart as this is just as “chimney”for each string but unlike many other 12 string guitars the 12 string version of this six string also has the zero fret, great action, super strong neck and most importantly for 12 string players is the individual capabilities of intonation of each string. I know because I owned several of these other brands over the years and state this emphatically by learning the hard way from my previous guitar purchase experience. That means no more jokes like, “and now for our second set, our guitarist will attempt to tune his 12 string guitar!” 😂

Burns has been an Iconic UK brand for decades and is continuously going through different ownership and upheaval, however that said, there seems to be an ongoing interest in improving and evolving the brand in part due to their loyal fan base.
I’m thinking these older models will be similar in value to the Pre-CBS versions of Fenders in years to come. Only time will tell but in the meantime this is still an Iconic UK branded guitar with features that you would have to pay much more for if you purchased a Fender version. As far as I know, Fender has no plans to incorporate these features into any of their new offerings so the Burns of London brand still stands above the common crowd.

All the best-Johnny B