| Cwazy little thing 04.05.2006 21:23 |
Ive been watching confused at the details of a new Red Special copy being produced by "Brian May guitars" - I was wondering if anyone has one, and whether someone could clear up a few things for me: 1) Apart from the extra scratch plate at the back, which is the obvious physical difference, whats new here? 2) Is this guitar better than the Burns version? 3) Is the Burns version being discontinued - its not on their website, unless Im missing something? 4) Who on earth stocks these things - I cant find anything other than the Burns on the net? 5) How much will this new edition cost, and is it worth any difference in price? Im not even sure if its been made available yet, which is part of my confusion, so if Im asking questions which cant possibly be answered, then Im sorry, but any help someone could give would be great, as Im looking at upgrading from the cheap axe I have now to a Red Special in the summer, and dont know whether I should look at this new one, or the Burns! Someone de-confuse me please! Thanks in advance if you can help. |
| Farlander 04.05.2006 23:25 |
I believe the Burns are being discontinued, yes. I believe these new ones are almost exactly same, however. |
| boy of destiny 05.05.2006 01:33 |
A buddy of mine has a Burns and he said it doesn't stay in tune very well. He spoke with a guitar tech about it and he was told they had heard a lot of similar complaints. As a professional guitarist, my friend was pretty disappointed in the Burns and said he just didn't have the confidence to play it on stage. |
| Togg 05.05.2006 04:51 |
Brian basically took over responsibility for building the guitar from Burns, I believe they are made by the same company in Korea or where ever it is. I have one of the first Burns models and I can tell you it stays in tune very well and plays well, I think as usual quality suffered a little as time went on and later models did start to draw more complaints. It's basically the same model with a few refinements, my advice is go for the new model it will have some of those issues sorted. I play Les Pauls and custom shop strats and I can honestly say the early Burns holds up well against them. |
| Brian_Mays_Wig 05.05.2006 07:34 |
link This is actually my guitar (for the next few days til its sold) Beautiful guitar but just not what I want. If I could but EMGS or DiMarzios in it then I would, but its not worth the hassle! The guy who set it up for me says its as good as his own PRS but id rather play my 13 year old Jackson! |
| MercuryArts 05.05.2006 09:22 |
Burns stopped production in either late 2004 or early 2005. I was able to get a black burns guitar just a year ago. I love it. I have had to trouble w/ staying in tune. I've taken it to several guitar stores to use when testing out new amps. (I am trying to get an AC15CC.) Everywhere I go I am told that it feels great to play & the set up is excellent on her. As for the BM guitar coming out, who knows when!!?? I have a link to the site for the guitar & it has said "coming soon" for almost a year! There were some on Ebay a month or so ago, but they were all gold in color & cost $999.00. No way I'd pay that especially in gold. Its ugly! Just keep looking on ebay, every week a new auction pops up. Good luck!! |
| Cwazy little thing 05.05.2006 10:09 |
Cheers for the replies everyone - just had a glance at Brian's site - theres something about the new ones being in stock as of next week; where or at what price I dont know. The Burns was about £500 most places - I'll go bonkers if this costs much more than that!? By all accounts I think I'll go for the new ones - if the quality of the Burns model got worse then I doubt I'll find a decent one now, and Ive already got guitar that goes out of tune! If anyone finds a stockist for the new ones drop a note on here. |
| gnomo 05.05.2006 10:10 |
Here in Rome, Italy, I asked at a guitar shop last Saturday, and they had the first three proper BHM coming in this week, in the classic red colour. On special offer: guitar plus case at 850 EUR, vs. standard price of 1070 EUR for guitar plus 260 EUR for case. Will try to check tomorrow as I'm rather curious to see them - not a musician so I can tell nothing about quality, sorry!!! HTH |
| David Jones 05.05.2006 13:49 |
I also have an early Burns model (in the 300s) and it stays in tune beautifully. I always thought that the finishes on later models wasn't as good either... |
| tpriess 09.05.2006 19:45 |
I wish they'd sell more here in the states. Wanted one for years. Could've bought one last year, but as luck would have it, BurnsUsa goes out of business. I hope this is going to be a continous line and not a limited run and a little cheapeer price. I would've paid the $800, but it still seems a little pricey. |
| Crazy LittleThing 11.05.2006 00:11 |
tpriess wrote: I wish they'd sell more here in the states. Wanted one for years. Could've bought one last year, but as luck would have it, BurnsUsa goes out of business. I hope this is going to be a continous line and not a limited run and a little cheapeer price. I would've paid the $800, but it still seems a little pricey.I got mine (a Burns London and Brian May Guitar Company) for a LOT less than $800. Email me at crazylittlething at queenzone dot com and I'll hook you up with the guy I bought my Brian May Guitar Company one from. He even threw in a sixpence (a real one from 1948) and a Whirlwind curly lead. He's a huge Queen fan and a great guy. |
| Jjeroen 11.05.2006 06:35 |
Yeah, I got bad experiences with Burns as well. They work fine, as long as you don't touch the tremolo! Now I am the kind of guitarist that uses the trem A LOT! ;-) So the Burns was out the door cause it would just not be worth it to put a Floyd Rose on it or something. Besides: a Floyd Rose just does not look very nice and certainly not very authentic on a Red Special!! A friend of mine still has a Burns and I play it from time to time. He's got the very same problem: the thing is out of tune ALL THE TIME. Now, I have to say that the bridge on the new models does not look very promising... I dunno bout brand or such by heart, and I'm not at home to check, but one of my Ibanez-guitars has the same trem/bridge system as the new BM guitar. It was reasonably desent in the beginning. It stayed in tune pretty good if I did not handle the tremolo TOO hard.(Which is not good enough for MY standard - I need to be able to wack the living daylights out of he thing! ;-) - but for the average guitarist it would have been sufficient. Reason being I kept the guitar anyway and left the bridge/tremolo as it was.) But ater a while the system got tired and I encountered serious tuningproblems even without using the tremolo. After some alterations, it stays in tune fine, but I took off the trem-arm to prevent myself from instinctively touching it :-S and I use it now for studio-rhythm stuff only - it's very good at that. Also it's a spare when performing on stage - but I would not want to need to depend on the thing while playing live or soloing. If go out and buy me a new BM guitar I would want to be able to use it as it is supposed to be used. Which means that I would need to be able to use the tremolo big time (as Brian does) without hesitation. And I'm also very afraid that this will not be he case with the standard new BM model. On the other hand: the amount of guitars, no matter the brand, that's perfect as it comes out of the factory, is nearly nill. They are just basic instruments, which is fine for a long time, but as soon as you want to do something a little bit more serious with it - you need to alter some elements of it. In THAT sence the BM guitars aren't any different to any other brand. |
| tpriess 14.05.2006 17:51 |
Was wondering about the Stars and Dillion copies. Anybody have either one? Are they any good? |
| Brian_Mays_Wig 15.05.2006 07:09 |
jeroen wrote: Yeah, I got bad experiences with Burns as well. They work fine, as long as you don't touch the tremolo! Now I am the kind of guitarist that uses the trem A LOT! ;-) So the Burns was out the door cause it would just not be worth it to put a Floyd Rose on it or something. Besides: a Floyd Rose just does not look very nice and certainly not very authentic on a Red Special!! A friend of mine still has a Burns and I play it from time to time. He's got the very same problem: the thing is out of tune ALL THE TIME. Now, I have to say that the bridge on the new models does not look very promising... I dunno bout brand or such by heart, and I'm not at home to check, but one of my Ibanez-guitars has the same trem/bridge system as the new BM guitar. It was reasonably desent in the beginning. It stayed in tune pretty good if I did not handle the tremolo TOO hard.(Which is not good enough for MY standard - I need to be able to wack the living daylights out of he thing! ;-) - but for the average guitarist it would have been sufficient. Reason being I kept the guitar anyway and left the bridge/tremolo as it was.) But ater a while the system got tired and I encountered serious tuningproblems even without using the tremolo. After some alterations, it stays in tune fine, but I took off the trem-arm to prevent myself from instinctively touching it :-S and I use it now for studio-rhythm stuff only - it's very good at that. Also it's a spare when performing on stage - but I would not want to need to depend on the thing while playing live or soloing. If go out and buy me a new BM guitar I would want to be able to use it as it is supposed to be used. Which means that I would need to be able to use the tremolo big time (as Brian does) without hesitation. And I'm also very afraid that this will not be he case with the standard new BM model. On the other hand: the amount of guitars, no matter the brand, that's perfect as it comes out of the factory, is nearly nill. They are just basic instruments, which is fine for a long time, but as soon as you want to do something a little bit more serious with it - you need to alter some elements of it. In THAT sence the BM guitars aren't any different to any other brand.I have to say......I never had any tuning problems at all with mine. And I gave it some hammer as well. |