Baldwin - Burns Baby Bison Solid Body Electric Guitar (1965)

Baldwin - Burns  Baby Bison Solid Body Electric Guitar  (1965)
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Item # 8285
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Baldwin - Burns Baby Bison Model Solid Body Electric Guitar (1965), made in London, England, cherry polyester finish, sycamore body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, black gig bag case.

The Baby Bison was Jim Burns' last design for the company that bore his name, initially intended as a less expensive "export" solid-body Bison model for the American market. When the Burns company was sold to Baldwin in September 1965, this guitar was just about to enter production, so "Burns"-labeled examples are almost non-existent.

This particular guitar is the earliest-style Baldwin model with a split "V" headstock, full long "Rezo-Tube" tailpiece, and only two small pickguard segments; all features that would change by the summer of 1966. A fairly large batch of these "Babys" was built in late '65 and sent over to the US as Baldwin's first salvo in their new guitar marketing campaign.

The Baby Bison is generally a straightforward solidbody design. The most advanced feature is the same simple-looking but deceptively elaborate two-pickup circuit shared with the Burns Virginian and Baldwin Vibra-Slim. The pickups look identical from the outside, but the neck pickup is a stacked double coil unit with the second coil blended in via the middle "presence" control knob.

This model was offered in both cherry and black Polyester finish; the cherry is far more common. It is one of the more familiar Baldwin guitars to US players, as the initial production run was mostly sent here as flag bearers for the Baldwin/Burns line. This is a trim and versatile guitar, very solid feeling and once known as a favorite of Doobie Brother and studio ace Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. The "Bar-O-Matic" pickups are quite powerful without losing clarity, and the sound ranges from crisp to raunchy easily. A very cool and underrated 1960s guitar!
 
Overall length is 38 1/2 in. (97.8 cm.), 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).

This is a rather well-worn but still solid "Baby", used heavily along the way but not abused. The fairly thick Burns Polyester finish has survived relatively well; it is somewhat faded but not heavily checked as so many are. It does show its share of dings, dents, chips and scratches overall. The hardware is mostly intact with some general wear; the trem arm is gone as is the decorative plastic piece that once sat at the bottom of the vibrato.

The Van Gent tuners are original, but they have been put back on in place of something else and the stamped gear covers are missing from the backs and the grommets are oversize. Everything else is original; the pickup covers show wear and scuffing as do the crowns of the knobs.

There are some marks to the fingerboard from previous fret work; the frets appear to be the original wire that has been lightly crowned. It is possible this is an old refret but if so the wire is practically identical to the original, and shows very little play wear. Despite is slightly battered look this is a fine playing and great sounding guitar, far from the cleanest of these we have had but with a certain funky charm all its own. Very Good + Condition.