Brian May Guitar Made by Burns

[Dennisthe Menace]

To me, that guitar looks funny in anything but red. But, that's just me.....funny thing is, I don't care much for red guitars.

Well, there would be only one person to blame for that.....Mr. May .....

[oipunkguy]

my only complaints on these is since it has a 24 fret neck, plus the chambered body, it tends to be neck heavy. The other thing is it's a slab body with a very defined edge, so I think it's a little uncomfortable to play. If it had a archtop, or contours, of a german carve I think it would be easier to play.
One thing about the pickups though, they are slightly wider and thicker then the typical single coil, so if you did put them in a strat, you would have to custom make the pickguard.
But it does get really great tones. with all three pickups on, I think it has a p-90 kind of tone, but if you dial down the tone knob it about "4", it really gets close to humbucker territory.
even with one pickup on it's fairly heavy in tone compared to a strat, but the phase switching give you all the extra treble anyone would ever need.
Another really cool thing about this guitar is the Burns strat style tremolo. the whammy bar fits in the trem, and will not fall out. it just hold on to that sucker, lol

[jtr654]

It's also a 24" scale . I've never had a problem with any I've played being neck heavy( Iv'e only played 3). IMHO they DON"T sound like P90 and when you combind them they become humbucking because of the series wiring. The one thing you'll have to aware of is if your main guitar is a Mosrite this neck will seem huge in both W&D.The newest BM has a better trem that the only difference, the Burns/1st Gen BM/2nd Gen BM all three have different trem unit on them.

[oipunkguy]

well I don't think it sounds like a mosrite p-90, far less mid rangy then a mosrite p-90, but it is far fatter sounding then a typical quacking fender single coil. even though these may have a shorter scale length, it does have 24 frets. so for me at least the guitar weight is not balanced.

also the fretboard radius is pretty steep, I havent measured yet, but is far more distincted then a mosrite. one other unique feature about the neck, is the width is the same at the zero fret, as it is at the 24th fret.

[jtr654]

The neck width is 45mm at the nut 57mm at the 24 fret. The pickups have a chimey sound and don't reall sound like any other single coil pickups.The Radius is I think either 14" or 16" I don't remember and quite flat.

[oipunkguy]

I need to measure....now where did I leave that caliper again?

[Bill Mc]

Hello Oipunkguy,

I played one over at Cherry Hill, NJ. GC.
They're looking for $1299 for the used
one on the wall. Seems steep but I was
only test driving and it did sound very
nice but not totally comfortable. I've
seen them for much less, but you know GC
if they want to move it that price will come down.

Cheers.

[oipunkguy]

yeah, I'm really not sure what the price range are on these. I do think they are pretty well made. I guess if you were to compared it to a fender line, it's kinda like a japanese fender in quality.
I one I have been working on belongs to a friend of mine. he told me he bought it for 700 used.

[jtr654]

They go for $500 or more used + gig bag.

[oipunkguy]

the one I have has a really nice Burns HSC. I'm really digging the tone on this guitar, very not mosrite, but different and unique.