Burns Shadow Bass

[paulo]

Burns Shadow Bass 1964 (Left-Handed) 2002 White (Custom Order) https://reverb.com/item/25318906-burns- ... dium=share

[Matt R.]

Super cool!

[AzWhoFan]

Cool indeed! You don't see those every day.

[J-meister]

Thank God.

[Carmine]

I love Burns stuff- in a world of Jazz and P bass clones, Mr. Burns dared to be different and create his own innovative original designs- I say thank God for that indeed. Maybe not for everyone, I suppose.

That Shadows bass on Reverb was one of their high end Custom Elite reissues, I think these went for around $1700 when new: http://www.burnsguitars.com/burnsshadowbass

I have a couple of their Club Series reissue basses from back in 2007; a Marquee and a Bison- both great sounding, very well made basses. It's my understanding that they stopped offering Lefties several years ago, so I'm thrilled to have em!

[Carmine]

Got a PM that images weren't showing up.. I re-posted.

[Jeroen]

Mr. Burns

Excellent!

[Carmine]

Good one Jeroen... and I definitely see a resemblance between “Mr. Burns” and the guitars,lol!

[pjmuck]

I managed to pick up one of those Bison reissues in the 5 minutes they were offered too, back around 2001? Bought it from Sinister Guitars. (Are they still around anymore?). I lobbied Burns for about 3 years to make them left handed (along with the Brian May Red Special, which I also have possibly the 1st lefty ever made), so I'd like to think I played a hand in making it happen, if not for a fleeting minute. They were also made in white, though I've only seen one for sale on the used market in 15 years and I don't believe white lefties were ever offered for the US market. I don't think Burns offered lefties in the states for more than a year.

I love this bass. Wide variety of tones available, and one of the most comfy necks I've ever played. Because the strings are so close to the body, it almost feels like you're playing with a bass ramp, though it's pretty huge and long (almost feels like a T-Bird neck in terms of length). Fast and effortless. The bass gets some points taken off for neck dive though. It's very neck heavy. But I loved it so much I went out and bought a weighted strap to compensate for it.

Peter_McCulloch_2001_Burns_Bison.jpg (35.19 KiB) Viewed 10433 times

Carmine, how do the Marque and Bisons differ tonally? I don't have a Marque.

[fivebass52]

A very interesting bass, and I like the headstock... way out of my price range though... the Burns name made me recall seeing a bass player here on Oahu playing a gig with a Burns Flyte Bass. Took a picture of it at the time; it was Gold, like this picture I found on the internet. Don't know if they ever made the Flyte in a lefty....

[fivebass52]

By the way, in this picture, there's a chrome triple-triple bar plate... is that a bridge cover, or are they individual pickup covers? Can't magnify it enough to see clearly...

[Carmine]

Carmine, how do the Marque and Bisons differ tonally? I don't have a Marque.

One things for sure- the Marquee is a lot easier to manage size wise. They sound fundamentally similar, as both have the same 3 Tri-sonic pickup configuration... but the wiring and switching setups are different so both have some unique tonal variations from the other. Also the Bison is a 34 in. scale and the Marquee is a 32 in. scale.

Bison: 4 position rotary selector and A/B switch

A settings are:
1. Wild Dog: Bridge P/U
2. Treble: Bridge P/U
3. Bass: Neck P/U
4. Split Sound: Bridge + Neck PUs

B settings are:
Wild Dog: Bridge + Middle P/Us, (out of phase)
Treble : Bridge + Middle P/Us, ( filtered)
Bass: Neck + Middle P/Us, ( filtered )
Split Sound: All three P/Us + Filter


Marquee: 5 position selector switch and Push/ Pull pot that interacts w/5 position selector

5 Positions are:
1. Bridge P/U
2. Bridge/ Middle P/U out of phase
3. Middle P/U,
4. Bridge/ Neck P/U out of phase
5. Neck P/U

The Push/ Pull pot (when pulled) adds the Neck P/U to position 1, and activates all three P/Us in positions 2 thru 4.

[Carmine]

By the way, in this picture, there's a chrome triple-triple bar plate... is that a bridge cover, or are they individual pickup covers? Can't magnify it enough to see clearly...

Not individual covers- it's a triple bar palm rest that sits over the middle pickup. I'd like to get my hands on one- they weren't included with the Club Series models.

[Carmine]

Still getting PMs that images of the Marquee weren't showing up... I think I've finally figured out why, so here they are: