Hello, I'm new here. Can I play?

[snakestretcher52]

Hi, I'm Andrew, been playing guitar for longer than I care to remember.I've bought and sold far too many great guitars over the years including a couple of Marvins-one of which was, I think, the first batch of reissues with a certificate signed by Hank Marvin.
Current guitars are a couple of Fender Strats-a Classic 50s in Fiesta Red, and a Classic Player 60s in Sonic Blue.

[JimN]

Hi, I'm Andrew, been playing guitar for longer than I care to remember and am currently gigging with a 50s/60s covers band.

Hello, Andrew and welcome to the ShadowMusic Community. I'm sure you're going to enjoy it.

[An]other Burns I owned was a 1962 Short scale Jazz in the early 70s. Lovely sounding guitar but the roller bearing trem was a tuning nightmare!

The early 1970s, you say?

Most Burns guitars would stay in tune very well if set-up - and strung - properly. It was always one of the marque's unique selling propositions.

But "in the early 1970s"... I hazard a guess that you were using light-gauge strings?

The sort of tremolo bridge fitted to the Short Scale Jazz (similar to the original Bison), like the unit fitted to Fender Jaguars/Jazzmasters, or even like a Bigsby, is very unforgiving of being asked to defy the laws of physics by being subjected to over-light guitars strings, especially given a short-scale like your old Burns, or a Jaguar.

By "over-light", I mean anything less than 11-50 at minimum, and 12-54 is better.

A musical colleague (hello, Brian!) and I have MIJ Fender Jazzmasters. The hardware is almost identical (mine is fitted with a Gibson-style ToM bridge), but my Jazzmaster, fitted with 12-54 DRs, stays in tune like a rock, whereas his, fitted with 10-46 D'Addarios, has to be constantly tuned between songs (and sometimes during them)...

Just a thought.

JN
(now almost recovered after 25 hours on my feet for election day)

[snakestretcher52]

Yeah, you're right, I was using 9s on the Jazz but I'm still not convinced that a system relying on ball races to move the whole bridge assembly forward and to return to the place it started from is going to be reliable, even with heavier strings. Knife-edge pivots such as the Marvin's and Fender Strats have much more of a fighting chance.

Incidentally the Shadow arrived and is going back. Cosmetically it was less than perfect, the trem block rubbed against the side of the cavity and, worst of all although it was specified with Grover locking machines it arrived with bog-standard, generic Burns-logo'd non-locking ones. Oh, and there was a bit of a twist in the neck-such a difference to the Marvins I owned which were really well put together. I'm very disappointed; guess I'll just have to save up for another Marvin...