Pickups Hank used with Burns.

[eugene]

Hi ! noelford.

To tell the truth.

I sometimes use bridge&middle position when my role is rhythm.

Because, middle sound is too tight because of my terrible strumming.


Hi ! Bill. I'm sorry that I couldn't belive there exist five point pickup swich system in the 60's.

I would buy a Strat USA in 1974. That had three point.

There was'nt five way swicth Fender Strat yet.

"Genie with the light ~ " On that tune, I think Hank might play with bridg.

eugene

[StuartD]

Hi

I don't think Bill said that there was a Five Way switch on the original Marvin. He said that those sounds were available and they certainly are. In 1964 there wasn't a Five Way switch available for Fenders either and you had to do it by wedging the selector between the two positions. I have a 64 Marvin and had the fortune to play both of Hank's Burns Marvins, white and green and they certainly did not have Five Way switches or any push-pull controls. They were just bog standard.

Regards

Stuart

[ErikMAMS]

Hi Stuart
Thanks for comfirming the 3 way switch on Hanks original Marvins.
I realise that Bill's statement not said explicitly that there was a 5 way, but in the context and as a reply to Eugene and all I reconned that was what he meant - but maybe not.

Erik

[Bill Bowley]

Eugene,

Apologies for the late reply, I've been away from home for a while.

On revision of what I said re the 5 positions, Stuart 'read my mind' there, I should have been more explicit! On the early 'box' type selectors fitted to the Marvins, with constant use the 'click' points quickly wore down and the switch simply 'slides' through the whole range of settings - I found that I was more often setting it by 'sound' rather than 'feel'. If you ever have a close look at one of those switches you will see that they have two double rows of parallel connections, over which slide a set (four from memory) of shuttles, all in a straight line, the actual toggle simply moves the shuttles from one end of the box to the other -'simple' British engineering at its best as my USA friends would say! As Stuart has pointed out, the same 'half way' position was available and well known to early Strat players when the original 3 position switch was OEM on Strats, but eventually the 5 position switch became the norm.

As an aside, if you have a look at the BALDWIN Marvins in this clip you will see that they have a fourth knob, which I believe is a rotary switch since the original toggle is not visible......

[StuartD]

Hi Bill

That's interesting. In the late 60's a friend of mine 'made' a Burns Marvin. We got the tremelo bits from Jimmy Frost at St Giles Circus and the pick ups and knobs but he made the neck, complete with scroll head and the body and the pick guards. He was a TV engineer and he put a rotary switch on his. It enabled all pick ups to non on together!! Don't know what happened to it but it was a really good instrument.

Regards

Stuart

[Bill Bowley]

Stuart,

I had 'heard somewhere' that a Bruce Welch model BURNS 'rythym guitar' was 'considered' and it was to include a rotary switch and an 'armless' Rezotube trem, however it never appeared anywhere that I have noticed. Perhaps the idea for those 'prototypes' came from that? Personally, I prefer the 'toggle' switch for lead work, but a rotary would be Ok for rythym I guess........

Regards

[cockroach]

Welcome back Bill!

Yeah, an 'armless' vibrato arm would be just that, especially to tuning...

I first heard of that trick with a Strat switch in 1967, when Hendrix used the sounds on his first LP, so I had to check it out on a Strat in a music shop didn't I? well, at least I wasn't playing Smoke on the water....(which hadn't come out then)

No progress with the 12 string neck yet Bill- sorry! Accommodating that odd truss rod gadget and neck end profile are beyond my woodworking skills, despite a high school prize I got for woodwork!! Long term project I think..!

[Bill Bowley]

'Roach,

Keep at it mate -any 'masterpiece' tends to take a bit more time! Soon you will be twanging out the lead solo for 'On the Beach' to stun everyone!

[geoff1711]

On a number of Burns guitars (Bison?) of the period there were two selector switches one was the pickup selector what was the other one for? was it what we would now refer to as a blower switch? (switches to bridge pickup in regardless of other settings) was it a neck bridge position switch? a reverse phase switch? or a rhythm switch?

[StuartD]

Hi Geoff

I had a Bison with two switches, the Marvin type of Bison and I never could work out what they did!! You certainly couldn't - or at least I couldn't - get anything like a Marvin tone out of it. So, after purchasing a Marvin, in 1968, I rewired the Bison exactly the same, using only one switch!! Bingo!!

Regards

Stuart