1962 Burns Black Bison

Folks, up for sale is THE best example of British guitar making… ever. An all-original 1962 Burns Black Bison in near mint/mint condition! Yes, a gorgeous icon of the British sound of the ‘60s, from The Shadows to The Beatles.

If you analyze the Burns Black Bison, you can tell it’s decades ahead of its era. I mean, when it came out there was NOTHING even close to this, both in looks and electronics. The offset horns design (eg if you lay the guitar on a flat surface, the horns are actually pointing upwards, like a bison’s horns would)…

So, you get an absolutely different, groundbreaking aesthetic design that matched the whole cultural music scene brilliantly, and that’s reissued today in entry-level guitars that take inspiration from originals as this.

But the crazy groundbreaking aspect of the Burns Bison are the electronics. When the model was first introduced in 1961, it featured 4 pickups, and only around 50 guitars were ever made. Jim Burns simplified the design to a 3-pickup guitar that got produced from early ’63 to ’64. It featured low impedance pickups that were paired to 3 individual transformers that modified the signal in order to meet the wiring desing.

This is how crazy functions like the “Wild Dog” or “Split Tone” were born. You see, the pickups were actually 2 “sub-pickups”, divided in low section and high section, making it possible to combine the bass magnets of the neck pickup with the treble magnets of the bridge pickup. Kind of crazy, isn’t it?

What’s more, these beauties are an exceptional example of high-level guitar building, with high-end details all over like the bound ebony fretboard and insane tremolo unit. And I have to admit, this is probably the most incredible tremolo unit we’ve ever seen along with the heavy-metal/shred-oriented Floyd Rose. So simple and yet effective, incredibly responsive… will truly surprise any player who’s never encountered one before.

The guitar is in INSANE condition, the beautiful piano-black finish looks incredible as you can see in the photos. The guitar is 100% original and to our knowledge it only had other tuners on at some point, but the originals are back on. With the electronics being so complex, the guitar was revised by a tech and everything functions nicely.

The case is a Freeway UK black hard case, probably from the early 80’s, maybe earlier.

This is a VERY rare guitar and I doubt you will find one anywhere this clean and at this price! A true pleasure to hold and look at!