The History of Burns Guitars: Britain’s Answer to Fender

There was a time when British guitar makers were not simply trying to copy the instruments coming out of America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a small group of British designers were developing guitars that were genuinely innovative, often working with limited resources but enormous imagination. Among the most important of them was James Ormston Burns, better known simply as Jim Burns.

Today, vintage Burns guitars occupy a fascinating position within the history of British guitar making. Instruments such as the Bison, Marvin, Jazz and Double Six are instantly recognisable, with their sculpted bodies, unusual headstocks, distinctive pickups and elaborate vibrato systems. At the time, however, Burns was doing much more than producing visually interesting guitars. Jim Burns was developing new ideas in guitar construction, electronics and playability that would influence the industry long after his original company disappeared.

For collectors, that combination of innovation, rarity and British musical history has made the original Burns guitars increasingly desirable.

Jim Burns and the Birth of a British Guitar Company

Jim Burns was born in 1925 and developed an interest in guitars and steel guitar playing at an early age. He began experimenting with guitar construction before eventually establishing Ormston Burns Ltd in 1959, with Alice Louise Farrell providing important financial and operational support. The company was founded at a time when British musicians were becoming increasingly interested in electric guitars, but imported American instruments remained expensive and relatively difficult to obtain.

Burns was determined to do something different. Rather than simply producing British versions of American designs, he wanted to develop his own ideas about what an electric guitar could be. He became something of a British equivalent to Leo Fender — an inventor and designer whose constant experimentation resulted in guitars that were often years ahead of their time.

Some of the features associated with Jim Burns included heel-less glued-in neck construction, 24-fret fingerboards, sophisticated vibrato systems, active electronics and unusual pickup designs. Some of these ideas would later become commonplace elsewhere in the guitar industry, but Burns was experimenting with them during the early 1960s.

The Bison – A Guitar Unlike Anything Else

Perhaps the guitar that best demonstrates Jim Burns's ambition was the Burns Bison.

Introduced in 1961, the original Black Bison was an extraordinary-looking instrument. Its heavily sculpted body, forward-sloping horns, gold-plated hardware and distinctive vibrato immediately separated it from the familiar Fender and Gibson designs of the period. Beneath the striking appearance was an equally ambitious collection of engineering ideas, including a patented gearbox truss-rod system, sophisticated switching and four low-impedance pickups.

The Bison was not cheap. When it appeared in 1961, its list price was around £157.50, putting it into the same general price territory as a Fender Stratocaster in Britain. It was therefore very much a premium instrument rather than an inexpensive alternative. A redesigned three-pickup version followed, and although it was somewhat less technically elaborate than the first model, it proved more commercially successful.

Looking back at the Bison today, it is easy to understand why collectors are drawn to it. It doesn't look like a guitar designed to follow a trend. It looks like something designed by somebody who wanted to invent the future.

The Burns Marvin and Hank Marvin

If the Bison represents Jim Burns the innovator, the Burns Marvin represents Burns at its most commercially and musically significant.

In the early 1960s, Burns worked closely with Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch of The Shadows to develop an instrument that would provide the style, sound and playability they were looking for. The resulting Burns Marvin became one of the company's most important guitars, and Hank Marvin used his Burns instruments on stage, in the studio and on television throughout the 1960s.

The connection with The Shadows was enormously important. At the beginning of the 1960s, the group were among Britain's biggest musical acts, and Hank Marvin's playing had an enormous influence on a generation of guitarists. His use of the Burns Marvin gave the instrument an association with the emerging sound and visual identity of British guitar music.

For Burns, this was exactly the kind of artist relationship that could establish a young British manufacturer.

The Marvin also demonstrated the company's willingness to take familiar ideas and reinterpret them. It offered players something that felt familiar enough to be practical but looked unmistakably like a Burns.

Burns at Its Peak

By the middle of the 1960s, Burns had developed into one of Britain's most significant electric guitar manufacturers. The company was producing a substantial range of guitars and basses, including the Nu-Sonic, Jazz, Double Six, Vibraslim, Bison and Marvin, as well as several bass models.

The company even gained an unusual slice of mainstream publicity when Burns guitars were promoted through a Kellogg's Rice Krispies campaign in 1964, with dozens of Burns guitars offered as prizes. By this point the company had clearly moved well beyond being a small specialist operation.

Burns also established an important relationship with the American market. British-made instruments were exported to the United States through Ampeg, appearing with “Ampeg by Burns of London” branding. This gave Burns access to one of the world's most important guitar markets and demonstrated the international potential of Jim Burns's designs.

But despite this success, the company was about to enter a very different chapter.

The Baldwin Takeover

In 1965, Baldwin Piano Company acquired Ormston Burns Ltd, and the guitars became associated with the Baldwin-Burns name.

On paper, the takeover appeared to offer Burns the opportunity to grow substantially. In reality, it marked the beginning of the decline of the original company. Jim Burns's approach to guitar design was based around constant experimentation and development, while the priorities of a much larger corporation were inevitably different.

Jim Burns subsequently became involved in other ventures, including Ormston, while the original Burns/Baldwin operation continued for several years. As Baldwin's attention increasingly moved towards its other guitar interests, particularly following the acquisition of Gretsch, production of the original Burns instruments eventually came to an end around 1970.

The end of production would ultimately make the original 1960s Burns guitars far more significant to collectors.

The Forgotten British Guitar

For a period, Burns guitars did not receive the recognition they deserved.

The company had been relatively short-lived, production numbers were modest compared with the major American manufacturers and the unusual designs did not always fit comfortably into the vintage guitar market.

But as interest in the history of British guitar making grew, players and collectors began looking again at what Jim Burns had actually achieved.

The guitars that had once been considered strange were increasingly recognised as innovative.

The Bison was no longer simply an unusual old guitar. It was an example of early British engineering and design. The Marvin was no longer just an alternative to a Stratocaster. It was an important part of the history of The Shadows and British popular music.

And the scarcity of original examples began to work in their favour.

From Curiosity to Collectable

Today, original 1960s Burns guitars have developed a dedicated following among collectors.

Their appeal is partly visual. A vintage Bison or Marvin has an unmistakable character that sets it apart from the far more common Fender and Gibson instruments of the period. But the real attraction goes deeper.

These guitars represent a remarkably innovative period in British manufacturing. Jim Burns was experimenting with pickups, switching systems, vibrato designs, neck construction and electronics at a time when the electric guitar itself was still developing.

The guitars also have genuine historical connections to the British music scene. The association with Hank Marvin and The Shadows gives the Marvin particular significance, while the wider Burns range represents the era when British manufacturers were beginning to develop their own identity rather than simply following American designs.

That makes a good original Burns much more than an interesting vintage guitar.

It is a piece of British industrial and musical history.

The Burns Legacy Continues

Jim Burns never stopped experimenting with guitars.

After the original company was acquired by Baldwin, he became involved with further ventures, including Burns UK during the 1970s and later Jim Burns Actualizers, which operated into the early 1980s. These periods produced further distinctive designs and demonstrated that the ideas behind Burns were very much alive even after the original company had disappeared.

The Burns name was eventually revived again in the 1990s, when guitarist and guitar historian Barry Gibson relaunched the company as Burns London. Jim Burns himself was involved as a consultant, and the company began producing instruments based on classic Burns designs as well as developing new models.

Modern Burns instruments have helped introduce the distinctive Burns aesthetic to new generations of players, while reissues of models such as the Bison and Marvin have allowed guitarists to experience the designs that made the original company famous.

But for collectors, there remains something special about an original 1960s instrument.

A modern recreation can reproduce the design.

It cannot reproduce the history.

Why Vintage Burns Guitars Matter Today

The growing interest in original Burns guitars reflects a wider appreciation for the great British guitar makers of the 1950s and 1960s.

For years, the vintage guitar world was dominated by the American names. Fender, Gibson and Gretsch understandably became the benchmarks against which everything else was judged. But Britain had its own remarkable guitar-making story, and companies such as Burns were an important part of it.

Jim Burns was not simply attempting to make a British Fender.

He was trying to work out what a British electric guitar could be.

That difference is important.

His guitars were sometimes unconventional, occasionally complicated and certainly distinctive, but they were also genuinely innovative. Features that might look unusual today were attempts to solve real problems or give musicians greater control over their instruments.

That pioneering spirit is precisely what makes original Burns guitars so interesting to collectors.

A Lasting Place in British Guitar History

Jim Burns died in 1998, but his influence remains visible in the instruments that carry his name and in the surviving guitars produced during the company's golden period.

The original Burns guitars are now increasingly appreciated for what they really are: rare examples of a period when British guitar makers were experimenting, innovating and developing their own identity.

The Bison, Marvin, Jazz and other classic Burns models may never have achieved the enormous production numbers of their American contemporaries, but perhaps that is part of their charm.

They are different.

They are unmistakably British.

And they represent the work of a designer who was prepared to challenge the established conventions of electric guitar design.

For Denmark Street Guitars, that is what makes vintage Burns instruments so fascinating. They are not simply alternatives to Fender or Gibson. They are part of a parallel history — one in which British designers such as Jim Burns were developing their own ideas at the very moment the electric guitar was becoming one of the defining instruments of modern popular music.

Today, finding a genuine 1960s Burns is becoming increasingly special. The instruments that were once seen as unconventional are now being recognised for exactly that reason.

Jim Burns didn't follow the future of the electric guitar. He helped invent it.