2 RGLs on ebay

Wondering what you guys think about these 2 Burnys (Burnies?) on ebay from the same seller.
Also got a couple of Gibson classic 57 pick ups and bumble bee caps Im looking to fit into a suitable Guitar, any suggestions welcome.
Cheers Terry
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BURNY-LES-PAUL-STANDARD-RLG-50-80s-MADE-IN-JAPAN-RARE_W0QQitemZ330317898692QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item330317898692&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A10%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

They look nice to me. Although I am not that big of fan of the solid color pauls, that is a pretty nice black one there. They both look to be in good shape. Hard to tell for sure without pictures of the guts. Probably late 80's early 90's. I would probably not put the gibby pick ups in it though. I would bet the burny pups sound better.

Agreed with btmish... one of the main (of many) +'s of Burny's are their pups. If what you buy has ceramic caps, put the bumblebees in the guitar if you want, then put the '57's on ebay. :wink:

Thanks guys. I will take your advice on the pups. Im new to MIJ Lawsuit guitars, with these as you believe being late 80s+ are they as desirable as the earlier models that gave Gibson problems? What I need realy is advice on buying a Burny, I love the whole Lawsuit thing and want a good example of one with that little piece of guitar history.
I looked at Tokais originaly but the prices seem to have gone mad, Grecos look ok but they seem to creeping up in price and to be honest its a crap name (in my opinion!) Its got to be a Burny. Any advice would be welcome (any one want to buy a pair of 57 cassic pups?)

Are you in the UK?

Yes Bolton area nr Manchester

If you have not yet, have a look at villagers homepage... he has a very nice RLG-90 for sale from 82-83. http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/page%205%20Burny.html. Plus he has some good info as well as a link to Nil's Burny page.

I will let some of the other guys give their more senior opinions on early 80's vs late 80's, as I am a fairly recent convert myself back to MIJ after many years of throwing away good $ on USA GIBSON and FENDER... my first real electric was a sweet Ibanez Artist AR-100 back in 1982. But the Burny's that I have currently are a LP Jr from late 70's or VERY early 80's (has the Les PaulTV script on it), a RLC-65 from probably '85, and a SG Custom from around '90. Quality wise they are incredible across the board. The lightning bolt on the SG annoyes me, but that's minor. For my money, as long as it is MIJ Burny, it beats anything non- USA Custom Shop I've ever had.

Thanks for your help. This MIJ thing is realy addictive. I played a 79 Strat for over 20 years and never even looked at a Les Paul, until a friend of mine brought a Gibson Goltop vos 57 to a jam night. I couldnt believe what I had missed all those years. The odd thing being my favourite guitarist has always been Peter Green! Sold the Strat and got a 58 vos that cost the earth. But because of the cost and the sort of places I gig at I looked for a second guitar to use at those less than desirable venues. Read about the "lawsuit" and picked up a Yamaha "Lord Player" and some classic pups and caps to put in it. When I got it, there was no need to change anything. it was just as good as the Gibson. Im now looking to sell the Gibson and get a few MIJ guitars instead.
A Burny like yours with the "Les Paul" script sounds great (any chance of some pics?) Theres one on ebay at the moment in Japan but its a 77 which is a little too early. From what I can gather it was around 78 they started to produce the realy good ones.
I love the cheek of putting "Les Paul" on them and then the odd names to look the same, 8) brilliant.
I check the site you mention almost daily he s got some stunning guitars including the Burny you mention. The wife says I can only have one more Guitar (hmm yes dear) so I realy value your advice on getting the right one.

I think both the ones you posted would be very nice guitars. The older ones are more desirable, but they sure seems scarce these days. And, besides the plain tops, probably hard to come by for under 1k. The higher models, RLG 90 and above do have some higher specs. Mostly one piece body, braided wire, oil caps....but again, very hard to find. I believe I have only seen one on ebay in the last 6 months or so.

The older plain tops and later 80's plain and flame, seem to be next in line. These mostly have 2 or 3 piece backs, plastic wire, green caps. They are smokin guitars and can usually be had, shipped to us, in the 650-850 range depending on condition, top, etc. They are too VERY nice guitars and, bang for buck, hard to beat for any les paul style guitar. There are more of these, but they too, seem to be getting harder to come by. Good luck and let us know if/when you get one and what you think.

Oh, as for the ones you have posted, I highly doubt that flame is a solid top as the seller claims. That one looks a little different than most of the ones I have seen.

Terry,

Here is a link to a shot of my LP JR. I cant get pix to imbed for some reason so just paste it into your browser.

Here you go..

Thank you Mick, once again!

Wow, that's a nice one! Rosewood, yea?

Thanks for posting the pic. thats one cool guitar! I bet there isnt many of them around. Great choice of amp too, are you a Blues man by any chance?

btmish said:

Wow, that's a nice one! Rosewood, yea?

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I think it just nicely figured mahogany, but thinking about it, does kind of have that George-Tele vibe doesn't it. Here is a different angle of the grain. And thanks for sorting out my profile so I can post pix

terry jones said:

Thanks for posting the pic. thats one cool guitar! I bet there isnt many of them around. Great choice of amp too, are you a Blues man by any chance?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I dont believe I have ever seen another one in this finish.

Old Ampeg, the pride of New Jersey!! I love 'em. They've got great tremolo to my ears. This one is a 1965 Jet. My rhythm player uses a 60's Gemini II and I have a cousin with a Gemini I... they are sweet vintage amps that wont cost you an arm and a leg. And yes, I love the blues! All kinds but especially Texas Blues... makes me wonder why I sold off all my strats :-?

Now they are relisted but with a strting price instead.

LOL, they were relisted when nobody bought them with buy now. Now the bidding has almost passed the buy now price.
Well I'm not going to bid I was tempted for a while, this is crazy. Buy now for the black one was 450 and the clownburst was 475. The auction wars is helping creating the hype.

people....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=330319678517

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=330319679295

Yes, those guys are stupid, they were ?400 when on by it now