Baldwin - Burns Baby Bison Model Solid Body Electric Guitar (1965), made in London, England, serial # 12613, cherry polyester finish, sycamore body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
The Baby Bison was Jim Burns' last design for the company that bore his name, initially intended as a less expensive "export" solidbody Bison model for the American market. When the Burns company was sold to Baldwin in September 1965, this guitar was just about to enter production so "Burns" labeled examples are almost non-existent. This particular guitar is the earliest style Baldwin model with a split "V" headstock, full long "Rezo-Tube" tailpiece and only two small pickguard segments-all features that would change by the summer of 1966. A fairly large batch of these "Baby's" was built in late '65 and sent over to the US as Baldwin's first salvo in their new guitar marketing campaign. The Baby Bison is generally a straightforward design, the most advanced feature is the same simple-looking but deceptively elaborate two-pickup circuit shared with the Burns Virginian and Baldwin Vibra-Slim. The pickups look identical from the outside, but the neck pickup being a stacked double coil unit with the second coil blended in via a "presence" control knob.
This model was offered in both cherry and black Polyester finish and is one of the more familiar Baldwin guitars to US players, as the initial production run was mostly sent here as flag bearers for the Baldwin/Burns line. This is a trim and versatile guitar, once known as a favorite of Doobie Brother and studio ace Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. The "Bar-O-Matic" pickups are quite powerful without losing clarity, and the sound ranges from crisp to raunchy easily. A very cool and underrated 1960's guitar!
Overall length is 38 1/2 in. (97.8 cm.), 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.). A particularly nice early and all original example-even the nearly always missing vibrato arm assembly is intact and complete. Very clean overall, bright cherry color with very little fade and virtually no checking-the finish has just a little wear, mostly just small chips on the edge. Excellent neck and frets, plays very well; includes the original HSC; just about the necest of these we have had! Excellent + Condition.
