Custom/Mystery? 1982 Burny Super Grade RLG-? Curled Birdseye

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Udonitron

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Hello guys,

1st post and nice to be here. As per the requests of the guys over at MLP Forums, I have joined here to show pics of my newly arrived but mystery/unknown 1982 Burny Super Grade curled/Birdseye Maple topped sweetness lol. They suggested posting this here as well for you all to look and possibly shed some light on identification.

Now on the base of the neck, under the nitro, there was a 90, 120, and 150 written but they were all crossed out. Above (or below depending on how you look at it) all those crossed out numbers is what looks to be "240" and the nitro from the factory is over top of these markings...it has runs over top and is thick. It does not look written in and finished over afterward, it looks factory to me.

There are no braided pup wires but they are black instead of the gray Nil's info mentions. It is a 2 piece back but man...the mahogany neck and back is AMAZING! The wood has an almost 3D/DOF effect to it and is just gorgeous! It looks like it has never been played (no fret wear, scrapes, etc) and the quilted/curled Birdseye maple top is solid and not veneered like the 50's and 90's are reported to be. The "Super Grade" script on the headstock has been done in a nice deep metallic gold fleck-ish paint and it also has a 3D effect to it (was that normal for these '82's as my 1986 black one that arrived last week is just a gold color, no fleck to it).

Also, I just decided to take out the bridge pup and found a weird factory placed letter and number. It shows Z64? Any ideas on that? It was done at the factory as you can see it was stained and nitro'ed over top of the piece of (what looks to be) tape or paper?

Here is the album of all the shots I have taken thus far of it and they are all full framed full res 5D shot glory for you to zoom in on to get more details. If you need anymore shots just let me know guys. Thank so much for your thoughts and opinions on this amazing guitar.


http://img196.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=031lv.jpg
 
P.S.

I will be getting some classic tulip Grover or Kluson's for this ASAP. At least he left the original screws intact and didn't drill any more in there!
 
Hey Udonitron, If you get the Klusons make sure you get conversion bushings aswell. I see em on Ebay for 10.00 bucks most of the time. :D BTW Nice axe!
 
Welcome on board U :D I think this will stir some interest here shortly... maybe embed a close-up so everyone can get a quick taste.
 
Ah, good call 3pupLPC.

Conversion bushings? Are the holes smaller than normal? I know Kluson and Wilkinson make ones for smaller headstock tuner holes.

Here we go guys:


009sz.jpg


031uu.jpg


001hp.jpg


032wq.jpg


023av.jpg


002iq.jpg


035xj.jpg


014tc.jpg


011as.jpg


028is.jpg


024je.jpg
 
Welcome over to the dark side UDO :evil:

The Pictures of your beautiful burny look even better?it should arouse quite a lot interest and hopefully some information on it?
Looking at the pictures again,are we sure that is a Z that is written with the 64, it could represent anything,I do not think there is a letter that represents Z in the japanese alphabet?
Maybe a forum member that reads japanese might jump in?
Anyway welcome again :lol:
MOJO HOBO
 
Yeah technically there is no "Z" in the Hiragana or Katakana nomenclature but there were exceptions. Zaibatsu comes to mind lol. Hopefully the Z64 has some story behind it and some of the gurus on this site can shed some light on this wonderful axe!
 
very nice example of a RLG plain top, with the typical flat sawn/plain sawn, two piece/center seam solid maple top; also note the very tight/narrow annual ring spacing which is also typical of the maple used for RLG plain tops from this period

my guess is circa 1985 but that's a guess aka theory, based on several attributes of your example

my idea on the Z64 is that the Z is actually a 2, and that the Z64/264 is likely an indication of an order number

when I worked at Hitachi US Semiconductor, nearly 100% of the Japanese would write a 2 as 2 but nearly the same 100% would write a Z with a slash thru' the angled/mid section of the Z

whatever the Z, or 2 is, again it's a very nice example, stellar even :wink:

Udonitron said:
It is a 2 piece back but man...the mahogany neck and back is AMAZING! The wood has an almost 3D/DOF effect to it and is just gorgeous!

that is becuase the grain in the neck, and in a certain piece of the body back, fall within the technical specification for quartersawn lumber.

mahogany that is quarter sawn will usually have this effect; it can be similar to the 'phantom' effect seen in figured maple


just one more thing; examples I have had in my hands that have this type of maple top usually run in the 9.50 to 10.00 weight range.
They look really nice & sound great but my back hates the extra weight :(
What does that one weigh in at?
 
Hey MIJvintage,

Cheers for your input man. You think it is an 85? I bought it off the original owner in Japan and he had said bought it in '82 the brass TRC was stock new when he bought it, any ideas on that? I suppose the Z could be a 2 for sure but it is odd how the top of the Z is straight as too is the line down but the bottom is waved. That is how we were taught to do Z's when I was a kid in school but now I always cross them like my sevens :)

The '82 bit also coincides with Nil's info (informative but not written in stone) on the Super Grade script height in line with the G & D tuners.

Thanks for the wood info! Considering this is a solid maple top and of this caliber, I wonder if this was selected via a custom order or perhaps the guy I got it from worked at the plant and made it for himself? Either way it plays better than any other guitar I have played. It puts my Gibby I sold to shame...

Weight...mmm I have not officially weighed it but I would put it in at the 9.5-10.5 lbs range. (4.4 kg or so)
 
After looking at that number, MIJ is probably right, looks like 264. Could be a batch #. My RLG-90 is from that time period and it's 10.1 LBs. the heaviest out of the dozen I've had so far. The rest were 8.5-9.0 Lbs. Udonitron, Grovers usually have the holes enlarged because of the bigger diameter shaft so, alot of the times conversion bushings are needed to convert back to klusons.
 
Hey NWOBHM

Well those are not real Grover's but rather old 70's replicas found usually on the older Greco's etc. Not sure if they would have a larger diameter hole needed or not. I should pull one and measure the hole I suppose. In reality I should notice as soon as I pull them if the original hole was drilled out at all.


P.S. I just realized I never posted a pic of the headstock! Doy! Here it is! MIJvintage...this may help with some identification as well.


007ma.jpg
 
I assume your example is a RLG-50; what do you believe it to be?

I haven?t had much experience with the higher end Burnys.
Dating these things is pretty much all guess work, IMO.
Wasn?t really aware of the brass TRC issue until fairly recent times, and from my limited knowledge were used only on some higher end Burnys.

One thing I noticed on yours? is the neck tenon; it off-set to the bass side like a Tokai tenon.
From the examples I have seen with this tenon, they will also usually have the ?heel cap?.
See the two below RLGs that I recently SOLD as circa 1985 examples.
These two have the same type tenon, toggle switch, pickups, and control routing as yours, yet yours has the brass TRC, and no heel cap.

SOLD in mid August ???..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180395388128&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT
SOLD just a few days ago ????
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180417470903&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT

As stated, yours does not have the heel cap, which is an attribute of a later 1980s RLG model, or it could be an example of a higher grade Burny from the time frame in which yours was produced.
Also, you state there is a 90, 120, and 150 written on the butt end of the tenon that have all been crossed thru?.
I don?t know but one guess is that these higher spec models may have not had the heel cap that the lower grade RLG-50 model had, in this time frame of manufacture; just a guess.
Maybe the factory used a 90/120/150 grade neck for your example, and you do have the brass TRC that was only on a very few of the higher end models.
Who knows, it could have been at the very end of the heel cap era, and maybe a true one piece neck from the very beginning of that era was used.
Again, it?s all a guess with Burnys, as I have yet to have one with a serial #, even tho' there are some out there that have them ???????
 
yeah, It's alot of guess work for sure but, fun in the process. :D My 90 doesn't have a heelcap and the tenon is more centered as opposed to the left. That Brass cover, I've only seen on the RSC-80 and the RSC-100 but, that's not to say that some didn't make there way on to some RLG's.
 
Right on, nice replies guys. Helps out big time and it is all so **** interesting! Almost more so that playing it...I said almost lol :D

Yeah see that is what I thought as well...there is so much mix and matching with this Burny that it confused me when it arrived! Various things on it date to various times. That is what leads me to think it was a custom order but who knows?

I have seen Burny's with serials before actually but they all pre-date 1982.
 
I am now leaning towards getting some new Grover (inline screw so I can use the existing screw holes and don't need to drill new ones) Rotomatics in the Satin Chrome. They just do such a good job of staying in tune (there is a reason Page uses them on his old late 50's Gibson) although I love the vintage look of the old Kluson's! I will have to lean towards the old "Function Before Fashion" ideal here I think :p
 
Hard to tell.... does it have a headstock veneer, or is it painted black? Also, acetone in one of the cavities :) If it is a special order, I would expect nitro and not poly.
 
MIJvintage said:
of all the RLG solid tops I previously owned this ones reminds me of yours the most ...............

SatoshiBurnyFlamedBack.jpg

The top is so very close! The backs are different however. Interesting how your back has an almost flame to it? It wasn't Maple, was it? If mine didn't have such a difference in the 2 pieces of mahogany on the back, it would have looked like a one piece as the book matching is so well done regardless of the grains!

Villager seems to think mine is a RLG-90 but who knows?
 

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