Weird Neck Joint on Burny LP Custom

I just Ebayed a Burny LP Custom from Japan. The guitar is near-mint except for the tarnish on the hardware and one surprising dent on the upper edge at the back.

I opened the bridge pickup cavity. The pickup has no letters or numbers on it. There is an illegible number starting with 15 in the cavity. There is a large screw which appears to go through the tenon.

This guitar was advertised as a "long tenon" Burny, but I haven't seen any photos of pickup cavities that look like this, with trustworthy info as to the tenon. It's supposed to be late 70s/early 80s. It looks just like a Gibson. You can see the expired Ebay listing here: http://tinyurl.com/34wmrp9


Here is a photo of another guitar with the same kind of bridge pickup cavity.

http://tinyurl.com/3yohqpq

My question: is this a legitimate long-tenon Burny, or did I buy a piece of Korean crap?

I sure hope my luthier can pretty up that dent. It was not shown in the Ebay photos.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

It's an early '80's Japanese model, does yours have a screw in the tenon like the one in the pic?

It's exactly like the one in the photo, screw included.

I have seen those a couple of times.


I think they did that to fix the neck as the screw will make the guitar possible to handle before the glue harden.

Cheap cheap cheap imo

Interesting guitar!
It's a RLC60 for sure, the routing is late 80s; it has the normal diamond logo but an altered TRC; 1987 or 1988 if it's MIJ.
The tenon is too long, square (not rounded like MIJ Burny's of that time), and not cut off right. Looks an awful lot like a MIK.
You must post pics of the back of the pups, both pup cavities and control cavity to be more certain of it's origin.

Oh, goody. More work.

I wonder how a Korean Burny could end up in Japan.

I saw a source on the web that says the Matsumoku factory did them like this, for Burny and Aria.

TheNewSteveH said:

Oh, goody. More work.

I wonder how a Korean Burny could end up in Japan.

I saw a source on the web that says the Matsumoku factory did them like this, for Burny and Aria.

Click to expand...

I think Japanstrat, here on the forum would have more info on these early Burny's.

hi ?
i have seen that kind of tenor in aria pro and yamaha guitars ,,,,, never seen that on a mik but any thing is possibelt
all the best
otto

Sounds like I may have been cheated. Maybe the seller has no idea what "long tenon" means.

muccax said:

hi ?
i have seen that kind of tenor in aria pro and yamaha guitars ,,,,, never seen that on a mik but any thing is possibelt
all the best
otto

Click to expand...

Cort made Greco's have that tenon

I got it cleaned up and tried it out.

I was going to put a Bigsby and a Vibramate on it, but the strap button hole is not exactly on the centerline of the guitar, so I'll have to pay someone to do it.

The neck and fretboard seem flawless. I guess it's rosewood. Whatever it is, it's very hard and slick, and it makes playing a breeze. It appears to be very straight, although I don't know exactly what the relief spec is, or the proper way to check it.

It's slicker and harder than the fretboard on my American Roadhouse Strat, which appears to be rosewood. It seems slicker than the fretboard on my Chinese Epiphone Riviera, which looks like ebony.

I don't think the previous owner played this guitar. I can't see any fret wear.

I can't tell what kind of pickups these are, but they have a sweet, slightly nasal sound. I don't know much about humbuckers; they sound great to me, but my other guitars all have single coils, so I wouldn't really know. They seem fairly hot.

Seems like the fourth string doesn't sound as loudly as the others, but that may be my imagination.

I guess it's too nice to ship back to Japan. My luthier says he can make the ding look better.

If the copies are this nice, I have to wonder what a good example of a Gibson LP Custom is like. I've only played one real LP, and it was a Studio, and I only played it briefly.

hi
i did have a cort made lp some time ago from the late 80 early 90 ... and it did not have that kind of tenor ,,, but please if you can show me a picture of one
and all the mik from cort i have seen ,,,,have black paint in the pickup cavity ,,, this one does not .... so i dont think this is a mik
and the logo on the head is the early kind of logo that burny used
so i think this is a real mij burny ,,,,
all the best
otto

Got some photos. Sorry they're not clearer. I could not find a way to post them here, so they're on Photobucket.

http://s840.photobucket.com/albums/zz329/TheNewSteveH/

jacco said:

muccax said:

hi ?
i have seen that kind of tenor in aria pro and yamaha guitars ,,,,, never seen that on a mik but any thing is possibelt
all the best
otto

Click to expand...

Cort made Greco's have that tenon

Click to expand...

Are you sure? Cort's either had a really bad squared & covered in shielding paint tenon or none at all but never one this this Burny that I have ever seen. It is an Aria/Matsumoko type tenon for sure. Do you have pics of a Cort with a tenon like that? I would love to see them for sure

Ok, I was assuming it could be Korean based only on the shape of the tenon. Corts do not have a screw in it and indeed the shape of the pickup cavity is different and actually much like the Matsumoku/Aria. But as said; have black shielding paint.

Let's be factual, let's take a good look at the pickup cavity of this guitar:

-Matsumoku routing; left drilled wiring in the upper pickup cavity
This one has right drilled wiring (like Fujigen).
-Matsumoku/Aria tenon 2 screws, this one 1 screw.
-Matsumoku/Aria tenon has a hole at the truss rod, this one hasn't got one
-Matsumoku/Aria pickup cavity shape is rectangular with cut off corners, this one is quite different.

Please join in where I am mistaken.

So where was this guitar made?

anyone?

Do I see a 3-pc maple neck???

I don't know how Gibson makes necks with 2 lines down the back. If it's three pieces, it's three pieces. My old Gibson J-200 has the same neck.

I mention Gibson because, as everyone knows, Gibson taught the Japanese how to make these things.

3pupLPC said:

Do I see a 3-pc maple neck???

Click to expand...

maple, are you sure?

I'm also sure that Burny is a Matsumoku made. My Aria Pro II Leopard have exactly the same kind of tenon and routing like guitars Matsumoku have made for Aria Pro II.
This is not the first one I have seen. I have seen another RLC60 with the normal diamond in Black colour sold on ebay.
Matsumoku made some 3 pieces neck for Aria Pro II Les Paul models, especially for the custom model.

And last, but not the least, the inlays of this Burny are getting old like the Matsumoku Aria Pro II LP inlays...

Here is the long tenon of my Aria Pro II LS600D from 1981 :