Yes, it's another "please help me ID my Burny" thr

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Voidoid56

Well-known member
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
342
Reaction score
213
Location
Sweden
Found this Burny LP on a local (Swedish) fleabay equivalent, got a pretty good price on it and it turned out to be the best LP I've had so far. Pretty flametop, great player, brilliant open PAF-like sound from the pups. In short: it makes you wanna play "All Right Now" real bad. AND it came with an original, Burny-branded HSC.

So far, so good. But then, there are the eternal questions "exactly what?" and "at least approximately when?".

The seller, who seemed to be honest and in possession of roughly the same half-assed amount of knowledge of MIJ lore as myself labeled it "an early to mid 80's RLG-90 with L8001/8002 pickups". Some of the evidence seems to bear it out, some seems less than conclusive.

Yes, I have pics. You can (hopefully) find them here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/77b42y2ilnvul8l/EdJmOPNcjP

Sorry for the inconvenience, but there are a lot of large pics, and I've failed embedding photos here before, so please bear with me.

Quick feature rundown:
Handwritten "90" in magic marker in the neck cavity
One-piece back
Flame veneer on plain maple top
Short tenon
Silverback humbuckers with braided wire (shouldn't 8001/8002's be brass with grey wires?)
Pot codes are indistinct but seem to be "77" (hopefully visible in the pics)
Grey pio caps (original??)
Bell TRC (positioned unusually high up, but the nut seems slightly narrower than on my RLC-60 and RSA-100, maybe it's not original? If it had a christmas tree TRC from the beginning, it left no marks on the headstock)
"Luper Prade" decal in a fairly low position, with "Model" slightly higher than the lower edge of the G string tree.
90 degree pointer washers.

I would be very grateful for any input from the esteemed and informed members of this forum.

PS I managed to move the pic folder, thus killing the original link. Fixed now.
 
hi
that look like a 1987 rlg 90 .... i am not sure about the pickups ,,, surpose to be VH 1
nice looking guitar

:D :D
all the best
otto
 
Thanks for the info, it doesn't seem too far off the mark then. I wondered about the "early - mid 80's" timeline myself, the "wavy" rear route and the 90 degree pointers seem to contradict that.

But I'm sort of confused about the pups, aren't VH1's supposed to have brass rear plates?? Or are there differences between the early and late ones? And the one-piece back? Isn't that -120 and up? On the other hand, the finish is poly... hm...

Ah well, gotta love Burnys, they sure keep you guessing. Which is half the fun. :)

Anyway, great guitar! Thx again.

/Hans
 
img61868804.jpg
 
hi ?
if you look this forum you will find a lot of topics about the L8000 and vh 1
i am not sure than anyboby can tell witch pickup you have for sure
the spec say vh 1 .... but there are so many things that are not the same in the catalogs ,,, as in the real guitar
the vh 1 are in the catalogs from 1982 but the spec changed over the years
so a 1982 vh 1 may not be the same as
a 1987 vh1 ,,, but if you can look at the magnets and it has alnico magnets
i think they are vh 1
some say the l8000 sound the same as the 1983 vh 1 ,,,
i only have a 1987 rlg 90 like yours and a 1980 flg 90 and they dont sound the same ,,,,,
the old L8000 are more paf like ,,, to me
all the best
otto
 
That's 100% sure a 1987 RLG-90.
Dyna made and with VH-1 pickups.
Very rare to find one and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it fast :D
 
@jacco: Don't worry, it's already mine, mine, MINE! :) And thanks for giving me the factory, that was my next question.
Is that VH1 as in 1st generation VH1? As I understand it, later VH1's were essentially re-labeled VH2/4's?

@otto: wow, spectacular guitars, love the smiley face top on the FLG. :-D
 
@otto: I see your RLG has the xmas tree TRC, while mine has the bell? Was '87 the year of changeover, or was there a tree on mine as well originally, do you think?
 
Voidoid56 said:
@jacco: Don't worry, it's already mine, mine, MINE! :) And thanks for giving me the factory, that was my next question.
Is that VH1 as in 1st generation VH1? As I understand it, later VH1's were essentially re-labeled VH2/4's?

@otto: wow, spectacular guitars, love the smiley face top on the FLG. :-D

No problem mate and HNGD!! :D

No, that's 2nd generation VH1,1st generation = 1983-84 (VERY rare), second generation 1985-1989. 3rd & 4th I have not quite clear yet but 3rd is roughly from 1990 to 1994, 4th after that.
I don't know about the relabelled VH2/4 but do understand why people think that. LG-75s had orighinally VH4s but were later fitted with VH1s. That's arouund when the 4th gen was introduced, which are Gotoh's btw.
 
Voidoid56 said:
@otto: I see your RLG has the xmas tree TRC, while mine has the bell? Was '87 the year of changeover, or was there a tree on mine as well originally, do you think?

No, if Otto's is from 1987, the TRC is non original. Winged TRCs were introduced april 1989.
 
hi
i cant remember ,,, but it has the winged truss rod cover so i am thinking after 1987 ,,, i need to go and look :D :D
all the best
otto
 
And what's very interesting is that the length of the polescrews on yours Otto are way shorter than the ones on Hans' RLG-90.

Do you have any means to measure your pickups resistence Hans?
Otto's are around 7.79
 
Yes, it was definitely a HNGD, thanks man. :)

I've had a multimeter on the shopping list for ages, now seems a good time to finally get one. I'll try to get back to you on that one, jacco.

But I'd say they're pretty low output compared to my other two LP's. Both the RLC-60 ('87 too, if I remember correctly) and the ObG Goldtop drive the amp noticeably harder, and the RLG is definitely brighter than both.
 
Thanks Hans!

Your RLC-60 will have VH3s, those measure a little higher; around 8.05-8.30 and are ceramic.
 
Ok, so the VH3's are ceramic, didn't know that.

The RLC sounds excellent, but different from the RLG. A dirtier, edgier sound, good for Neil Young impressions (the guitar is even the right colour :) ) but still with a healthy dose of Les Paul "gold" and finesse. The RLG seems to be able to cover most of the classic rock 'burst spectrum, from Green via Kossoff to Page.

Ironically, the ObG, is the worst of the trio, soundwise. An astonishingly pretty, well-built and vintage correct MIJ instrument, let down by flat- and compressed-sounding US pups. I'm considering swapping them out for HB-size P-90's, we'll see.
 
hi
i forgot i got a very early rlc 60 some time ago ... with 250 k pots
i will post pictures soon
pickups are 7.9 k ohm brigde and 8.07 neck .. green cap gray wire7
alnico magnets and all black
 

Latest posts

Back
Top