Baldwin (1965-70)

Jim Burns was an eccentric person whose strength was guitar design and technology – not business and financial management. Despite the good times for guitar selling the Burns London Ltd was deeply in debt to suppliers and creditors and in desperate need of rescue. This is when the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company of Cincinnati appears on the stage. The price was £380.000, small money in compare to £13 millions for Fender which Baldwin didn't managed to buy.

Jim Burns remained with his old company for about a year in a consulting capacity, fairly typical in this sort of deal.

The plan was that Burns would continue to manufacture guitars in London and ship them to U.S, branded as Baldwin guitars. Since the name usually was on the pickguard this meant cutting out the Burns name and gluing a piece of pickguard material engraved with the Baldwin name over it. Once the existing Burns part were used up, the Baldwin logo was incorporated into the parts, as normal.

The guitars didn't sell very well in US, but not because of the poor finish! The problem was that the American salespeople didn't know how to sell guitars. Without established guitar-dealer shops and the expertise to sell guitars, the Baldwin line quickly began to languish.

The 65 Burns line initially continued intact as the Baldwin line. Depending on the model, headstocks on most of these early Baldwin guitars were in-line, on-a-side or the trademark large scroll. All Burns/Baldwin guitars had bolt on necks (except the later classical) Necks were adjustable, with access underneath the neckplate into a ”gearbox”. Fingerboard were typically unbound rosewood with pearl dot inlays.

In 1966 Baldwin took further steps to reduce costs as it hoped to boost sales. From this point on, all Baldwin guitars had the same necks rather than different headstocks based on a model. Secondly, the new necks featured a flatter version of the scroll headstock. This was easier to manufacture than the previous design, which had a real carved scroll. Finally fingerboards were bound and the triple-dot octave had three dots of the same size.

In addition, in 1966 several model underwent minor changes while the Vibraslim got a major makeover.

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GB66

One example:
GB66 /1966

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You will find more Baldwin guitars in the new Burns book "Pearls and Crazy Diamonds":


The Bison Range

Transition Models
GB54
GB66
The Model 511V Bison
The Model 560 Baby Bison
The Jazz Range
The Model 503 Split Sound
The Marvin Range
The Model 524 Hank Marvin Signature
The Model 525 Double Six
Semi-Acoustiks
The Model 548 The Vibraslim Guitar
The Model 550 The Virginian
The GB 66 De Luxe Guitar
The Model 706 and 706V
The Model 712R and 712 T
The Contemorary Classic Guitar - 801

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Click here if you want more information on the book:





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