Mike,

As you're well aware I've played your Burny and it's at least 95% as good as
my $3000 Les Paul historic reissue. I will confess that the extra 5% I
achieve from mine is a wonderful thing (plus mine only weighs a bit more
than 8 pounds!). But still, your guitar rocks in a mighty fashion. I will
sadly mention that the days of buying Burny repros for $350 is pretty much a
thing of the past. If you get one now it will set you back about $600 or
more. I just bought an Edwards repro of a 1959 Les Paul TV Junior (made by
ESP) on Ebay from one of those Tokyo guys for $425 and it is astoundingly
great - pretty much as good as the real TV junior I had in the early days of
the Windbreakers and much better than the 1960 Junior I played at the last
Sparklefest. (if you don't know what a TV Junior is just think Johnny
Thunders with the New York Dolls).

I'll probably get one of those new Epiphone Casinos eventually. They look
and play great. I'm not so concerned about the tuners but I do know the
pickups are duff. Seymour Duncan makes excellent P-90s and that's what I
would put in there.

As for Flying V's - they're really not made to be played sitting down -
whether they have the rubber strip or not. You play them standing up damnit!
I almost bought a real 1964 Reverse Firebird last year but it didn't quite
happen. When played in a standing position if you let go of the neck, the
neck goes straight down towards the floor. That's why most of the originals
have repaired neck fractures!

Anyway, sorry to hijack a music forum into an instrument forum.

Bobby Sutliff
NP - a Stratocaster

> Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 15:15:08 -0400
> From: Mike <shindig@nc.rr.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: Questions for guitar players
> Message-ID: <p05010400bd2c550655d6@[192.168.0.101]>
>
> >  > Burny, Greco, Tokai or Orville.
>
> I have a Burny Les Paul I got off eBay and I will put it up against
> any modern Les Paul. Heavy as lead but dang, it sings. It cost me
> $360 plus $100 to ship it from Japan. There are a few guys on eBay
> who operate out of Tokyo and deal in "lawsuit" guitars. I also have a
> mid-'70's Ibanez Tele Custom copy that is a little beat but smokes.
>
> The Epi V's are cool and they do have the the little rubber grip
> strip on the underside so you can sit and play them. The modern
> Gibson V's don't have this feature. I especially like the Popa Chubby
> Epiphone V with p-90's - schweet!
>
> I lost interest in Epiphone Pauls when they stopped making the groovy
> Sparkle finishes. The Magenta sparkle was especially swell. But with
> their Les Pauls, changing the tuners and the pickups is kind of
> mandatory. The pickups are usually microphonic and the tuners are
> cheap junk. Throw some Grovers and some Pearly Gates and woomp...
> there it is!
>
> I have an Epiphone non-reverse Thunderbird bass and though I dig its
> looks and playability, I need to either get new pickups or sell it. I
> really am jones-ing for a real P-bass in candy apple red w/ a gold
> pickguard... mmmm, sexy!
>
> M