Jim Burns remained on with his old company for about a year in a consulting capacity. In September '65, Baldwin Piano and Organ took over the assets of Ormston Burns Ltd. Most of the purchase price went to pay off notes. This was far from the millions Baldwin had offered to purchase Fender. The reported purchase price was in the neighborhood of $380,000. As a compromise Baldwin dispatched treasurer Richard Harrison to England to negotiate with Jim Burns about purchasing his floundering company.ĭue to the sad financial state of affairs of Burns Ormston. Wulsin took a big chance to take his business in a new direction and made an attempt to purchase Fender, but was outbid by CBS. Leo Fender was having health problems and decided to put Fender Musical Instruments on the block. These were selling well, but due to the British Invasion, every kid across the world wanted to play electric guitar. ![]() The name Baldwin conjures up visions of finely manufactured pianos and console organs. In '61, Lucien Wulsin III took over the reigns of the Baldwin empire based in Cincinnati Ohio. He was in desperate need of capital to maintain his company. Within five years his company was deeply in debt to suppliers and creditors. Burns skills were guitar design and technology and not business and financial management. It was in 1960 that Jim Burns founded his own company, Ormston Burns Ltd., which began selling guitars branded 'Burns London.'Īmong his most endearing guitar designs were the pointy, horned Bison and a guitar made for Hank Marvin, England's answer to the Ventures.īurns guitars were generally well designed and produced, with feather-touch vibratos, a unique 'gear-box' truss rod adjuster (which ended up on many Baldwin-era Gretsches), and nifty electronic features like the 'Wild Dog' setting on the Jazz Split Sound (basically an early out-of-phase tone). During the era due to the high tariffs imposed on US manufactured products, UK guitarists looked to purchase domestically produced instruments or those manufactured in Europe. In the late '50s he was part of Burns-Weill, making some of the earliest production guitars in England. James Ormston Burns was born in England in 1925 and following World War II became involved in making guitars. Information came from various sources including Vintage Guitar Magazine.
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