shopdisplay for Burns guitarpics in 1965,at your right side is the orginal Burns pics from 1965 and the Hank B Marvin design´d original. On display is also Gitz-Levin pics from the same year and a pic from the legendary SUN studios.

One thing in my life is the creation of a new tune, cant say it follows a certain pattern but suddenly its just there inside my mind. Pen and paper may come handy and after a bit of struggle there it is.

Next step is to record it with the same sound as I clearly can hear inside me head. That´s when the big problemes occure.

The song in my mind this time is called “like a butterfly”. The title in it self may sound harmless but as far as i know the english language is exellent in that way, you can use its words. What I try to tell with the lyris can mean so many different things for the listener.

 

Epiphone ES175-3 Bigsby

One of my greatest problems with music to keep in rhytm, thats why i love a good drummer, or even the rhytm pattern in my keyboard. It keeps me in rhytm.  Already at first class in school i was taught to count. One, two, three and four. Its easy but when it comes to music it may cause a huge problem.

 EKO 290-2V 1964

So i wrote this song, recorded it and was at least a bit satisfied with it, and the sound of it even if my voice doesnt do it any good. So the music was sent to one of the great female voice´s in my “wanna be” band.

She listened to it and suddenly there was a load of problems. A matter of mathematics thats for sure. Possibly she did struggle with the lyrics and the tune in her ears, but it didnt match at all. So she told me and once again i  started to listen to it, realising it was totaly wrong. Not all of it, but somewhere I lost the rhytm.

I then started to make a new recording, starting of with track one where i used my Epiphone ES175 to create the sound of a rhytmguitar. The VOX amp and its hundreds of different sound patterns did the rest of the job. Yet another track with the same guitar was recorded, before I with the help of me EKO 290 guitar recorded two different tracks with leadguitar.

With the fact in mind that I´m still very much in the old analog taperecorder style of recording music, i was forced to do this operation over and over again. Mainly cause I did loads of fault in me playing. So after app 10 times recording the same leadtune I was almost satisfied. Next step, and the last one will be to record some strings and horns from me Casio keyboard.

At this very moment I do hope this new recording will satisfye the female voice. Even if it does´nt sound exactly as it did in me head while i was writing the tune.

You can find a link to the tune in its instrumental version below. Hope you like it.

 like-a-butterfly-instr

Whats more om my music-front:

The construction of the loudspeaker cabinett out of an old bookshelf , a midrange speaker and two 12” speakes went in to its final stage when a piece of darkblue cloth was fitted as a front to the cabinet. It looks almost good even if its not a pro-build loudspeaker. Still it sounds app 400,oo£ worth, in other words great.

VOX AD60 and Bookshelf speaker.

I´m still waiting for delivery of me Ebay/Burns amplifier from the UK. Maybe there will also be a Burns speaker cabinet. Hopefully my freind Richard will soon send it to me. For certain it will be amazing to plug it in, and hopefully listen to the sound of it for the first time.

This amp is the smaller one in the Burns range of the 60-ies, with only 30 watt output. As such its extremly uncommon in Sweden where the bigger units was sold back then. the Burns Orbit Double 12 and Three was during that time a step into the future of guitar amplifiers.

Burns Orbit Double Twelve-1964

Owners with the grat VOX AC 30&50 amps exchanged them for this new transistor amp, wich didnt have the inbuildt noice problem. A couple of years later most of those transistor amp´s was thrash´d. The VOX´s, Marshall´s  and Fenders was back on stage.

VOX amplifiers of the 60-ies

 

 

Burns pic included in purchase of Burns LondonMarvin guitar 2005

A new guitarplaying freind of mine at Facebook did like my idea of sending him a couple of original Burns pics to match his collection of Burns Marvin guitars. Hope he will like em, and Im sure he will never ever use them. They will be for show use only as they today is collectors item.

the original Hank B Marvin designed pic 1964

ckua radio Canada

Internet radio station, high quality delivering great music of various kind.

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A tune that I did write a couple of weeks ago is at this very moment undergoing a total transformation, thanks to the cold weather outside. This time I do my best to make it sound as if it was done in the heavy metal era. Or maybe even sound like a modern tune, this it not an easy task at all with me background in harmonics and sound´s of the 60-ies. But as far as recording has developed it seam´s possible to find the right sound.

home recovering and building.

at the moment fully occupied with the repair of a Jaguar engine but also delayed by some illness I started to construct my own loudspeaker. 

the old bookshelf and 2 x 12" speakers

Already there was a couple of 12" speakers in the closet, so I was in need of a suitible cabinet. This item was found at a secondhand shop in form of an old bookshelf. 

After reinforcement of the bookshelf  the construction developed slowly into the for of my new speaker. 

the new 2x12+midrange speaker and VOX AD60

The two 12" speakers had a 16 ohm resistance was connected in series with each others and then a midrange speaker of 8 ohms connected paralell to the two. Ending up in a 4 ohm almost 100 watt speaker system.

bedside cabinet 12" speaker and TOA amp,DOD effect.

I have to admit that this me latest speaker cabinet is far more refined then the one I made some monthes ago. then it was yet another 12" speaker mounted in a badside table!!! 

Ending up with a couple of rather good speakers to a cost of almost nothing!!!

"love at first sight"

Sometimes I wonder what really makes one single guitar so special. 

What make´s it stand out in a way that cant be compared with its competers. Is it caused by it producer, its brand. Or maybe its more important in wich country its originally produced.

How is it possible to compare different guitars in a wide different price range. Is it even possible in regards of the Electric guitar.

Caused by economic retrictions, custom-rates and other taxes a fairly cheap guitar in its orgin country might end up extremly expensive in Your own country. Even if those extra cost today seam to be minor.

Les Paul & Mary Ford in the early 50-ies

With the use of famous guitarplayers, bands different guitar-makers can make their product more popular. They can even add an air of exclusivity to their brand.

with the Japan revolution we realised that they was not only able to build great motorcycles, cameras, hi-fi equipment and more. They also started to produce electric guitars, often exact copies of guitars made in countries like the US. 

Gibson Les Paul-Playboy edition.

the "LOG" Les Paul´s first electric guitar

Back to the roaring 50-ies n 60-ies.

In USA the late Les Paul in need of more sound from his guitar constructed one of the first electrified guitar using a Gibson Archtop. Later he constructed the famous Gibson Les Paul guitars. 

Fender Telecaster

During the same time Leo Fender started with his guitars, the Telecaster and Stratocaster. Guitars wich all is famous world wide today.

Fender Stratocaster 1960

In Europe and in my country Sweden we was forced by the economy to use European made guitars. Even if we dreamed of a US built guitar. The line of Fender guitars was more expensive then similar guitars made in Europe.

Gibson L5

Its not totaly wrong to say  that noone went out to buy the extremly expensive Gibson L5 just because Elvis Presley´s main guitarplayer Scotty Moore used one. It all changed with bands like the Shadows, the Beach Boys, the Beatles.

The Shadows started with some different Fender guitars but started to use the UK produced Burns guitars. The Burns company even had models named as signature Shadows and Hank B Marvin. The Beatles entered the scene with a US made Rickenbacker, a US made Gretsch and not to forget a German made violin bass from Höfner. Not a Fender or Gibson in sight.

the Beatles 1964

Especially Beatles made every youngster to shop for a Höfner, the two other guitars was a bit to expensive.

Levin Archtop 1964

All over Europe guitarmanufactors pop´d up like springflowers. In Sweden we already had the Levin and Bjärton factories who made high quality acustic guitars. Soon their guitars was fitted with microphones and became electric archtop guitars. The Hagström company started to make electric guitars, and later acustic ones. all of them was top quality instruments with a price range from fairly cheap to extremly expensive.

Hagström-KENT guitar of 1963

Around western europe several guitarmakers made: EKO, VOX, Elite, Dynacord, Klira, Höfner, Hohner, Framus, Burns and many more. The VOX guitars was mainly made in Italy by other makers, then branded VOX. Main part of the other European made guitars was in the low and middle pricerange offering good value for the money spent.

Höfner 1965

While guitars from the US often was priced higher then the European they also did have their fair amount of cheap guitars. the fact is that the Fender company´s guiars was mainly sold at supermarkets in the US. With this in mind many European musicshops didnt want to sell those mass produced guitars. Still Fender is today regarded as a top of the line guitar. 

Harmony 1965

Harmony was yet another company that sold their products with the help of postalorder and supermarkets. Often Harmony guitars had a different brandname, connected to the shop that was about to sell it. 

Among those companies in Europe as far as I know it only two of them made guitars in the top pricerange. Well buildt handcrafted guitars for the serious guitarplayer. Levin and Burns.

Burns replica made in 2010

Even if they was fairly unexpensive guitars in the 60-ies, they can often be compared with much more expensive guitars of today. The quality of those instruments might be low compared to other guitars from the 60-ies. 

EKO 290 2V 1964

Most of the guitars from the 50-ies and 60-ies is today regarded as colelctors items and sold at prices that seam to reach the skye.

With Japan producing eact copies of great guitars, the US suddenly found their selfs in a competition. Ibanez produced copies of every Gibson guitar made and sold em at extremly low prices. the guitars was of similar quality as the originals. This as the now famous and saught after lawsuit models.

Ibanez Barney Kessel lawsuit app 1970

This competition made almost all of the world renown companies to start procution of copies with their own brand names. Countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India was among the contries were guitars now was made. A Fender named Squire, the Ephphone compande bought by Gibson now became the asiatic brand for the company´s procuts made in Asia.

Epiphone ES175-3 Bigsby made in Korea by gibson

The Swedish copanies Levin and Hagström went out of production, but is now produced in Asia.

Levin archtop made in Korea 2005

Guitars if fashion, guitars is love at first sight. With this in mind You could always find your dream guitar. And if you try to test your guitar blindfolded without looking for its brandname, you may end up with the perfect guitar to your collection. 

That wasnt entirely true. Among those guitarplayers that I know, they always have a small or a big collection of different guitars. The reason seam to be that every guitar does have its own very special quality. A quality that can be found in an expensive brandname guitar as well as in a lowcost one. 

Is your love to a guitar similar to the feelings you have for a the woman in your life. Would  you like to take the guitar to bed? I dont think its wrong at all to compare a guitar with a sexy woman. 

To start of you like the way it looks, next step is to touch it and later its playability. The last part can alter but there is also huge possibilities with abit of work to make a not so good guitar become something great.

in another part of Köping-i en annan del av Köping

A quick trip to Stockholm then back again to Orust for some serious work. It was then easy to make a detour to the little town of Köping for two reasons. 

 Number one this time was a wisit to the Guitar Doc and his exellent shop, and also to get a cup of coffey with my dear freind Sten.

So I found the guitarshop crowded with customers wich gave me time to take a good look around the premesis. The owner GuitDoc Rainer was as usual customer freindly and show off with his special buildt Uckulele. 

Leaving the shop with a lot of different gadgets, 2 scrapped guitars, yet another guitar, a piezo microphone, a Bigsby unit and some other stuff. Payment was a 50 yar old boatmotor....

arriving to Orust meant a lot of work to be done. the Bigsby unit was supposed to be fitted to my ES175 guitar, the old EKO guitar was taken to its pieces, and cleaned out. then put together again and set up. After a couple of hour of work it actually worked as a guitar, it even was good now looking almost as new.

1964 EKO 290 2v