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Burny - Fernandes Burny/Fernandes Guitars:
Fernandes is the parent company that made most of
the Fender replicas, and Burny is the division that focused on the making of Gibson replicas. Fernandes appeared in the 1970’s
and is still making guitars today. Their company started with the cloning of Fender and Gibson guitars and that lasted throughout
the mid-1980’s up until there were threatened lawsuits on other makers at Fujigen from the cosrtium owning most of the
USA makers. At that point, they changed their truss rod cover shape on the Les Pauls and other small details to avoid
legal problems. For their Fender copies, they were forced to change their headstock shapes completely.The now rare old
Fender copies that can be found are extremely detailed. The guitars were called the “Revival” series, as they
were essentially reviving the old classic Fenders. The headstock logo was almost a dead ringer from 15 feet away, the saddles
were stamped like Fenders, except bore the F.S.R.G. stamp (Fernandes Sound and Research Group) instead of the FENDER stamp.
Other details were uncanny, too, in their replication of the Fender Strat. The Tele was just as meticulously cloned as well.
As for the Burny’s, the LP models were given the name “Super Grade” instead of “Les Paul.”
These were models that started with RLG-XX. The XX here would be replaced by different numbers, making known the model and
price it was intended to sell for. (Most Japanese guitar manufacturers used the model number as a double for how much the
guitar would sell for). The Burny Super Grade Les Paul’s have been reported to me by many recording and gigging professionals
as “the best” clone of the real classic 50’s and 60’s Les Paul’s. They say the feel is identical
and especially enjoy how Burny focused on making really fat necks on their Standards. They were looking for stage replacements
for their $30,000 Les Paul, and the Burny’s seemed to be the answer.The pickups Burny and Fernandes used happened to
get the best Fender and Gibson-like tone out of all the brands of replicas. Fernandes used L-5000, L-5000 Vintage II, and
L-5001 single coil pickups, while the Burny model Les Paul’s got the famous VH-1 pickups, that have extraordinary Gibsonesque
tone.Burny also made other knockoffs of Gibson guitars, which are equally as nice. The older Fernandes guitars do have serial
numbers on occasion, and can be found on the neck plates of the Stratocasters of the Revival series, but otherwise, Burny
and Fernandes didn’t often use serial numbers. Dating a Burny or Fernandes can be loosely done by looking at the truss
rod cover. The Gibson bell-shaped covers are found on 1970’s to early 1980’s models. The bell-shape cover with
thin white band and ridges sticking out from the side are found on mid-1980s to early 1990’s models. Burny
guitars or at least guitars with Burny written on them are still made but in Korea or maybe even China. You can tell
a Korean model by the shape of the truss cover – it has a palace-shape and 3 screws. The Japanese Burny’s and
Fernandes guitars are in a different league . Update 02/14/06 regarding truss covers.
Recent information from a Japanese seller indicates that this
may not always be the case. I am providing his quote.
"Burny LP's from late 90's are made in Japan as
well as other countrys Regardless of the manufacturing country, all Burny LP's from
late 90's have 3 holes
rod cover. The information that 3 holes rod cover guitars are not made in Japan is not correct. It is also unwise
to make the judgement based on the cover alone because these are sometimes changed deliberately to 2 hole covers.
The old “lawsuit” style models are very rare to
find nowadays, and are highly collectible. Prices even in Japan are double what they were 2 years ago due to collector interest
not only from abroad, but also from within Japan.
Our Opinion : Brilliant replica Les Pauls but be very careful that you have a fujigen made guitar
and not a later korean model made to look like a Japan model. There are plenty of these around. It seems from above that
two hole covers never made it out of Japan, so two holes is good. Its worth taking it off though to see how many actual holes
are underneath. Also be very wary of dodgy dealers . Take a read of some of the published material in the info pages at the
beginning. This make is particularly susceptable because they didn't often use a serial number system.
Useful Links-Click to Open-
Wikipedia Burny Fernandes
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