Burnys/Fernandes was never a cheap copy

In an old copy of “the guitar magazine: April 1993” I found an article called history of the Les Paul Copy, where some Les Pauls are reviewed.
On of them is the Fernandes R-2, which is totally equal to the 1993 Burny RLG 70/75 from the same period.
The cost of this Fernandes/Burny was in 1993: £ 565

Yes -five six five- good English pounds.

That is not cheap when you could by a new Gibson SG in custom white for £ 450 (an ad in the same magazine).

The reviewer liked the guitar a lot, but was not excited about the VH1´s . That is Ok since it was the new style VH1´s that You can´t compare to the VH1´s from the early eighties. The verdict was:

Constructionally this is superb. The arching may not be the most accurate, but the woodworking, weight, finishing and attention to detail is uppermost. It is superb to play and has a fine lively resonance, though a fruitier neck pickup could improve things further.

Dave Burrluck

It´s easy to find a RLG 70/75 from the mid 90´ today for less than £565

why this blog

There seems to be a growing interest in Japan made guitars both here in Denmark and all over the world. Since I published my Burny paper http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/burny%20info.html on Marks (Villagers) website, I have received a lot of mails concerning Burny guitars, though my mail address wasn’t even mentioned in the paper. People have simply googeled my name and found my professional mail address. This is off course ok, but I will use this blog for my personal comments and observations about mij guitars especially the les paul replicas.

Today I only have few American made guitars left. A Martin D 18, a twelve string Rickenbacker, an old Tele and some pedal steels. The rest have gone, even original les Pauls, Stratocasters and Gibson semis.
Instead I have a selection of high quality jap Les Pauls, a 1982 Burny 335, and a 1981/82 Burny Les Paul Junior. I use to have many lover grade Burny Les Pauls but I have sold most of them so that I can afford to keep my (expensive) Navigator Les pauls.

Why a picture of this unnamed guitar, simply because it is the best Les Paul I have ever played, new or old. I will tell the story in a future blog as I will do with all my MIJ guitars, one by one.