Burman 501 112 Combo

Standard single channel. No switching or effects loops. Very good condition, but needs a clean down. loud as anything witth the present speaker.

I use a couple of Fender Strat Plusses mainly. The Burman is very versatile (but no second channel unfortunately) as the other posts state. Today I put in new EL34's although I had thought of getting KT77's for it.I think it's well worth the investment (KT77= #25 per valve) I may still do that, but the sound is amazing even with EL34's. It didn't work very well before I changed the valves, but now the treble cuts like nothing I've ever heard and it really sings. I may change the speaker, as I've got an old Peavey 12" that I put in the Burman, originally swiped from a Peavey Renow. I fitted new Celestions into the Peavey, and the Celestions totally changed the sound of the Renown. It's now 100 miles better, so I might fit a 12" Celestion '75' or a full range Celestion into the Burman and see what it sounds like.

I've never gigged with it, but I shall tonight. I reckon it's reliable enough. Very heavy though. (Needs castors on the bottom!)

No opinion. Gone out of business years ago unfortunately. Can anyone e-mail me about what this 1x12 combo is worth???? (It's in excellent nick and perfect working order, and all new Sovtek and Brimar valves put in today) (Aug 2002)

I've been playing professionally for nearly 40 years. I have 2 strat plusses, one Japanese and one US that I gig with mainly. I prefer the fotoflame Japanese one for the neck and the tonewoods. The Lace sensors seem great for me. I also have ; Gibson Les Paul Recording '73. Gibson RD Artist '81. Godin Artisan ST. Levinson Blade R4. and many other sundry guitars. I have a Mesa Boogie pre-amp, Marshall 2x50 watts valve power amp, Marshall valve state 80 watt stereo power amp, and various cabs. My newest aquisition is a Starr Labs VR3 Ztar which opens up the possibilities for all guitarists IMHO beyond measure. I haven't tried the Burman yet with all of my guitars, but I shall (one day :-)

Bought one (my first one ? read on!!) used in 1980, after reading some good reviews of it in the UK press and after trying out a 502 combo (2x12, extra non-switchable channel, much bigger and heavier) in a local music store. Had to go all the way to London for it (400-mile round trip) but it was worth it.

Fifty watt (very conservative rating ? other than a Hiwatt, it blows the balls of most 100 watters). In terms of shape and control layout, it resembles a 1x12 Dumble combo. It has three gain controls (simply referred to as 1,2 & 3 ? no ?Pre?, ?Post?, ?master?, etc) which makes most people mistake it for a Mesa Boogie Mk1 clone, which were unavailable in the UK until the late 1980s. So if you couldn?t get a Boogie, you bought a Burman, which were almost twice the price of a comparable Marshall.

Bass, middle, treble, presence and reverb are the other controls, one input and a sliding high-frequency cut, similar to blackface/silverface fenders. On the back is an extension speaker outlet, ?alternative? (mutes the onboard speaker ? sounds awesome plugged into Marshall 4x12), ?remote? which kills the reverb if you use a boogie-style footswitch and ?direct?, which you would assume enables you to hook up to a mixing desk rather than a mic into the PA for bigger venues. But it doesn?t work very well, so I use a direct box between the amp and speaker with an XLR out to the PA mixer. That sounds good enough. The other back panel useful feature is a voltage regulator, where you can select 240v (for the UK), 220v (Europe) and 110v (the USA) ? very convenient if you tour or if you ship one from the UK to the US (or vice versa).

In terms of performance, it?s not a versatile amp, as you don?t have multi-swichable channels to play with. To get the best out of it, you need to get the sound you need ? from clean and big or to Metallica with all points in-between ? and then work it from your guitar. But it WILL give you the tone you want; you just have to take the trouble to find it.

Because of the nigh-on useless "direct" out and the fact there's no standby switch, I've docked it a couple of points

The EQ is passive, but it?s incredibly versatile and interactive. Although getting a crappy sound is very hard, you need to twiddle the EQ to suit your guitar and playing style. Once you?ve got the tone, just make a mental note of the controls and set it up accordingly thereafter. For my Les Paul: bass on 5, mid on 3, treble on 6 and presence on 6. For my Tele, a notch or two up on the bass and the presence peeled back a bit.

But the amp?s main versatility comes with how you set the three gain controls. Crudely, gain 1 is the preamp and gain 3 is the power amp (I?ll come to gain 2 in a bit). If you set gain 2 to zero, the amp works like a normal master-volume amp ? put gain 1 on ten and crack open gain 3, you?ve got really high-gain madness. Scoop the mids, and it?s Metallica. Reverse the settings, and it?s big and clean and juicy. Just there, you?d have a very versatile amp, which reacts amazingly to the volume controls on your guitar and picking dynamics. Adding gain 2 allows you to tune the amp in to a ?sweet? spot on the guitar?s volume taper. The more gain 2 you add, the sooner the distorted ?sweet? spot kicks in on the guitar volume's upward taper. This is best illustrated by an example.

When playing blues, R?n?B, rock ?n? roll, hard country and other wonderful genres of music from the Southern States of the USA, I put gains 1& 3 on 7; with my Tele, I set gain 2 on number 3 to five, depending on the venue. My tone is very responsive to picking dynamics and, when I open up the guitar?s volume, it gets a nice edge to cut through for solos or instrumental breaks (I can go over the top by stomping on my Ibanez TS808, which I bought new a week after I bought the amp!). It sounds like Roy Buchanan?s tone: clean and sparkly with the guitar volume up to half way, to fat and clear and in-yer-face when the guitar is at full bore.

When playing blues rock and dusting off my Jimmy Page licks, I put gain 2 on 7. On the Les Paul?s neck pickup on 3, very clean and clear, but still dynamic. Hit the selector switch for the bridge pickup on 7, and it?s the same tonal change as in the intro to "Since I?ve been loving you", where Page goes from mellow and meditative to howling anguish in a heartbeat. And still with power to spare. Drop gain 2 to number 3, and I need the guitar on 10 before I get it to squawk, but on I can still get that Clapton Bluesbreaker tone he used on "Steppin? Out" or "Hideaway" with the bridge pickup on five..

When I borrow my mate?s ?61 Strat and plug it in to the Burman when it?s set up for my Les Paul, it sounds like Stevie Ray Vaughan, that greasy Texas sound, as if your guitar has been marinaded for a week in sump oil and jalapeno chillis. I play slide on a 1959 Supro (three-quarter scale, one pickup, looks like a white Les Paul Junior) and even this modest guitar sounds great ? especially when I kick in the Tube Screamer. And, when the amp's cranked, very low noise ? minimal hiss or buzz.

It's not a metal mosher's amp, but it does everythng else you'll ever need it to.

Played it regularly, at gigs and rehearsals for five years without a hitch: no blown fuse, farty tubes, crackles, pops, etc. It was the most reliable amp I've ever owned. And it sounded fucking brilliant and was incredibly versatile. That's hand-wired to military spec (Hiwatts were the only other military spec UK amps at the time), Partridge transformers and Golden Lion KT77 output valves for you. Plug it into the wall, power up (no standby), set the dials and it worked brilliantly. However, there hangs quite a sad tale?.

To cut a very long story short, in 1985, I joined this rock band out of Manchester (UK) that did the US bases in Europe. Between tours, I stored the amp for three days in the bass player's garage. Back in Germany, the amp sounded not quite right, just not 'there' as it had previously been. I was upset. Next tour, it was still not right, but in a different way. Next tour, same thing. When we got to Sicily for six months, third gig into a month residency, the amp blew up. It was fixed by an USAF maintenance electrical engineer, who patched it up so it worked, but it sounded shite. Finally, I bought a transistorised Peavey Bandit from a GI who was going back to the States and used that. It worked, but it didn't roar.

About a year later, I discovered that the bass player had pulled the amp chassis out, and decided all the capacitors were the wrong value and he changed them. Then he changed the output valves to EL34s. When I whipped the chassis out from the amp, it looked like a rat's nest of wiring and shiny solder joints. Previously, everything had been neat and laid out at right angles (check inside a 70's Hiwatt and prepare to have your breath taken away) and the joints dull. So, very upset (but relieved my ears hadn?t been lying when I thought it sounded shit) I sold the amp to a guy who thought it sounded brilliant; I didn?t have the heart to tell him it was but a pale shadow of its former self.

In the next 15 years I went through amps like Warren Beatty goes through women. I had a Gallien-Kreuger mini-amp, a Peavey Triumph (all-tube, three channel thing), Blackface Fender Super Amp (like a 4x10 Super Reverb, but with channel switching) and a Mesa Boogie Maverick 1x12, which I thought I liked but then realised I didn?t. But none sounded as awesome as my beloved Burman. So I started checking out the classifieds and the Web and, in April 2001, saw a Burman 501 combo for 150 UK pounds ? that?s $200. I called the guy and he?d had it ten years and, because of family commitments, had hardly used it. He lived three miles from me! So I shot round with my Les Paul and it was immaculate.

And this Burman is all original. Slid the chassis out and saw undisturbed wiring and solder joints, and that beautiful military spec wiring. No effects loop, no channel switching, no bollocks, no one had fucked with it, just tone to the bone. It was 25 years old and in amazing condition with THE ORIGINAL VALVES!!!. Golden Lion KT77s ? the same lion as on the amp?s name badge.

It sounded amazing ? and still does. I was lucky in that I found excatly what I wanted very quickly, but I haven?t seen another one since, so perhaps God does exist and he?s a guitar player. The amp's original knobs are a bit strange, as they have push-in tops, and this amp was missing two. So I replaced all the knobs with black chicken-head knobs and they look way cool!! And are easier to tweak on the fly on stage.

Had my original Burman not been fucked with by an idiot, a soldering iron and no technical skill, I'm convinced it would never have broken down - hence my rating.

I bought a flight case for my original Burman, and called the factory in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the North of England, and talked to Greg Burman himself. He was great, asking me what I thought of the amp, how I used it, what sort of music I played. Not only did I get my flight case on time and delivered to the door, but Greg also included a copy of the amp?s owner?s manual, a schematic for the circuit board, troubleshooting tips, and a sheet with suggested settings for various sounds which, as I bought mine used, I didn?t get. All Burmans came with these manuals, as well as plastic slip covers. The schematic was meant to be stored in the back of the amp, in case you were on tour and the amp failed, so you could take it to a local tech and get it fixed.

Apparently, Burman owners would regularly call the factory and Greg Burman would always take their calls or call them back if he was unavailable. He stood behind his product and wouldn?t give amps away ? regardless of whether you were Geordie from Killing Joke, Status Quo or Joe Bloggs, if you wanted a Burman, you had to pay for it. I like that.

The company went bust in the recession that decimated the UK manufacturing sector in 1981-1984. Come back Greg ? start making amps again ? your country needs you!!

I?ve been playing 27 years and for ten of those, made my living as a guitar player. I?ve been fortunate to always buy gear I thought sounded great, regardless of who manufactured it or what fashion dictated. I have a few guitars, most of which I bought cheap because I liked them, before the herd got interested and pushed prices up. But the Burman is my only gigging amp.

I use it with either a Les Paul (with Seymour Duncan Antiquities) or an original 1953 Telecaster (with the relevant SD Antiquities ? I got the guitar dead cheap in 1984 because the previous owner had replaced the original p/ups with DiMarzios and?. then proceeded to lose the originals!!). I go straight from the guitar (via George L. cables) into a script-logo MXR DynoComp, my Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer (both chipped as the result of countless gigs) and a Boss DC2 (a lilac-coloured pedal with 4 push-buttons, which I use as a chorus/ crude Univibe simulation ? one of the most useable pedals Boss ever made, but no one raves about them). Then straight into the Burman?s only input. I describe my settings above, but the amp always does what I want it to do, there?s a feeling that it?s playing WITH me, and I?m not fighting to play with IT. Stomp on any of the pedals, and the sound doesn?t mush out, or become indistinct, nor do you get that ?drop? as the pedal is engaged and your tone is sucked away.

With my Telecaster, I want Roy Buchanan?s tone, and with my Les Paul, I want Robben Ford?s "Talk to your daughter" tone. The Burman does both ? and a whole lot more ? brilliantly.

Actually, the only criticism is the weight of this thing. Like the electrics, the cabinet was made to withstand a trampling by a herd of elephants. So, as it's what our US friends would call a boutique amp (hand-wired, limited production runs, all the afor-mentioned technical goodies, albeit 25 years old), I'm going to give it a nice new home. I'm getting a furniture making friend to make me a finger-jointed amp head shell out of solid mahogany (or teak) and have it hand-rubbed and oiled, like hardwood Boogies. Then just slide the chassis out of the Burman cab and slot it into it's new home. Makes it much more portable and store-able. Just buy a 1x12 Boogie cab - or use the rehearsal studio's cabs and save my aching back - and get rocking.

If you ever come across one of these babies, buy it. The voltage regulator was a well-thought out additional feature, so you won?t have to mess around with step-up transformers. All it takes is for Eric Johnson to stumble across a dusty, scuffed Burman in an Austin music store, plug in a guitar and he?d buy it. He?d be quoted in the guitar magazines and the prices would shoot up as the value of these amps is recognised. They are truly great. They can roar like a Marshall, flay skin like a Hiwatt and chime like a Vox. I?m not parting with this amp. This is my rig. Since I bought this second Burman, I?ve tried a Bruno head and a Matchless, all of which sell for over #2,000 UK pounds and none could blow the Burman away. Burman amps are sleepers ? get yours before everybody wakes up.