Baldwin Vibra-slim

This is an update of he review from 2000. Since then I've added a Rickenbacker bridge and two GFI Retrotron pickups.

Vastly improved. The rick bridge gives the individual strings greater sustain and clarity than the bar bridge that it came with originally and it also allows you to set individual intonation. I used a rick bridge instead of a Gibson because the fingerboard seems to have a 10" radius instead of a 12". The new pickups give it a sort of rick-meet-gretsch tone, with maybe a bit of tele twang thrown in.

It took a while to get the action where I wanted it. I started out with .013 flatwounds on it, then went down to .012 flatwounds, then .012 roundwounds with the high E and B strings replaced by a .011 and a .014 respectively. I think I've finally found the "sweet spot" where the neck and bridge require the minimal amount of adjustment to keep the action consistent. According the recent Burns book, the neck is made out of sycamore, which explains why it needs more adjustment. The GFI pickups are single-coils and fit perfectly within the original pickup rings. They look like the Dearmond pickups on the old Guilds, with just one row of polepieces. They're not original, but look like they could have been, which is important to me.

I've never used it live, but if it could survive 40 years and my tinkering with it, it'll probably survive another 40.

I contacted BurnsUSA and they sent me a truss rod key for free! Now that's what I call service.

I've probably spent a grand total of $225 on this guitar, and I think the results are amazing, if I do say so myself. I went out and bought a Fender Bandmaster amp (used) after I heard how could it sounded through a friend's Fender. In fact, it's so good it probably ought to belong to a better player, but I'm not getting rid of it.

Just as the other guy said, made around 64/65, good tone controls, including presence, double cutaway and ace burns pickups.

I play mainly blues and funk with no pick and I tune down a tone, and this guitar suits me down to the ground for this. Huge variety of tone, really bright and trebley to dull and bassey.

I bought mine from a pawn shop and it had been a bit mistreated so I can't really comment on how the action is supposed to be or may be on others. My style kind of suits a high action and wide neck, and this is perfect now. I would imagne it was pretty high to start with. The finish is gorgeous. Solid gleaming black and cool scroll headstock with what appears to be a Nike swoosh on it. Coincidence I feel.

This is at present my main guitar and I always use it live. Never had any problems with the electronics but the sound does sometimes appear to be a little inconsistent. Although that could be my amp, Vox Solid State, who knows. Has sustained a few cracks in the finish during my brief ownership I'm sorry to say. Overall seems to be a pretty reliabe vulnerable guitar. Must have a hard case.

Don't know

I absolutely love this guitar, though I imagine many others wouldn't. #400 seems a lot, but they're pretty rare and sought after in England, especially in black. I pretty much bought this because it's a cool guitar, It looks ace. It has an absurdly slim and absurdly wide body. Took me ages to find a case it would fit in. If you see one, buy it. But not without playing it first, it may not suit you at all.

Circa 1965 double cutaway semi-hollowbody, with two pickups, Burns tremelo, and controls mounted on the edge of the pickguard. Made in Engaland by Burns, imported by Baldwin. Medium sized neck, 24 3/4 scale, with small Fender style frets, and Van Ghent tuning machines.
The controls are pretyy neat: three way sweitch, Two tones, volume, and a presence control. the tone controls work in the front and middle positions, while the presence and volume act as masters. Real nice flamed top, too. I don't know what kind of wood it's made of, but I think the center block is mahogany. The two pickups have two seperate coils stacked on top of each other, I don't know if it's humbucking, but it's pretty quiet, compared to a strat.

This guitar has a range between really trebley and really bassy (don't they all), but seriously, it's pretty versatile, thought the treble can be somewhat grating after a while. This is where the presence control comes in handy. I mainly play rhythm in sort of a folk/roots rock style, and it provides a good solid sound. Lead players probably wouldn't like the small frets though. I played it through a reissue Bassman once, and the distortion is good, if you're nt playing deathmetal. I'd recommend this axe for blues, country and basic straightforward rock n' roll.
The big disappointment is the tremelo, which is nowhere near as good as a Bigsby of Fender. I never use it.

The action's good, but the truss rod is adjusted through the back of the heel, and it's kind of a pain, you can turn it forever with out noticing any difference. fortunately the neck is almost perfectly straight. The second and third frets are pretty worn, but the buzzing isn't noticible when you run it through an amp. Like I said, the top looks rwally good, some sort of flamed wood, but it's got several finish cracks. Oh well. When i got it, it needed a new nut, but it has a zero fret, so it's not that important

I'd use it live, though most of friends think I'm nuts. Seriously, this isn't just some Fender or Gibson knockoff, but a real professional grade instrument.

Baldwin's were built by Burns of London, and they're still around but they don't make this model anymore. I emailed them about getting a new cover for one of the pickups, but they never emailed me back.

All in all a great deal for $75 bucks. The only thing I changed was adding a buzzstop between the tremelo and the rocker bridge, which improved the sustain greatly. This is my second Baldwin/Burns guitar, and I think these are really undervalued/utilized instruments. My favorite feature is probably the tonal variety, and the well thought out control functions. The tremelo isn't good at all, just puts the whole thing out of tune, so I took the bar off so I wouyldn't accidently hit it while playing. It's unusual, but we don't all have to play Fenders or Gibsons.