1967 Burns Bison bridge pickup – Rebuild

Description

NOT FOR SALE – Repair example

Brisbane collector Scott brought in his ’67 Burns Bison that needed the bridge pickup repaired. Its pretty rare to see one of these let alone work on one so it was a challenge I readily accepted. In typical Burns fashion this pickup was a mess and needed a lot of work.

Scott brought in a dismantled pickup so at least that work was done. The demise of this pickup would have been the heavy rust on the poles so removal of that was the first task. The magnet holes were so loose from age that I had to glue it all back together in stages. Usually I have at least a tight top or base to hold the poles but this bobbin was right loose. I had to assemble it loosely with my bobbin spacers and then glue the bobbin topside first then the base underneath after that and then finally the poles inside.

I didn’t have access to the original rare purple poly wire so I used red poly 42 AWG the same as found in ’70s Gibson pickups. I had the middle and neck still working in the guitar as a reference so I didn’t have to figure out the winding direction. I wound my pickup to 6.35k the middle was 6.3k and the neck about 6.28k. I gave the pickup a wax bath and it was ready for install.

Challenge number 3 was getting that cover back on and in typical Burns fashion again the cover had shrunk and the opening was truncated inwards. A bit of jiggling and some patience I was able to get it on and glued down tight. The actual install back into the guitar wasn’t that bad but I did have to shave the pickguard pickup slot a little. A quick restring and the Bison was singing again in no time.

Thanks to Scott for giving me the job and I am sure this won’t be the last Burns pickup I see!

 

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “1967 Burns Bison bridge pickup – Rebuild”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *