Burns Barracuda Special (yesterday's news: TODAY)

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sun Aug 03, 2014 10:10 pm

So, this has somehow escaped my attention for about the last three years, but Burns have again reissued the Barracuda (their take on a Bass VI), this time with a trem (last time they reissued it, it had quite an ugly take on Surfcaster ferrules).

Burns link for spec.

Thomann link for teh moneyz.

I want one quite a lot.

Noirie. · Post by **Noirie.** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 2:05 am

That bridge/tremolo looks scary. I think I'd rather a Squier Bass VI.

YuriK · Post by **YuriK** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 2:30 am

looks intriguing, but scary

George · Post by **George** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:11 am

i love it

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:15 am

Any guitar that's called a Barracuda has to be badass as feck. I kinda want one.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:17 am

They're fucking brilliant but they are most definitely basses. They're HUGE in every way.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:39 am

Looks gorgeous in red. The white, less so.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 4:53 pm

Wait a minute! The one in Tim's pic is red with black plastics and looks lovely. The ones for sale have white spangle plastics and aren't as nice. Is the photo a prototype?

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:37 pm

James Burns was such an underrated guitar designer.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:49 pm

timhulio wrote:Looks gorgeous in red. The white, less so.

Burns always play fast and loose with the rules of production guitars (for instance, there are various pictures doing the rounds of the last version of the Barracuda, which had a Jazzmaster-style trem, despite the fact Burns never actually made one).

Thinking of going maybe red and putting on the black scratchplates, or baby blue with the tort...

mezzio13 · Post by **mezzio13** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:55 pm

jcyphe wrote:James Burns was such an underrated guitar designer.

The Steer!!!!!!!!

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 8:53 am

benecol wrote:
timhulio wrote:Looks gorgeous in red. The white, less so.
Burns always play fast and loose with the rules of production guitars (for instance, there are various pictures doing the rounds of the last version of the Barracuda, which had a Jazzmaster-style trem, despite the fact Burns never actually made one).

Thinking of going maybe red and putting on the black scratchplates, or baby blue with the tort...

Yeah, there have been some fairly major changes made to some of the line during the production runs. One of the more notable ones was the sudden change in headstock size on the Batwings, the first few having been tiny Cobra-style headstocks, then switching to the bigger versions. Then the fretboards all switched from rosewood to maple, then back again.

As I remember Forsythes had two Barracudas in, one after the other, from the previous run. The first had the Jaguar trem. When they sold that one they got a blue one in that just had the strings mounted through the body, no trem. According to the guys there both were from the same production run, but they had no real option as to whether they received a hardtail or a trem version. It was almost random.

AND I even saw two versions of the Steer, one after other at one point; the first had the metal centre pickguard piece and the burns-labelled smooth-covered single coil in the neck while a few months later I spotted one with an all-plastic pickguard setup and a black tri-sonic in the neck.

The lack of consistency doesn't really mean anything but it is kind of interesting nowadays considering how "locked in" most cheaper-end production tends to be in terms of spec. I've always wondered if Burns did it on purpose to hark back to the old days or if they did it simply as a reaction to shortages of hardware from third party suppliers. Throw in some of the more bizarre Burns USA offerings and there are some really odd "production" models floating around out there that don't match up to the catalogue specs.