Introducing: The Old Burny One - Jooky's All Gold

Well, I don't quite know how to break this to you. I mean, it's taken nigh on a year since I first thought -

'Ooh, that could be a quick win'

- and it has had more specifications than your average DeLorean time-machine 4WD, but (and whisper it in case it is a dream and I wake up babbling like Kelly Brook)...

I've finally finished The Old Burny One.

Properly, I mean, it has strings and everything.

And, I really find this hard to say, but it is - OMFG - really rather good.

For the record, it is an early 1980s Burny Les Paul. Made in Japan to clone Gibson's finest, and if rumours are true maybe Even Better Than The Real Thing at that point in time.

It has a mahogany body and neck, rosewood board and just feels solid. The neck is lovely - not 60s thin or 50s baseball racquet either, which suits me fine. Properly bound too, which is nice,

I know, I'm gushing.

Other than that it has some Gibson branded Kluson tuners, Gotoh ABR and ToM, a vintage correct 50s wiring loom courtesy of that braided-wire-wizard Shugz - all oil in paper caps, CTS pots and Ye Olde wire and all that.

The pickups are the Gibson/Bill Lawrence 'The Originals' which Gibson fitted for a brief couple of years, and most of all, it has a worn 24 Karat gold leaf top, which has been aged and generally looks rather ancient.

And I have to say I am loving it.

I really didn't know what to expect from the pickups, but they have that real classic sound to them. All the PAF tones I love, but then some balls too. The control you get from Shugz master-filled wiring comes into it's own with these as the tone controls and volume pots throw up so many amazingly different colours, it is quite a revelation.

A time of miracles indeed.