Burns King Cobra Electric

The Burns King Cobra guitar is based on the '90s Drifter Custom and the double-cut body shape has a full and rounded form reminiscent of the '70s. The neck's gloss polyurethane finish is wider and flatter than the Fender equivalent of that era and the medium-gauge fretting is excellent and the white edge binding adds a finishing touch.

While many contemporary Burns fingerboards are buffed to a shine, this one exhibits the even dryness you would expect from quality Indian rosewood. One of the uniquely features of the King Cobra is the trio of Mini Tri-Sonic pickups that are designed to emulate the classic, larger-format vintage pickup's sound but in a smaller footprint.

Top: Flamed Maple
Body: Alder
Machine Heads: Locking
Nut Width: 43mm
Neck: Bolt-on
Fingerboard: Indian Rosewood
Scale Length: 25.5"
Pickups: Tri-Sonic x3

JAMES ORMSTON BURNS (1925 - 1998) has often been described as the 'British Leo Fender' a well-deserved and apt title because there are many parallels to be drawn between the two men.

Jim Burns too was very much a pioneer, and his policy of continual development and refinement reflected a constant quest to realise his vision of the ideal electric guitar. Distinctive design ideas were more than matched by accompanying hardware and circuitry and although some such aspects bordered on gimmickry, others offered genuine innovation, and have become accepted concepts, later to be claimed as firsts by other, more illustrious conveniently forgetful makers. 

Such Burns-originated features include: the heel-less, glued-in neck; 24-fret fingerboard, knife-edge bearing vibrato unit; active electronics and stacked-coil pickups.

The BURNS LONDON company is run by Barry Gibson (no relation!) but is very much a team effort. We at Burns London have always been big fans of Burns guitars, and we know a thing or two about quality guitar construction as well.

You may also be interested to know that we purchase all our British beech and sycamore from sawmills that support the Timber Trust Federation (TTF) Forests Forever campaign.