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Saturday, February 16, 2013

A few good Burnys

From what I have seen 1980s were a good time for MIJ guitars, and Burnys were no exception with the FLGs and early RLGs. Here are a few "entry level RLG-50s" that I had the pleasure of seeing up close. For what were supposedly "plain-top" Les Paul copies they seemed to use a lot of nice maple for the tops.

You will notice in the photos belos the 30 degree angle pointers on the control knob. This is usually a pretty good indicator of an early-80's RLG Burny.  These RLG-50s had the lower-end pickups and wiring and poly finish but were very well made guitars, if not a bit heavy on average. Three of the four I had were around or over 10 lbs!

These models can be deceptive due to their looks and lack of a model number on the guitars. I have seen more than a few owners of likely RLG-50s assuming that the nice top on their guitar means they must be RLG-120/150/custom orders. That is a pretty good compliment to for the lowly RLG-50!