Burman

Vaiai

Oh man - I used to have one of these amazing amps in the 80's and one just showed up in a pic of an advert for a guy selling a (different) bass amp. Mailed him and asked him if it is a guitar or bass one....and if he's selling...
Ever found an old amp you used to have? Anyone ever had a Burman?

ICBM

Not owned one, but worked on a few of them. The transformers are made from depleted uranium and the cabinets are concrete .

Obviously not actually true but I think the Pro 2000 100W 2x12" combo is the heaviest guitar amp I know of.

The clean sound is absolutely massive too, but the overdrive is somewhat dated by modern standards - they were hailed as the 'British Boogie', and that's true to a degree - the same sort of very compressed, touchy cascaded-gain sound. On the other hand if that's what you want there's probably very little else like them.

Greg Burman did try reissuing them a few years ago, but unfortunately he hadn't moved even slightly with the times other than on the price, and I can't imaging he sold many. (Or any.)

BGG

They weigh a bloody ton haha.

I know Greg Burman's son

Vaiai

They do weigh quite a lot lol. I remember the clean being astonishing.

bandmaster188

My mate and singist in the band used to have one, not sure of the model but it was a 2x12 combo 40 or 50 watts and always too damn loud. And heavy, very heavy.

Vaiai

My dad said he used to check in the back of amps as ppl put weights and sometimes bricks in to make them heavier as weight=quality

koneguitarist

I had a Burmann stack for a while, weighed as much as the van!

richardhomer

Just to show my age - I remember reading a glowing review of a Burman combo in Beat Instrumental in the late seventies.

I don't think I've ever actually seen one - and certainly I've never played through one. I seem to remember someone fairly famous was an endorsee - can't remember who though....

57Deluxe

Geordie Walker of Killing Joike is a big fan of Burmans...

Some guff:

http://tonereport.com/blogs/tone-tips/victorious-vintage-british-amps/page/two


and at timepoint 2.08

p90fool

I had to use one for a series of gigs in 1982, but I can't say I enjoyed it. The gain made it sounds like you were playing next door but one, so I just set it clean and used a Tubescreamer.

It was very possibly user error though, I really had no idea how to use anything but Superleads or Twin Reverbs at the time - it was early days for that kind of amp for most of us .

ESBlonde

When I were a lad (early 70s) a  school mate had a used Burman transistor combo in 2x12 format.

I think it was about 60w. Build very well and sounded quite good, surprisingly not heavy by comparison to the later stuff.

Always liked the Burman stuff ever since.

Bork

Zombie thread resurrection:

I have three Burman amps and one of the preamps. I've been fortunate enough to have the occasional email exchange with "Gregg" too (not his real name) when his health permits.

prowla

I had a Pro 4000HD in the 70s.
We didn't have gyms to go to back then, so it was dual purpose - both a great amp and my weights routine, along with two Marshall 4x12s.
As I recall, it hummed a lot though (mind you, I did too after carrying that lot!).

Jimbro66

I had a Pro 2000 for a couple of years in the early '80s. It replaced a Music Man HD130. As others have said, excellent clean sounds with tons of headroom but I didn't personally find the o/d sounds very useable for gigging. It weighed about as much as the moon and I always needed help to lift it in and out of the car boot without risking a hernia. It was mainly the weight that caused me to sell it and buy a Peavey MX which seemed comparatively light but was still in Boogie 1x12 territory weight-wise. The 50 watt 1x12 Burman would be a more viable amp.

Bork

I have a couple of Pro4000's (which don't hum ) and a Pro501 which is ex Lindisfarne.  They're great amps for bass although originally I was searching for a Bassman 135.  I have to confess I find the gain in the Pro501 and GX3 a little disappointing beyond any kind of rock crunch.  I had a chat with Martin at MJW about it and he said the feedback circuit in the preamps are designed in a way that would be tricky to modify without completely redesigning the circuit.  The GX3 is a very nice bass preamp too!

veldt666

I used a pair of Pro200 2 X 12 Combo's, from 1978 - 1984. (Sold them & used 2 X Rivera Concerts + EV's).

Burman amps had an Amazing sound, loud & dynamic, but, yes, the weight was incredible.

I still have a 100W Burman bas head in my rehearsal room, (Sounds great with guitar, tho).

davebarlowguitar

Just got one in for a service, its a pro 501 weighs quite alot, got two massive Partridge transformers and a Goodmans speaker. might do a video review on it as not much on Youtube for reference. 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1runbPcXGDahlYFVpAtxdjw585Sf6Q1IF/view?usp=sharing

gringopig

.

blobb

https://tinyurl.com/y75rgkfh

sweepy

I remember them blowing up a lot, catching fire and being endorsed by Status Quo and yes I temember the 1x12 combo being reviewed in Beat magazine too

Funkfingers

sweepy said:

blowing up a lot, catching fire and being endorsed by Status Quo

Not necessarily in that order. 

sweepy said:

I temember the 1x12 combo being reviewed in Beat magazine

I tecall both the 1x12" combo and the GX3 pre-amp being reviewed in Music UK magazine.

p90fool said:

The gain made it sound like you were playing next door but one

bandmaster188 said:

always too damn loud. And heavy, very heavy.

ICBM said:

hadn't moved even slightly with the times other than on the price

To conclude, by today's standards, obsolete, sounds a bit nasty and is scarce. How many of them do you reckon that @HarrySeven possesses?