Burny History: From FLG Les Paul Copies to the Final Bow (1975-2025)

Burny history is the story of the Gibson-copy brand of Fernandes, running from the first FLG Les Paul copies around 1975 to the company’s bankruptcy in 2025. This article follows that story era by era: the golden-era FLGs, the Revival and RLG years, the VH-1 pickup, the Gibson lawsuit and the late Japanese-made models. For which Burny to buy today, see the Burny Brand Guide.

Prefer to watch? This article is based on my own video below.

---

---

Burny History at a Glance

1969–1972: From Saito Gakki to Fernandes

Burny came from an instrument maker called Fernandes. The company started life in 1969 as Saito Gakki, selling mostly classical guitars. In 1972 it took the name it is known by today, Fernandes, and around the same time it moved seriously into building and selling electric guitars.

There was a clear reason for that move. In the Japanese guitar market of the early 1970s, Gibsons and Fenders were expensive, and hardly any were imported. For a young player, the real thing was out of reach. So Japanese makers rushed in, building precise copies and selling them cheaply. Kanda Shokai had Greco. Tokai Gakki had Tokai. Fernandes rode the same wave, aiming to produce copies good enough to stand next to the originals.

1970s: Two Brands, One Company

This is where the two-brand structure comes from. Fender-style copies — the Stratocaster and the Telecaster — went out under the Fernandes name. Gibson-style copies — the Les Paul and the SG — went out under the name Burny. In other words, Burny was built for a single purpose: Gibson copies.

The two brands were meant to be separate from the start, though you will still find early Fernandes Stratocasters carrying a Burny logo. Because the Fernandes brand also covered amps and PA gear, people simply saw it more often, so a “Burny Custom” logo was printed on the headstock of some Fernandes Strats to give the newer name more exposure.

The full story of how the two brand names were split is in Fernandes vs Burny, and the parent company’s side is in my Fernandes guitars history.

How Burny Got Its Name

There is a famous story behind the name. It was supposed to be “Bunny,” after a rabbit character, but someone misspelled it and it came out as “Burny.” The company later noticed the spelling suggested the English word “burn,” liked it, and kept it. For a rock guitar brand, the accident landed perfectly.

1975–1978: The First Burny Les Pauls

The FLG, Burny’s first Les Paul copy, appeared around 1975. Guitars from 1975 to 1978 mark the starting point of Burny’s quality, and it shows: the build was still developing, and reviews of the era often mention the same few weak spots — the chrome hardware, the pickups, and the finish work.

That said, most other brands of the period behaved the same way. They prioritized the look and a low price over the fine details of a vintage instrument, so Burny was not uniquely rough for its time. The headstocks from this era even read “Les Paul Model” outright — Burny was far from the only brand doing this, but it shows how bold Japanese makers were willing to be.

For a brief window in 1978, some FLGs carry a Fernandes “stone logo” instead of a Burny logo. On those, the headstock skips “Les Paul Model” entirely in favor of dense lines of English text — a detail you will not find anywhere else.

1979–1980: The Golden Era (No-Decal FLG)

Around 1979 and 1980, Burny redesigned the Les Paul line and introduced the FLG-240, FLG-150, and FLG-90. These were faithful copies of Gibson’s 1958 Les Paul, considered down to the woods, the tuners, the frets, the headstock angle, and even the angle of the arched top. Because the “Les Paul” logo no longer appeared on the headstock, collectors call this the no-script period, or no-decal era.

FLG-240 and FLG-150: Burny’s Japan Vintage Grails

These guitars rank among the best ever built in Japan. The FLG-240 was made strictly to order, with wood selected and seasoned by hand. It featured a one-piece body, a one-piece neck, and a solid flame top, finished in nitrocellulose, with Seymour Duncan ’59 pickups and high-quality nickel hardware. The FLG-150 was the production version — the same quality and features, built in larger numbers.

The Tokai Connection

There is also a claim that production moved to Tokai Gakki around this time. It is hard to dismiss: Tokai’s own Reborn Old, built in the same years, is strikingly similar, right down to how the serial number is stamped.

1981–1984: The Revival Era, Super Grade and RLG

In 1981, the Revival series launched, and “Super Grade” appeared on the headstock. The model numbers still began with FLG and the grades stayed the same, though some sources say the factory shifted again here, from Tokai Gakki to Matsumoku.

In 1982, the Revival series continued but the numbering changed. Every Les Paul model that had been an FLG became an RLG. The RLG-150 and RLG-120 carried on as faithful copies, with the pickups changing from Seymour Duncan to a Japanese unit called the L8001 — the same pickup used in the 1980–81 FLG-90. A budget RLG-50 joined the line, along with a P-90-loaded, 1956-style RLG-60 in goldtop only. Every other copy in the catalog was renumbered to start with R as well.

1985: The VH-1 Pickup

From 1985, the now well-regarded VH-1 pickup went into Burny and every high-end model across the Fernandes line. Tastes vary, but it is best understood as an upgraded take on the Gibson PAF. For collectors, the VH-1 rewards study: the magnets, the wire, and whether or not it was potted all change from one generation to the next.

Late 1980s–1990s: The Lawsuit Era and Original Designs

From the mid-1980s, the wider Lawsuit Era caught up with everyone. Japanese makers pulled back from faithful copies and changed their specs. Burny altered the shape of its truss rod cover, and on the Les Paul Custom, the diamond inlay was replaced with a lightning-bolt-shaped inlay.

Burny was not only making copies, either. From around 1992 it introduced original designs, including the double-cutaway E series and the LS series, whose body looks like a Les Paul pressed flat. Even so, the faithful Les Paul Standard copy, with “Super Grade” on the headstock, stayed in the line into the early nineties.

Gibson vs. Fernandes (1993–2000)

In 1993, Gibson sued Fernandes at the Tokyo District Court, arguing under Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act that the Les Paul shape was a well-known indication of Gibson. The court accepted that the shape had once identified Gibson in Japan, but found that more than twenty years of openly sold copies, which Gibson never challenged there, had erased that link.

Gibson lost in the Tokyo District Court on February 27, 1998, and its appeal was dismissed by the Tokyo High Court on February 24, 2000. The appeal judgment is published by the Japanese courts (PDF).

Mid-1990s–2010s: Overseas Production and Late Japanese Models

By the mid-1990s, Fernandes had already turned toward cost-cutting, moving production to Taiwan, Korea, and China and focusing on entry-level guitars. Burny went with it — built outside Japan, in the low and mid price ranges, and reduced to a few pages at the back of the catalog apart from the hide signature models.

There were later Japanese-made highlights. In 2002, models based on the Les Paul Standard and Custom returned, and in 2003 the higher-end, Japanese-made RLG-90 and RLC-100 arrived. (Note: the common “three-screw truss rod cover means non-Japanese” rule fails here — both of these have three screws.)

Even into the 2010s, Fernandes still built the RLC-85 and RLG-85 in Japan. For anyone who simply wants a Japanese-made Les Paul without paying for history, these late models are an easy recommendation: recent, often near-mint, and affordable.

2024–2025: The End of Burny

Then came the 2020s. The pandemic hit, and Fernandes’ business declined. In July 2024 the company stopped trading and headed for bankruptcy; in 2025 the proceedings formally began. Fernandes was gone — and with it, Burny.

Final Thoughts

Burny’s story is one of the most remarkable in Japanese guitar history. What began as a sub-brand for affordable Gibson copies grew into a maker of golden-era Les Pauls good enough to sit beside the originals — and faithful enough that Gibson went to court over the shape, only to lose. That verdict, which held that the Les Paul silhouette no longer belonged to Gibson alone, is now as much a part of the Burny legacy as the guitars themselves.

When Fernandes closed its doors in 2025, more than fifty years of history came to an end. But the instruments remain: the obsessive golden-era FLGs, the Super Grade Standards, the VH-1-loaded high-enders, and the affordable late-era Japanese models still turning up near-mint today. For anyone drawn to Made-in-Japan craftsmanship, a Burny is a piece of that history you can still play — and one well worth seeking out.

FAQ

More Burny guitar articles

---