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Thread: Brian May's Red Special: The Book Launch

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    Member Koreabruce's Avatar
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    Brian May's Red Special: The Book Launch

    Check out this fascinating video of Brian describing his journey with that iconic guitar. Filmed on October 1st, 2014 in London


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    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    I watched the whole thing and enjoyed it, so thanks for posting!

    Brian May has been one of my heroes ever since I discovered Queen. Every aspect of his art resonated with me, of course, mostly his guitar playing. But perhaps more important than that, he consistently seems to be a genuinely good human being; sort of the antithesis of what we often imagine (or don't have to imagine) rock stars to be like. That video gives you a taste of that.

    I've often thought of buying one of those BM Red Specials too; it's just that other things (including other guitars) take priority within my limited budget. Maybe someday!

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    Always admired Brian May and sounds like his dad was a genius as well. A lot of love went into that axe. Great Father to Son story. The Red Special sounds great on the Live at the Rainbow CDs. Queen knew their way around the studio, but all could play superbly live, and that guitar really filled up the spectrum live, when they were just 3 piece and Freddy was just on vocals. What a gracious presentation in the video. Class act.

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    Marklar Jimmy Giant's Avatar
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    Brian is one of the best live guitarist I've ever seen. I don't think I have ever heard him make a mistake in all the live material I have.
    Thanks for the link. I'm downloading the video to watch it later.
    I will say though, that I think Queen should have been laid to rest with Freddie. Brian's solo material was good enough for him to carry on doing that. Was always bummed they went on without him, He who was Queen!
    JG

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    Member Mikhael's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    I watched the whole thing and enjoyed it, so thanks for posting!

    Brian May has been one of my heroes ever since I discovered Queen. Every aspect of his art resonated with me, of course, mostly his guitar playing. But perhaps more important than that, he consistently seems to be a genuinely good human being; sort of the antithesis of what we often imagine (or don't have to imagine) rock stars to be like. That video gives you a taste of that.

    I've often thought of buying one of those BM Red Specials too; it's just that other things (including other guitars) take priority within my limited budget. Maybe someday!
    Where the heck would you buy one at? They're handmade, even his spares (I have a Guitar Player Magazine article on the restoration of the Red Special, and the construction of his spares). There have been companies that have made a Brian May guitar, but it wasn't nearly the same. They usually had a standard Strat vibrato, instead of the motorcycle spring thingy, for one thing.
    Gnish-gnosh borble wiff, shlauuffin oople tirk.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mikhael View Post
    Where the heck would you buy one at? They're handmade, even his spares (I have a Guitar Player Magazine article on the restoration of the Red Special, and the construction of his spares). There have been companies that have made a Brian May guitar, but it wasn't nearly the same. They usually had a standard Strat vibrato, instead of the motorcycle spring thingy, for one thing.
    He's got his own guitar company now. The Red Special is not hard to find at all; Musician's Friend has them. Pretty reasonably priced too!

    http://www.brianmayguitars.co.uk/

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    I think that tremolo bar he has really adds to the thickness of his sound. Didn't realize even after seeing him live in the early Queen days he used it almost all the time. Even a lot with chords.

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    I bought a Guild Brian May way back in '84 and it was really poor quality. Then they went out of production for many years...glad to hear Brian is making them to his own specs these days.
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    You know, I don't think it ever sank in that they made that in '63/'64. It had to have been one of the best electric guitars in the world at the time; at least for rock music.

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    Member Mikhael's Avatar
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    It's still not exactly the Red Special; as far as I can see the vibrato assembly is a standard Wilkinson Strat style, with a bar bent to look like May's. The assembly on the Red Special was made by the Mays, using a motorcycle valve spring, I think.
    Gnish-gnosh borble wiff, shlauuffin oople tirk.

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    Member Koreabruce's Avatar
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    I do believe that IS the original vibrato assembly on the Red Special in the video. He did say that when they refurbished it, the whole guitar was disassembled except for that motorcycle valve spring assembly. Of course, I could be wrong... He does have several back-up RS's that he keeps in the wings.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mikhael View Post
    It's still not exactly the Red Special; as far as I can see the vibrato assembly is a standard Wilkinson Strat style, with a bar bent to look like May's. The assembly on the Red Special was made by the Mays, using a motorcycle valve spring, I think.
    Quote Originally Posted by Koreabruce View Post
    I do believe that IS the original vibrato assembly on the Red Special in the video. He did say that when they refurbished it, the whole guitar was disassembled except for that motorcycle valve spring assembly. Of course, I could be wrong... He does have several back-up RS's that he keeps in the wings.
    Mikhael is right; it's a Wilkinson, or at least a Wilkinson licensed bridge, sine Wilkinson went out of business years ago. Perhaps Brian and his luthier partner had second thoughts about the practicality of using a motorcycle valve spring.

    Other than that, it seems to be damn close to the original design.

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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    Mikhael is right; it's a Wilkinson, or at least a Wilkinson licensed bridge, sine Wilkinson went out of business years ago.
    They did? Their parts are still widely available, albeit not directly from Wilkinson, but JHS and Stewmac stock his parts. I know Wilkinson is also behind the Vintage Icon guitar line. I briefly had one of their Jaco style basses and it was not bad for the price, but I upgraded to the USA Fender. The Vintage Icon had all Wilkinson hardware, and that was new just 2-3 years ago. Is someone just licensing the name?

    As far as the Brian May reissue guitars, no, they are not "exactly" like the Red Special. You're not going to get an exact replica of that guitar for ~$800 USD. I imagine those reissues have a somewhat similar feel, and somewhat similar sound (assuming they're using the Burns style pickups) as Brian's guitar. But in that price range you're not going to get an exact replica. I'm not really even sure Brian's guitar is possible to duplicate exactly.

    I watched the first 10-15 minutes of that video, and it really was cool listening to May talk about that guitar and how it was built, and why. The thing I never knew about that guitar was that the bridge utilizes ROLLERS for the strings! What a logical idea. It's a wonder to me that feature hasn't been adopted more widely for trem-equipped guitars. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the reissues is that they don't capture this feature, which would be a real selling point, imo. Of course, they'd likely have to manufacture them themselves, and that would increase the cost compared to using a stock product. But I consider that a missed opportunity.

    Bill

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    Member Sputnik's Avatar
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    FWIW, I just had a look on e-Bay and it appears the old Guild Brian May reissues have a bridge assembly and tremolo far closer to Brian's original design. The Guilds are far more expensive than what is being offered now, ranging form over $3K to upwards of $10K. Ouch.

    There is also a company that produces a replica trem assembly and gives you plans so you can build your own Red Special.

    Bill

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    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sputnik View Post
    They did? Their parts are still widely available, albeit not directly from Wilkinson, but JHS and Stewmac stock his parts. I know Wilkinson is also behind the Vintage Icon guitar line. I briefly had one of their Jaco style basses and it was not bad for the price, but I upgraded to the USA Fender. The Vintage Icon had all Wilkinson hardware, and that was new just 2-3 years ago. Is someone just licensing the name?
    Yes, Gotoh makes them now and they're listed in the Stewmac catalog as "Wilkinson/Gotoh." I recently replaced the original 20 year old Wilkinson VSVG bridge on a guitar that was custom built for me with Gotoh's "replica" of it, which turned out to be less than exact. It required more than a bit of modification to make it fit and work in that guitar, but thanks to my guitar doc/luthier, it's working great now.

    Rollers are not that uncommon for nuts; I think the Jeff Beck signature Strat uses a roller nut. It's less common for bridges, although iirc, Kahler used to make them.

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    Member Sputnik's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    Yes, Gotoh makes them now and they're listed in the Stewmac catalog as "Wilkinson/Gotoh." I recently replaced the original 20 year old Wilkinson VSVG bridge on a guitar that was custom built for me with Gotoh's "replica" of it, which turned out to be less than exact. It required more than a bit of modification to make it fit and work in that guitar, but thanks to my guitar doc/luthier, it's working great now.
    OK, I didn't notice the Gotoh affiliation, that makes sense. Bummer they're not exact replicas, you'd think they could build them to exact specifications. I know people sometimes have issues with using Wilkinson parts on Fenders, but Fenders vary quite widely in their original specs, so that makes sense. But for original Wilkinson parts, you'd expect it to be spot on.

    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    Rollers are not that uncommon for nuts; I think the Jeff Beck signature Strat uses a roller nut. It's less common for bridges, although iirc, Kahler used to make them.
    Interesting. I'd honestly never seen a roller nut, or a roller bridge - at least not consciously. I'm going to poke around and see if they make something that would retrofit easily into a 57 reissue Strat. Not that I have major tuning issues, but I think the trem would work better with a roller, that is a super idea. I don't want to do major surgery on that guitar, though, so it would have to be a pretty seamless replacement. I'm doubting it will be that simple.

    Bill

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