Red Special
The Red Special is the electric guitar designed and built by Queen's guitarist Brian May and his father, Harold, when Brian was a teenager in the early 1960s.[1][2] The Red Special is sometimes referred to as the Fireplace or the Old Lady by May and by others.[3] The name Red Special came from the reddish-brown colour the guitar attained after being stained and painted with numerous layers of Rustins Plastic Coating.[4] The name Fireplace is a reference to the fact that the wood used to make the neck came from a fireplace mantel.[2]
For the Brian May promo album of the same name, see Red Special (album).
Red Special
The Fireplace
Old Lady
Brian May, Harold May
1963–1965
Semi-hollow
Straight through/bolt-on
24"
Oak, blockboard with mahogany marquetry veneer
Mahogany
Oak painted black
Custom made aluminium with roller saddles.
3 - 1967 Burns Tri-Sonics modified (originally homemade pick-ups)
A guitar that would define May's signature style, it was intentionally designed to feed back[3][5] after he saw Jeff Beck playing live and making different sounds just by moving the guitar in front of the amplifier. He wanted an instrument that would be alive and interact with him and the air around him. May has used the Red Special almost exclusively, including on Queen albums and in live performances, throughout the band's entire career.
In celebration of the instrument's 50th anniversary, a book about its construction and history, Brian May’s Red Special: The Story of the Home-Made Guitar that Rocked Queen and the World, was written by Brian May with Simon Bradley.[2]
Variations[edit]
In 2006, Brian May Guitars introduced a "Mini May" guitar, based on a 3/4 sized Red Special body shape with a 24 fret, 19” scale (but with no zero fret) featuring a single pick-up, no switches and a maple neck. In 2017, the "Mini May" was upsized with a 22 3/4" scale neck.
An acoustic guitar, featuring a 24-fret neck and the body outline of the Red Special went into production in 2007. This model is named the "Rhapsody", after the Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody".
A bass guitar called the Bri-Bass was announced on May's website and is available. It looks like his normal guitar but with four bass strings. It features a bound mahogany body and 31.5" scale neck, topped with a 20-fret ebony fingerboard. Pickups are a Gibson EB-0 type chrome-covered humbucking neck pick-up and a rear-position single coil pick-up hooked up to a passive volume/volume/tone circuit.
The Guild models of the early 1990s featured three major configurations. Of the three, the "Signature" model was closest to May's guitar, although it was made of mahogany (body and neck) and ebony (fingerboard) and sported Trisonic-styled "Brian May" pick-ups made by Seymour Duncan and hardware (including the unique bridge) from Schaller. The "Special" model featured a stop-tailpiece rather than a vibrato, the middle pick-up was moved back next to the bridge pick-up for a humbucking look, and the back of the guitar had no binding. The "Standard" model featured a more common Strat-style 5-way pick-up selector switch, a longer scale neck, and a deeper headstock angle. Andrew Guyton made May a double-neck version, which has never been a production model.
Restoration[edit]
After viewing the replicas and taking note of the wear and tear the Red Special had suffered during nearly 30 years of constant touring, May had Fryer restore the original Red Special in 1998 using as much original and time-period specific material as possible.[14][15][16] Damaged veneer on the back of the guitar was removed and new pieces scarfed in. The binding was removed and various nicks and dents in the top were repaired. Fryer re-finished the neck and body in the original Rustin's Plastic Coating used in the creation over the existing finish, and fretboard wear was repaired and dot-markers replaced. The original electrics were also re-wired and overhauled, and cosmetic work was done, such as filling in holes and worn areas on access panels, pick-up covers (worn by May's use of a sixpence as opposed to a standard plectrum) and the front scratchplate.
The restored Red Special is prominently featured during a series of video interviews with Guitarist in 1999, in which May also demonstrated its feedback capabilities.[30]
At the end of the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour in 2005, May had several revisions made to the original Red Special, including having the zero fret replaced for the first time (this had been judged unnecessary at the time of the 1998 restoration) and making a larger opening for a new, modern 1/4" jack socket. Despite all of this work, the original frets (other than the zero fret) have never been replaced.
Andrew Guyton of Guyton Guitars, carried out a limited restoration in April 2016.[31] This work involved making good all the cracks in the Rustins Plastic Coating lacquer finish, repairing damage to the end and edge, and touching in of the fretboard and replacing one of the mother-of-pearl marker dots. Various parts, including the tremolo and bridge assembly were removed, serviced, cleaned and lubricated then refitted. The zero fret was also replaced again.
Body
Neck
Fretboard
Nut
Strings
Misc