Red Special
The Red Special, also known as The Fireplace or The Old Lady ("The Old Lady") is the electric guitar of Brian May, guitarist for the group Queen.
It was built between 1963 and 1964 by Brian himself with the help of his father, Harold May, an electronics engineer. The reason for doing so was twofold: first, he couldn't afford one of the then coveted Fender Stratocasters or Gibson Les Pauls; and in part he took it as a challenge, with the intention of designing an instrument from scratch with the characteristics of what he considered the perfect guitar.
For its construction, he used the remains of an old fireplace, a piece of a table, a motorcycle spring, or his mother's sewing needles, among other objects. Using also very simple tools, it took him 18 months to finish it with an expense of less than 18 pounds of the time (equivalent to about 400 pounds today). It is therefore a unique model, although various luthiers have subsequently built a limited number of replicas of the original, and instrument brands such as Guild or Burns have manufactured serial commercial models.
History
The story of the Red Special began in 1963, when Brian May, at just 16 years old, realized that with his acoustic guitar he could not interpret the songs he heard on the radio and tried to emulate. So he decided to trade his acoustic guitar for an electric one, but at that time young Brian did not have the money to buy the expensive Gibson and Fender that were on the market, nor the cheaper copies of those brands. So with the help of his father, Harold May (an electronics engineer), he decided to embark on a difficult project: making his own guitar, a job he began in August 1963 in a bedroom in his converted house. In workshop. For the choice of material, Brian had to do a lot of research. For example, for the mast they used wood from a fireplace frame that a family friend was going to throw away. The wood was pure mahogany, and although it was old and somewhat moth-eaten, Brian managed to shape it by hand. This is how he explains it himself:
The mast was part of a fireplace that was to be destroyed. The mahogany was of good quality, but it was so old that it was a bit crowded. I filled the holes with wax wood and covered them with a layer of Rustin's Plastic Coating (there are a lot on the neck, though they are now getting a little off). The guitar box was made of a sturdy piece of oak. At a certain time, the dough broke some of the wood in the box, and I felt so frustrated that I threw everything out the window and started again. The tools used throughout the project were also handmade, and those that were not simple tools. In the place where the body and mast are joined, I only used a clipboard and a bleach, because we had no more complex tool.
For the fingerboard markers, Brian rummaged through his mother Ruth's sewing box and found some mother-of-pearl buttons. Those buttons would become the fretboard markers for the 'Red Special', buttons that still last on the guitar. The strings he had to buy, since he could not find any suitable substitute for them. The next step was to build the pickups (the sound jacks). Brian built one with two wires attached to magnets, but the result was not as expected, so he decided to buy some Burns Tri-Sonic pickups for three guineas each, but Brian didn't like the result either and decided to do a little tinkering. "I rolled them up again and filled them with Araldite, except the one on the "bridge" which I probably will some day". The tremolo arm was made from a rather special piece of steel, which he modeled himself afterwards. To balance it he used two motorcycle valve springs: "The tremolo arm is one of those things to hold up bike baskets, and the plastic tip on the end is made with a crochet hook. The tremolo springs are from a motorcycle (I can't remember what kind now), but a friend of mine had lots of motorcycle valve springs, and we used those'. In addition to the novel switch system, the Red Special originally had a red seventh switch which triggered a Fuzz effect built into the guitar circuit (which was permanently removed after the band's first album was recorded and the hole covered with a circular red sticker).
And finally, after a year and a half of work, and at a cost of £18, the Red Special emerged. It didn't look like any other guitar and its sound was and is quite particular, different from the rest of the "normal" guitars. Before finally having the guitar finished, Brian took it to school, but he was annoyed that it didn't look like a commercial guitar. But after polishing and varnishing it, the guitar was impeccable and already looked like one of the professionals. When he took it back to school, his classmates were so impressed that one of them offered to exchange it for his purchased guitar; obviously Brian told him no.
Brian continued to search for the sound he was after. After much experimentation, he discovered that playing with a sixpence piece as a pick produced a pure, clean sound. And using that coin is how Brian has played on all of Queen's records and concerts.
His Red Special accompanied Brian on all of his tours and is the guitar played on all of Queen's records and videos, except for the "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" with a black Fender Telecaster, "Back Chat" where he is seen using an old Fender Telecaster belonging to Roger Taylor's personal collection, The video clip for "Play The Game" where he uses a Fender Stratocaster, and & # 34; Princes of the Universe & # 34; in which he uses a Washburn RR-V.
In the late 1990s, Australian luthier Greg Fryer restored the Red Special, fixing the small and large problems the guitar had caused by wear and tear, leaving it almost as good as new. He also made 3 copies of it (Brian named them John and Paul), and George after comedian George Burns giving 2 to Brian and keeping one for himself (Paul).
In 2004, English luthier Andrew Guyton began manufacturing 50 copies of the Red Special. Forty in red (for the guitar's 40th anniversary) and ten in green (Brian was very fond of Guild replicas made in that color).
In early 2006, the guitar was further improved with a new jack being installed on it and even replacing the 0 fret. Full re-fretting of the neck was suggested to make it easier for Brian to play (since, after touring 2005, Brian suffered from pain in his left hand), but Brian did not want to know anything about it.