dsgb

Build guitars, modify guitars, collect guitars, play guitars

Author: dsgb

Brian May Red Special guitar and equipment

Vox VBM-1 Amplifier KAT Speaker Modification

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Knight Audio Technologies (KAT) has developed a “drop-in” speaker upgrade for the popular, discontinued Vox VBM-1 Brian May Special amplifier. It costs £35.00 + shipping direct.

An alternative upgrade option which some people have carried out involves buying a Dai Ichi brand DC65-30 speaker (still available from Wagner Online in Australia at the time of writing) and fitting a 390 microH 1.3A ELC16B radial inductor (choke), RS part no. 6755576 and a 2.2 microF capacitor, RS part no. 7270473.

However, this original option is ultimately more expensive and involves soldering. Check out the product on the KAT website and view the straightforward installation video on Nigel’s YouTube channel.

http://www.deacyamp.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=51

Text from the KAT website:

“This is a brand new speaker/filter combination enabling VBM-1 users and Deacy Amplifier-style project builders to get their amps closer in tone to the real Deacy Amp.

The KAT DSP 6.5 TC has been developed primarily as a replacement for the Celestion G6 unit that is sadly no longer in production. It has an on-board filter network that tailors the frequency response to give the full-bodied mid range tones of the real Deacy but without the HF ‘fizz’ that seems to dominate most 6.5″ twin-cone drivers.

A by-product of this development was the realisation that this unit could be dropped straight into the Vox VBM-1 giving immediate results. The Vox VBM-1 is a great amplifier, but, it is a little let-down by its stock speaker unit that tends to suck-out the precious mid range tones and enhance the unwanted high frequency ‘fizz’. The KAT DSP 6.5 TC is a straight swap-out with the stock VBM-1 unit with no soldering required to undertake the works. Just 11 screws and 6 minutes will have the works completed and the tone of the amplifier improved many-fold!

The KAT DSP 6.5 TC can also be used in your own Deacy amplifier-style projects to give your amplifier that great Deacy ‘honk’!”

Fryer Treble Booster Deluxe

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New treble booster day: a beautiful deep purple Fryer Guitars Deluxe to complement my other purple gear. I thought that I didn’t need any more treble boosters, but I was evidently wrong; the tone of this one is certainly powerful, rich and fat, like a benign dictator of a country you’ve never heard of. Information reproduced from the Fryer Guitars website:

• 34 dB gain
• Punchy rich sound with a balance between fatness and treble definition
• Evokes the Brian May sound on late 1970s Queen albums News of the World and Jazz.
• Fattest sounding and most output level of the 3 Fryer ‘no knobs permanently plugged-in’ pedals TB Touring, TB Super and TB Deluxe.
• Uses the same harmonically rich sounding transistor as Treble Booster Super and Treble Booster Special pedals.
• Powered by either a 9 V battery or 9V DC adaptor (2.1 mm diameter negative centre jack, 100 mA or greater current capacity).

The hand made pre-production model is available until the screenprinted box version becomes available in late 2020. Price is $AU235.00 plus international shipping by Express Post International EMS (signature on delivery and tracking).

http://shop.fryerguitars.com/product/treble-booster-deluxe

Brian May Red Special Replica Full Design and Build

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I am pleased and relieved to report that the approximately three year labour of love to make a replica Brian May Red Special guitar is finished. I have written 60 numbered articles covering every part of the project plus four additional articles describing the design process, covering tools and tips and listing the materials, parts & suppliers. These are richly illustrated with hundreds of detailed pictures and should be of general interest to Queen and Brian May enthusiasts including anybody who is considering embarking on a similar mission. This has been like undertaking a second PhD in terms of the time and intellectual effort I expended so please check out the project pages on this website here:

https://dsgb.net/projects/redspecial/

Lock Your Mother Down

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On May 3rd 2020, Steve McCulla suggested that the amateur musicians who frequent the web Red Special Forum (http://www.red-special.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5414) record a version of a popular Queen song in Covid-19 lockdown.

Nigel Knight, who is a accomplished drummer, offered to lay down the percussion and mix the contributions (recorded on each performer’s smartphone) into an audio track and video.

The finished video of Tie Your Mother Down (enthusiast code TYMD) was published on Nigel’s YouTube channel and is embedded below.

Doubtless you will recognise some of the Red Special community’s players including Gerben van Dooremal, Matt Hutchison, Martin Pitcher, Mark Reynolds, Dan Thomas (bass guitar) and Luke Timmins. What a great result! Thanks to everyone for making this happen.

Seiko 5 Sports Brian May Limited Edition

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The Red Special now inspires a new Seiko 5 Sports watch whose dial echoes the design of the guitar which Brian and his father built in the early 1960s. Seiko celebrates Brian’s creativity and his music with this Seiko 5 Sports watch. Brian commented: “I am delighted to see this watch come alive, and proud that the creation of me and my dad all those years ago has inspired this collaboration. I love my Seiko and it has served me well for many years. I will wear this new one with pride.”

The dial has the same red and black color scheme as the Red Special and features a delicate wood-like pattern like the body of the guitar. Special markings on the case back. The watch is offered as a limited edition with Brian’s signature on the case back and comes with “LIMITED EDITION” and the serial number 0001/9000-9000/9000.
The presentation box also contains a commemorative coin that is based on the sixpence that Brian has used throughout his career as a plectrum.

https://www.seikowatches.com/global-en/products/5sports/special/brianmay/

Available from May 2020, £500.

CNC Cutting MayStar Mother-of-Pearl Inlays

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I had been wanting to try some inlay work for a while, for a challenge and something different to do. I constructed the shape by overlaying arc and line segments over a zoomed high resolution image, adjusting all the positions until the spacings were symmetrical taking account of photographic parallax then finally traced over that with a polyline. Care needs to taken to get the feed rates and spindle rotational speed correct first time because this small (42 x 22 x 1.0 mm) sheet of mother-of-Pearl (nacre) cost £7.49 from Rothko and Frost. Next I need to compile the cutout toolpath for the perspex. This is not as straightforward as simply linearly scaling up the object in CAD and using it as a subtrahend to create a rebate. The entire object needs to be reconstructed from a closed polyline which has an outline that is uniformly larger by the cutter diameter.

CNC cutting three small Maystar pickguard inlays using a 0.8 mm (1/32”) diameter two flute cutter at 125 mm/min feed rate and 4,500 rpm.

Guitar Center Hollywood, LA

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On 8th March 2020, Luke Holwerda, Jon Underhill and I visited Guitar Center’s Hollywood store on 7425 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles during our short road trip after Luke’s inaugural USA Red Special meetup in his home city of Phoenix, AZ. The value of the opportunity we took was only fully realised around a month later when the Covid-19 global pandemic adversely affected international travel and tourism.

https://stores.guitarcenter.com/hollywood

Along with Norman’s Rare Guitars on Ventura Boulevard, Tarzana, Guitar Center in Hollywood should be on every guitar player’s pilgrimage route but we only had time in our limited schedule to visit one of these stores and get an evening meal. We started our visit by checking out the handprints of various famous guitar players set into the sidewalk outside the main entrance. As you can see from the pictures, my guitarist chromosomes consist of three quarters blues and one quarter Queen. I think there’s a few rogue DNA strands of progressive rock in there too.

“Founded in 1985, Guitar Center’s RockWalk is an industry-recognized music landmark and pedestrian path located at the entrance of our flagship store on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard. RockWalk is dedicated to honoring musicians and musical pioneers who have made a significant and lasting creative contribution to the growth and evolution of music through their exceptional level of talent, outstanding innovation or creative ingenuity with their chosen instrument(s).“

Guitar Center’s Hollywood store also has a display of memorabilia such as the late Eddie van Halen’s homemade red Kramer guitar, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s denim jacket, Keith Moon’s drum kit, and platform boots from KISS. A guitar store wouldn’t be a guitar store without a bunch of talented kids occupying the aisles shredding away testing their preferred gear. They have a wall of effects which is only slightly larger than Luke’s own pedalboard but the highlight was the core of the premises which contains rare and high end guitars and amplifiers.

Travel Guitars

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Pictured below are the first guitar I made: a 3/4 scale Red Special which was signed by Brian May in December 2017 and Guyton RS Transporter No. 9 of 25. One of several suitable options to obtain the Brian May tone away from home is a Vox MV50 AC compact guitar amplifier head, a traditional style treble booster and a good quality set of monitor headphones. Just because… Why not? Let’s hear it for travel guitars.

https://voxamps.com/en-gb/product/mv50-ac/
https://www.guytonrstransporter.com/

The Australian Pink Floyd Show (TAPFS)

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The Australian Pink Floyd Show returned to Edinburgh on November 2nd, 2019 with a performance at The Usher Hall on their current “All That You Love” world tour. I took my son Ben as part of his 10th birthday celebrations and splashed out on a VIP package for both of us. This gave us seats in Row 2 right in the middle of the stage. The positive from this was an amazing view and ability to hear the instruments through each guitar player’s own amplifiers rather than the venue PA system. The negative was being situated some 2 metres in front of six large sub-woofer units. These were mic-ed up to amplify a kick drum and was physically uncomfortable for some of the louder tracks but we survived. The show lived up to TAPFS high audiovisual standards and Ben enjoyed it.

Mike Hill (1952 – 2019)

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In autumn 2019, Mike Hill passed away. Readers with only a casual interest in guitars and amplification might not be aware that his technical expertise was valued by a client list that literally read like an A to Z of rock and pop including AC/DC, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Dave Gilmour, Iron Maiden, Oasis and many others. Starting off as an apprentice at the age of 18 for Marshall Amplification, Mike worked his way up through the company to eventually become joint Managing Director.

In 1995 Mike formed his own company, Mike Hill Services, which started out offering amplifier modification and repair services then expanded into provision of products and systems including bespoke pedal boards, custom switching units and variable power supplies.

“Due to the importance of high quality and reliability in all aspects of his work, Mike has always had to source and select the highest quality valves. During his inspection process there has always been a high percentage of rejection. The Elite Collection – all which live up to the Mike Hill Services standard.”

https://www.facebook.com/mikehillservices/
https://mikehillservices.com/