In my final YouTube video for 2024, we take a closer look at a unique and special Brian May Red Special guitar variant: the Guyton RS Transporter, a travel sized headless electric guitar with all the features of Brian May’s original Red Special. The guitar was designed by Martin Pitcher in 2014 because he travelled by air a lot and wanted a Red Special type guitar that could be easily transported in cabin baggage. Andrew Guyton produced a limited edition run of twenty five starting in 2016 and several had unique custom finishes and hardware customisation.
I own No. 9 of 25 which has a metallic purple finish and was originally commissioned by Craig Farley in 2017. The body is of chambered mahogany construction with an oak block embedded into the the rear of the body onto which the neck and bridge are mounted. The pickups are mounted onto pine ‘rails’ to mimic the original guitar’s pine blockboard construction. The neck is made of quarter sawn mahogany and crucially has the same thick profile of the original guitar. The fretboard is made of oak and is finished in black lacquer with 24 frets and a 24 inch scale.
The pickups are hand made Adeson Brian May specification Burns Tri-Sonics. The electrical harness was designed and built by Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies and features a built in KAT treble booster that is switched in and out via the red button. The JCustom XS tremolo bridge is fitted with modified rollers, tremolo arm and spring to achieve a similar feel to Brian’s original design. It is supplied in a Hoffee custom carbon fibre hard case which fits in the standard overhead lockers of passenger aircraft.
In May 2022 I published a YouTube video about the original pickups that Brian May made and fitted to his Red Special guitar. Following his original 1962 design sketch as a guide for the dimensions, materials and general construction, I assembled and wound my own versions of these pickups. Since making the original video, I have found out more information about them, including their electromagnetic characteristics and some people have asked me about what they sound like and about making functional sets.
Julian Hemingway has made a replica Red Special to Brian’s original specification and he brought it to the U.K. Red Special enthusiast meet-ups in 2022 and 2024. Although we were hoping to hear it being played through a full Brian May stage rig, instead Julian got the opportunity to present it to Brian and discuss it for a few minutes. I took some loose components to display alongside his guitar. In this video, I update you about the additional work Julian and I have been doing to better understand Brian’s original home made Eclipse magnet pickups and how to approach making usable replica sets.
To re-cap, I originally interpreted Brian’s design with bases made from 1/8″ thick phenolic resin sheet, captive 6BA brass nuts to mount the Eclipse magnets, flush inset tinned brass solder tags and a 1/16″ thick top cover milled from white acrylic sheet. I filled the voids between the magnets with custom made acrylic inserts. I then wound 6,000 turns of 44 AWG (0.05 mm diameter) enamelled copper wire onto a thin cardboard strip. My overall goal was to produce a modern interpretation of this pickup with the DC resistance and inductance equivalent to a typical vintage Burns Tri-Sonic pickup. I wound the pickups using my CNC machine to traverse the wire feed nozzle and the AC variable frequency milling spindle to rotate the pickup on an acrylic backing plate. The only additional piece of equipment I bought for this set-up was a magnetic tensioner.
Ade Turner of Adeson made several sets of these pickups for the Red Special replica that Andrew Guyton made in 2018 to Brian’s original 1964 specification to celebrate his 70th birthday. This guitar was fitted with an ebony fretboard and a series/parallel changeover switch.
The embedded video is part two of my highlights package of the 2024 U.K. Brian May Red Special enthusiast meet-up held at the Holiday Inn Reading West in Berkshire and primarily features the guitars and musical equipment. Part 1 covers a selection of video clips of Brian’s time with us:
The event was hosted by Jon Underhill of The Red Special Guitar podcast and his team of assistants including Paul Cottrill, Steve McCulla, Matt Netherwood, Jonathan Planner and Luke Timmins, guitarist in the Supreme Queen tribute band. The theme was a 60th birthday celebration for Brian’s original Red Special which he completed in October 1964.
Attendees included co-author of the Red Special book, renowned music journalist Simon Bradley, Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies, Andrew Morgan of A Strings, Wales’s premier independent retailer of guitars, amplifiers and effects, Rafa Diaz guitarist with the Magic Queen tribute band, artist Sarah Rugg and classical guitarist and host of the Fret Not podcast, Rosie Bennet.
The event had been held at Theale Village Hall, four miles away since 2017 but Jon and his event team sought a new venue to accommodate increased popularity and to separate the customary band section from the quieter day activities.
Doors opened at 10.00 a.m. allowing people time to mingle, chat and browse the guitars and equipment on display before several talks and demonstrations in the morning session. Souvenir merchandise including various stickers and badges from businesses and enthusiasts associated with the community were provided in a Star Wars themed goodie box. Exquisitely detailed commemorative sixpence coins were produced to celebrate the occasion.
There were many Red Special guitar variants on display including Brian May Guitars Specials in various finishes and custom versions built by both amateur and professional luthiers. These included a double neck made by Raymon Guitars of Spain, a 1993 Guild and a Guyton RS Transporter. Let’s take a look at some of these exquisite instruments.
A raffle of donated items raised a considerable amount of money for the Save Me Trust and Prostate Cancer U.K charity. There were some superb and valuable prizes on offer this year including a BMG ukulele and Queen I boxed set both signed by Brian himself, books, magazines and artwork by Sarah Rugg, a KAT Studio-One amplifier donated by Nigel Knight, effects units including amplifier attenuators donated by various enthusiasts.
After lunch, we watched a video compilation of photographs from previous meet-up events since 2017 with video messages from various enthusiasts on what the Red Special meet-ups and community mean to them. Afterwards, Jon dropped a bombshell on us. A very special guest had arrived… Dr Sir Brian May. Not only that, but guitar technician Steve Prior was looking after the object of our interest, the original Red Special guitar.
Jon had Brian as his guest in episode 20 of The Red Special Podcast in November 2022, maintained a dialogue then subsequently invited him to attend the meet-up to witness for himself how much we celebrate his guitar as a piece of Britain’s musical heritage.
One triple heart bypass operation and a stroke later, Brian found the time and energy to visit us. He did not confirm that he would attend until around lunchtime of the meet-up so it was a surprise to everyone. He lost some mobility in his arm as you might have read on social media and had not played guitar for about two months until today.
Steve Prior was on loan from David Gilmour’s stint at The Royal Albert Hall for guitar technician duties until Pete Malandrone returns to work. He managed to guard the revered original Red Special but still allow many of us to hold it, photograph it and compare our own Red Special guitars with it.
The 2024 U.K. Red Special enthusiast meet-up was moved from Theale Village Hall to the Holiday Inn Reading West near Aldermaston this year to accommodate more demand and to separate the customary band section from the usually quieter day activities. The event was still hosted by Jon Underhill of The Red Special Guitar Podcast and his capable team with Andrek Hernandez of California on official videographer duties.
I usually produce a single highlights package video and write an event report here on my website. However, this year was special because Dr Sir Brian May CBE joined us for about three hours to answer questions, talk about the Red Special guitar, demonstrate its capabilities then present some community service awards and raffle prizes.
The Red Special was finished in October 1964 so the event was timed to celebrate its 60th birthday. I filmed some of his time with us and the YouTube video below contains a selection of these video clips. This is part one of a two part highlights package of this event. I did not film the Q&A session because I preferred to listen and not stand up to film which would restrict others’ view.
Brian was still recovering from his recent stroke and did not confirm that he would attend until the morning of the meet-up. He lost some mobility in his arm as you might have read on social media and had not played guitar for about two months until today. Please bear this in mind when judging his playing. Steve Prior is on guitar technician duties because Pete Malandrone is still recovering from a head injury and is not expected back at work for some time.
My YouTube video for September 2024 lasts approximately 15 minutes and covers the CAD design and scratch build of the tremolo arm on Brian May’s Red Special guitar. Although you can buy these from Red Special guitar parts suppliers, some don’t have authentic section lengths or bend angles and come as part of a full tremolo tailpiece assembly at considerable cost. If you fancy making your own or just interested to see how it’s done, please check the video out.
I was not successful in getting tickets for the Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour. By the time I got through the Ticketmaster queue, the last remaining seated tickets at Edinburgh Murrayfield stadium disappeared in front of my eyes and only expensive surge priced standing tickets were available. Unless tickets are made available for sale at face value via authorised resellers in future, I’m not in. It’s a shame because the atmosphere in Edinburgh would already be buzzing in August and I had a few friends who would have travelled here to experience it with me.
I also missed the second chance offer due to the Wembley additional ballot e-mail being sent at 02.36 hours on Sunday morning and diverted to my junk mail folder. When I noticed it on Monday morning, the ballot had already closed. Gotta find a way to make it happen…
In 2016, Mickäel Dansan and I collaborated to design and reproduce a plastic tremolo arm tip for Brian May Red Special guitars which looks more representative of the original’s greenish-yellow colour than any commercially available items such as standard Fender tips. They are available at Dansan Guitars online store for a reasonable price:
In July 2024, I made a brief (6m 10s) YouTube video illustrating how I designed the tip then made it using 3D SLA printing in my ELEGOO Mars 4 DLP 3D printer. A key part of the process is colouring the Phrozen “creamy white” ABS-like 3D printing resin using an epoxy resin pigment kit.
In the video, I show you the type of vintage, light grey plastic knitting needle that Brian used to fashion his tremolo trip from and illustrate how the colour has evolved over years of wear and tear to its current greenish-yellow hue.
This YouTube video covers the evolution of the electronic circuit in Brian May’s Red Special guitar from the original 1964 build to the current state which dates from 2018. I focus primarily on the potentiometers and treble cut capacitor and also talk about the aluminium lathe turned control knobs and the original Bulgin/Radio spares 1/4″ jack socket.
I discuss how you can modify a vintage TCC Metalmite CP33N capacitor by removing the electrolyte and inserting a modern polyester Vishay item in the same manner as the Gibson heritage ‘bumblebee’ capacitors. I finish by showing you the KAT RS Superpot and discuss what factors you should consider before deciding to fit one to your guitar.
This video covers the drilling out and replacement of several unsatisfactory mother of pearl (nacre) fretboard position marker dots on an oak fretboard for a Brian May Red Special guitar neck. The marker dots turned out too thin after final radiusing with a StewMac radiusing beam and 320 grit 3M Stikit Gold self-adhesive abrasive paper. I mill out the installed dots by mounting the fretboard back onto my Stepcraft 2/840 CNC machine with the help of a custom designed and CNC cut acrylic (perspex) alignment template. I then glue in replacement dots and abrade them flush with the radiused fretboard surface using a flat bladed diamond file.
My latest YouTube video is a follow-up to a 2021 YouTube short which illustrated strings pinging in and out of grooves worn into the zero fret of my Burns Brian May Red Special guitar.
I discuss the various factors which cause and exacerbate this issue then in the second part, I remove and replace the zero fret with Jescar FW57110 stainless steel fret wire. The crown is 2.8 mm wide and 1.45 mm high which is a good match to the jumbo 3 mm size fitted to this Burns Special.
You can find out more about the upgrades I carried out to this guitar in the project section:
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