In this video, I take you through all the processes and techniques required to replicate the highly sought after and extremely rare and hard to find vintage Jeanrenaud DPDT (double pole double throw) parallel slide switches of the same type fitted to Brian May’s Red Special guitar.
In 2019, I collaborated with Andrew Guyton of Guyton Guitars and Tim Grocott to produce replicas of these switches for his limited edition run of high end, super authentic Time Warp Red Special guitars. These guitars were born out of demand created by the prop guitar he made for the movie Bohemian Rhapsody about Freddie Mercury’s time in Queen.
Firstly, I discuss why these switches are key to maintaining the correct aesthetic appearance of the iconic Red Special guitar. I disassemble a vintage donor switch provided by Manuel Angelini of DoxyWorld.com in Nantes, France and use the information to design the replica Tufnol wafer, metal chassis, plastic actuator, steel detent wire and brass sliding contacts in CAD.
I CNC cut the wafers from Tufnol phenolic resin sheet thicknessed to 1.6 mm. I also CNC cut the brass sliders from 0.35 mm brass sheet and the metal chassis from 0.8 mm thick 5052 grade aluminium sheet. I use 3D SLA (stereolithography) resin printing with an ELEGOO Mars 4 DLP printer and Phrozen brand ABS-like “creamy white” 3D printing resin to recreate the plastic actuators.
Please check out the collaborate section of my website for further details on this intricate and challenging build project:
https://dsgb.net/collaborate/jeanrenaud/
Author: dsgb
Brian May Red Special guitar and equipment
How to Identify and Collect Authentic Queen Band Member Autographs
In 2009 I unwittingly bought what was very likely a fake item (an LP album cover autographed by all four members of Queen) from a reputable high street dealer of signed memorabilia in a popular U.K. tourist destination. After I had sought specialist advice from a knowledgeable collector and challenged the retailer, he accepted the item back and refunded my money in full.
Since then I have acquired a number of items signed by Brian May from official sources: Barry Moorhouse at Brian May Guitars, an in person meet and greet at the SSE Hydro arena in December 2017 and direct from his equipment technician, Pete Malandrone via charity auction at an enthusiast meet.
My YouTube content for January is a brief video lasting less than five minutes which aims to provide some insights and tips on how to identify and obtain authentic items signed by the Queen band members, Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.
Some of the content has caption credits in video (thanks to Jamie Rail, Shawn Leaver and Brian May via Instagram). I have extracted clips from other YouTube channel content under the fair usage policy. Photographs of signed Queen memorabilia also came from the following sources:
Queen Fan Store (eBay)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/queenfanstores
Queen Museum
https://queenmuseum.com/
First Class Memorabilia
https://firstclassmemorabilia.com/
#BrianMay #FreddieMercury #RogerTaylor #JohnDeacon
2023 Annual Review and 2024 Look Ahead
I would like to thank you for supporting Doug Short Guitar Blog by visiting this website, watching my YouTube videos and subscribing to my YouTube channel. I produced 12 videos this year and reached 1,500 subscribers by Christmas Day which was much appreciated. The highlight of 2023 for me was attending the Supreme Queen tribute band concert at Hamilton Town House near Glasgow, U.K. as a guest of Luke Timmins. Check out my behind-the-scenes video and whole concert which I was able to record from a position from very close to the stage.
The 2023 Red Special meet-up was a close second but only because I attended the day’s activities only this year. Andy Guyton brought a number of the custom guitars he has built for Brian May over the years including The Spade, The Badger semi-acoustic arch top, the 12/6 double neck, the scalloped fretboard Guyton and three customer guitars including Pete Malandrone’s semi-acoustic arch top and Nigel Knight’s Ruby Special. Check out my highlights package video which features all these guitars:
Links to my social media accounts are below. Please follow, subscribe, like and comment on my content because interaction is encouraging!
https://www.youtube.com/@dsgb
https://www.pinterest.com/dsguitarblog/
https://www.instagram.com/dsguitarblog/
https://www.facebook.com/DougShortGuitarBlog
Looking at the year in numbers, dsgb.net has been on line for three years and had 22,393 visitors and 92,554 views in 2023. This represented a substantial increase in the number of visitors although with slightly fewer overall views than in 2022 (95,606 and 16,691 respectively).
I am currently working on a YouTube video in which I will make some replica vintage Jeanrenaud DPDT parallel slide switches which are a holy grail in the world of Brian May Red Special guitar parts. To achieve this, I will need to try out a new technique: 3D printing.
I don’t plan releasing YouTube videos on a regular basis in 2024. Once I have made a replacement neck for my Brian May Red Special replica, I will make a video in which I dismantle the guitar, replace the neck and reassemble it, taking the opportunity to look inside the instrument.
The Story of Brian May’s Sixpences
In my last YouTube video of 2023 which is ten minutes in duration, I take you on a 21 year journey through Brian May’s musical activities after he stopped touring and recording with the original Queen band members. I tell you the stories behind the souvenir sixpences minted to mark notable occasions illustrated with close up shots of all the coins and related video footage.
Supreme Queen Tribute Band Full Concert
Supreme Queen tribute band guitarist Luke Timmins invited me to attend their concert at The Town House in Hamilton near Glasgow, Scotland on 30 September 2023 and back stage to film their set-up and sound checks. I was able to take advantage of empty gallery seats immediately overlooking the stage on the band’s left (right from the audience’s perspective) to film the band close up. Check out the video below which is 1h 46m in duration; each song is time indexed from the description.
The set list plus additional information and links can be found here:
https://dsgb.net/events/supremequeen/
U.K. Brian May Red Special Meet-up TVH 2023
Please check out my highlights package of the 2023 U.K. Brian May Red Special enthusiast meet-up on Saturday, 7th October 2023 and read the full report illustrated with 25 photographs here: https://dsgb.net/events/tvh2023/
Attended by 60-70 enthusiasts, the event has been held at Theale Village Hall near Reading in Berkshire since 2017. The theme of this year’s meet-up was “Good Company” which reflects the friendliness, trust and respect in the global Brian May enthusiast community.
To celebrate twenty years of working with Brian May, Andrew Guyton brought three guitars never seen or rarely seen in public: the spade, the 12/6 doubleneck and scalloped fretboard guitars. He also exhibited the “Badger” semi-acoustic and three customer guitars based on the original Red Special including Pete Malandrone’s semi-acoustic archtop and Nigel Knight’s heavily customised Ruby Special. These were all demonstrated by Luke Timmins, lead guitarist with the Supreme Queen tribute band using his KAT Brian May live rig.
Many other Red Special guitar variants were on display which had been made by amateur and professional luthiers in addition to custom guitar hardware and musical equipment including Deacy amplifier replicas and various Vox AC30 amplifiers.
Supreme Queen Tribute Band – Behind The Scenes
Billed as “a concert through time and space” and a “dazzling tribute”, let me welcome you ladies and gentlemen behind the scenes at the Supreme Queen tribute band concert at The Town House in Hamilton near Glasgow in Scotland on Saturday, 30 September 2023. I cover band set-up, full song sound checks and some concert footage is included.
Supreme Queen are Scott Maley as Freddie Mercury on lead vocal, Luke Timmins as Brian May on lead guitar, Allan Brown as Roger Taylor on percussion, Alan Wallbanks as John Deacon on bass guitar and Ben Marshall representing Spike Edney on keyboards. Check out their website for futher details about the band:
https://www.supremequeen.co.uk/
Crew technical support is provided by Blue Thunder Sound from Ivybridge in Devon: https://www.bluethundersound.co.uk/
Brian May Red Special Guitar Body CAD Design Walkthrough
In this second video on how I designed my interpretation of Brian May’s Red Special guitar from first principles, I explain how I created the overall shape and the internal details of the guitar body and the pickguard outline. I have illustrated this video with TurboCAD screen recordings and animated renders of the 3D objects in the same style as my previous video on the guitar neck.
Brian May Red Special Guitar Neck CAD Design Walkthrough
In my latest YouTube video, I demonstrate and discuss how I designed the neck for my Brian May Red Special guitar build using TurboCAD 2016 Professional CAD software. I begin by explaining how I worked up overall design sketches using known measurements and design details including the assumptions I made, then move on to cover the detail on the headstock, main section and tenon separately. The video is illustrated with TurboCAD screen recordings and animated renders of the 3D objects.
Brian May Guitar Effects Processor Settings
This video introduces you to some of the main settings that Brian May uses on his TC Electronic G-Major 2 digital effects processor units when playing Queen songs live so you can reproduce them for yourself with the same or similar equipment. It includes pictures of Brian May’s KAT touring and guesting mini rig at Allerton Hill and my ex Andy Barnett KAT Brian May rig being set up and tested by Pete Malandrone at Allerton Hill in June 2013 as well as Brian’s TC Electronic G-Major 2 global settings and user presets. You can read more about all the content featured in this video and download the settings in Adobe PDF format here:
https://dsgb.net/gear/brian-may-live-rig/
Credits to Nigel Knight and Pete Malandrone for the pictures taken at Brian’s equipment store at Allerton Hill featured in this video. I have a standing agreement with Nigel to reproduce KAT media with appropriate credit. Thanks to other Red Special enthusiasts for validating and publishing G-Major 2 settings in the public domain including Luke Timmins (guitarist with U.K. based Queen tribute band Supreme Queen), Iain Angell, Pete Michalowski and Mark Reynolds.
dsgb 