dsgb

Build guitars, modify guitars, collect guitars, play guitars

Author: dsgb

Brian May Red Special guitar and equipment

dsgb.net Website 6 Month Progress Update

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When I launched dsgb.net in October 2020, I intended only to create a straightforward, traditional website to present my guitar build and modification projects in a more structured way than was possible on any internet forum or social media platform. Although many people have social media accounts, there will always be interested parties who are difficult to reach without a regular internet presence.

In the six months since I registered the domain name, I systematically populated dsgb.net with my Brian May Red Special guitar build project, the Fender Stratocaster and Burns Red Special modification projects and the two collaborations with Luke Holwerda and Jon Underhill to showcase their work. I then added a section covering enthusiast meets and concerts I have attended and a FAQ section which now has three articles on Burns Tri-Sonic pickups, how to “play like May” and some background information on my CAD designs. I augmented this in February 2021 with a “Gear” section to present basic information and attractive pictures about the various pieces of musical equipment used by or related to Brian May otherwise my strapline “guitar and gear info here” would not be meaningful.

In March 2021, I reached a minor milestone of creating the 100th unique web page and writing the 50th blog post on dsgb.net.

As you can see from the WordPress statistics shown in the attached images, the website has sustained growth in both the number of people visiting the site each month and the number of views. My intention was to build an accessible and objective reference canon for people interested in Brian May guitars and equipment, not write a weekly or monthly journal or build a site as comprehensive as Gilmourish.com for example, so I only expected to see around five to ten visitors and maybe 40 to 50 views per day. However, traffic has surpassed my modest expectations to grow to over 750 visitors per month (around 25 per day) and over 5,000 unique views which is very gratifying. Discounting those using VPNs to view the site, there have been over 22,000 views from visitors in 72 different countries on all populated land masses which is more a testament to the global reach of Queen than anything I have done.

It remains to be seen whether this traffic can be sustained, will increase, or reduce if I don’t regularly post new material. I was planning to close my Facebook blog page in due course once dsgb.net was established but since there has been an increase in my “likers and followers” this month I will maintain a presence on Facebook for the foreseeable future. A heartfelt thank you from me to everybody who has shown interest in Doug Short Guitar Blog.

Vox VBM-1 Brian May Special Amplifier

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Launched in 2003 and retailing at US$199/£149, the Vox VBM-1 Brian May Special amplifier remains a popular choice for guitarists seeking to replicate Brian May’s signature tones at low volumes and on a limited budget despite being discontinued in 2005. It was designed to fulfil a specific purpose: to replicate the distinctive sounds of the legendary Deacy amp. Check out my latest musical equipment section article on this unit:

https://dsgb.net/gear/vox_vbm-1/

Treble Boosters

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For the 100th distinct web page on dsgb.net and the 50th site blog post, I have published an article on one of the perennial topics of conversation in Brian May enthusiast circles: treble boosters:

https://dsgb.net/gear/trebleboosters/

I cover some background information and restrict the discussion to three treble booster variants related to Brian May and Queen, the current 3-in-1 BMG Treble Booster Classic unit developed by Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies for retail by Brian May Guitars, Brian’s KAT RED-18 strap-mounted treble booster and the Fryer Sound colour series (TB Touring, TB Plus, TB Super and TB Deluxe). There are embedded videos from Jamie Humphries demonstrating the Fryer treble boosters for Guitar Interactive and Frank Campese demonstrating the 70s setting of the BMG TB Classic.

DigiTech Red Special Pedal

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The fourth article for my musical equipment section covers the DigiTech Brian May Red Special pedal. It contains original photographs and PDF user manuals of this, and the other two DigiTech Artist’s Series pedals (Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton Crossroads), some additional photographs of the rack mounted version of this pedal that Nigel Knight built into Brian May’s back-up, touring and guesting rig, and an embedded demonstration video by Frank Campese.

https://dsgb.net/gear/digitech/

Westfield Mini Gibson Les Paul Upgrade

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The last of my five planned guitar build and modification projects covers the upgrade of a Westfield Mini Gibson Les Paul guitar I bought from U.K. eBay in January 2014. This lovely little 18.5″ scale, solid body instrument is an easily playable travel guitar for an adult or introductory electric guitar for a child. It sat unloved in its gig bag in my attic for around seven years and deserved to be improved to the best possible specification.

https://dsgb.net/projects/minilespaul/

Amongst other minor cosmetic upgrades to gold hardware, the modified specification includes:

  • Tonerider AC2 Alnico II PAF humbucker pickup AC2B-GD
  • Gibson OEM strap buttons (brass)
  • Gotoh Nashville GE103B-T Tune-o-Matic bridge with large posts
  • Gibson style speed knobs (gold)
  • Bourns PDB181-GTR01-504 potentiometers
  • Optima Gold 2028M string set (0.011, 0.014, 0.018, 0.030, 0.038, 0.050)

Brian May Deacy Amp Replica

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Check out the third article in the musical equipment section of this website which covers the Brian May Deacy Amp replica made by Knight Audio Technologies (KAT):

https://dsgb.net/gear/deacyamp/

It contains the original pictures shown below, technical specifications for the amplifier, hyperlinks and four embedded YouTube videos, including Jamie Humphries‘ review for Guitar Interactive magazine and some demonstrations recorded by Martin Pitcher at the 2018 and 2019 Brian May Red Special enthusiast meets.

Vintage Vox AC30/6 Gear Story

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I have created a new website section to cover musical equipment, including amplifiers and effects. The first article for it covers the story of how I acquired a classic JMI era copper top Vox AC30/6 with some history and provenance. I have included a review of the top three publications on the subject including the bible for Vox Amplifiers compiled by Jim Elyea who runs the History For Hire prop rental company in Hollywood.

https://dsgb.net/gear/voxac30/

Eagles Long Road Out of Eden, Glasgow 2009

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Rummaging through my collection of PVG (Piano, Vocal & Guitar) songbooks this evening, I forgot I had this lovely compendium of Eagles songs. Like Queen, Eagles are one of those universally popular iconic bands; if you were to pick bands that best represent the USA and the United Kingdom, you could do worse than to choose these two, although Eagles’ song lyrics often reveal their deep cynicism about American society and culture.

Unsurprisingly, my mum and stepfather also love Eagles and after attending two local concerts by U.K. tribute band B-Eagles, I was thrilled to be able to take them to hear the real deal on the Glasgow leg of the Long Road Out of Eden world tour in 2009. As you can see from the ticket in the photograph above, we were at the very back of the Hampden Park stadium. Although binoculars were required to see the stage, the sound was certainly loud enough. Eagles were supported by Paul Carrack who played some catchy Mike and the Mechanics tracks. My wife was at least five months pregnant with our son, Ben, so he attended his first rock concert before he was even born!

Media reviews noted the “grimly professional” nature of the performance but we enjoyed the experience and the on-stage antics of Joe Walsh as they worked their way through their established hits interspersed with tracks from the new album. In hindsight, after the untimely death of Glenn Frey in January 2016, I am very glad we were able to hear the Eagles play when their main songwriting partnership was intact.

Take Your Pick

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Thanks to Dan at http://www.mybadges.co.uk/ in Southampton, U.K. for these lovely purple celluloid metallic hot foil printed custom guitar picks. I have had a passing interest in graphic design since school, having studied art at GCSE level so launching this website offered the perfect opportunity to design a distinctive and meaningful logotype for myself. This is not as straightforward as it seems but it was the first activity I engaged in after registering the domain name with WordPress in October 2020.

My original idea was to use a simple circular theme to suggest an acoustic guitar sound hole and the decorative ring that usually adorns it. I also wanted to suggest guitar strings somehow so I selected a rounded, bold sans serif typeface that would work well with the circular theme and lend itself well to the filled double outline style. I realised that if I used the lower case four letter abbreviation for Doug Short Guitar Blog, the letters “d” and “b” would confer some symmetry on the logotype. Given that the letters “g” and “b” also represent Great Britain (U.K.) where I am based, I hoped that the overall appearance would evoke the roundel style thematic element used on the most iconic urban transportation system in the world, the London Underground.

I chose the colour simply because I find a wide range of hues on the purple part of the visible spectrum to be the most appealing. I actually prefer lilacs but not many objects (including clothes, cars, guitars, walls in your home) look tasteful in those hues!

The initial scoping was done using the excellent software utility Logo Design Studio Pro from SummitSoft. I then transferred to TurboCAD to design simplified and negative variants of the logotype for scaled down applications such as printing onto small items and for internet avatars. Although the simplified “white-on-purple” design loses the double-outlined suggestion of guitar strings element, I now prefer the boldness and simplicity of it to the original.