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2025 Annual Review and 2026 Look Ahead

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Thank you for supporting Doug Short Guitar Blog for another year by visiting this website, watching my YouTube videos and subscribing to my main YouTube channel which has grown to over 5,170 subscribers and has accumulated over 1,960,000 views. I planned to release YouTube videos with Brian May related content approximately every two months in 2025. The out-turn was seven videos including two covering another challenging design and fabrication mini project on the Brian May Red Special guitar vibrato system.

Current and previous collaborations allowed me to publish two videos, one in February on Brian May Red Special 12/6 double neck guitars thanks to Mark Tolcher and Will Barbero and a retrospective in November on Luke Holwerda’s Red Special build project from 2017 to 2019. I received a lot of positive and encouraging comments, some of which are reproduced below:

The highlight of the year and all my live music experiences was attending the Oasis Live ’25 concert at Wembley stadium on 30 July 2025 with my son. I compiled a multi-cam highlights video lasting just over 1 hour using footage filmed by six fans including me. I published this on my second YouTube channel “itsdougslife” because my dsgb YouTube channel content is heavily Brian May biased at this time.

A concert review with some photographs is published on the events page of dsgb.net here: https://dsgb.net/events/oasislive25/

For those of you who are interested in the statistics, dsgb.net has been on line for five years and has attracted over 22,800 visitors and 134,200 views in 2025. This represented another substantial increase in the number of views with a reduction in visitors from 27,215 in 2024. The total number of visitors stands at 98,700 and with 490,200 views to date (31 December 2025).

I plan to make a limited number of YouTube videos in 2026 and probably none in the first quarter of the year because YouTube viewer engagement and advertising revenues decrease substantially after the festive holiday period. I am working on a video about designing and making a scalloped Red Special fretboard and am filming the assembly of a replacement neck for my Red Special replica for another video. My only other plans are to make full videos with commentary featuring my 2018 project to convert a Fender Stratocaster to Brian May specification and to upgrade a Burns commercial Red Special in 2020. I would like the guitars to be demonstrated by a proficient guitar player, preferably with a Brian May repertoire so I won’t commit to making these videos unless I can arrange this.

Links to my social media accounts are below. Please continue to engage with my content by following, subscribing, liking and commenting. I respond to all respectful and relevant comments.

https://www.youtube.com/@dsgb2020
https://www.pinterest.com/dsguitarblog/
https://www.instagram.com/dsguitarblog
https://www.facebook.com/DougShortGuitarBlog

Brian May Red Special Guitar Bakelite String Spacer Design and Make

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My final YouTube video for 2025 covers the CAD design and making via CNC of the bakelite string spacer on Brian May’s Red Special guitar. It is relatively well known that the Red Special is fitted with a zero fret and for this reason it doesn’t have a traditional nut. I made a video in April 2024 which covered the reasons why zero frets suffer wear (particularly on guitars fitted with a tremolo system) and I demonstrated removing and replacing it with stainless steel fretwire on my Burns Red Special replica. However, I didn’t discuss the advantages of a zero fret and string spacer so I cover those before moving on to how I design the object then making one from bakelite and a similar alternative material (phenolic resin sheet branded as “tufnol” or “paxolin”) which is easier to source and work.

Luke Holwerda’s Brian May Red Special Build Project (2017 to 2019)

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Back in July 2017, film maker and photographer Luke Holwerda contacted me to ask if I could collaborate with him on a Brian May Red Special replica guitar build project. Luke is based in Arizona in the USA and wanted to use the large format ShopBot CNC machine in the CREATE community workshop at the Arizona Science Centre in Phoenix to rout the guitar body sections and neck.

Excited by the prospect of collaborating with somebody halfway round the world. I learned that building a Brian May Red Special replica from scratch with no previous luthiery experience is extremely challenging but it was clear from the outset that Luke possessed the necessary handicraft skill, attention to detail and determination to see the project through to completion.

Luke and I spent around two years messaging regularly to resolve the issues he encountered and keep his build project moving along. He has allowed me to remix his original video footage to produce this retrospective story, overlaid with my own narrative for you.

Check out Luke’s Facebook page for his guitar and amplifier projects and YouTube channel where he published his original series of thirteen videos that I have remixed:

https://www.facebook.com/LukeHGuitar/
https://www.youtube.com/@lukeyourself

Part 1 – Blockboard Lay Up: https://youtu.be/EmLi4rX7S5Y
Part 2 – CNC Body Routing: https://youtu.be/9bBQD6irAJQ
Part 3 – CNC Neck Routing: https://youtu.be/JwbNmn68vEU
Part 4 – Body Glue Up: https://youtu.be/ZddRVstlfLQ
Part 5 – Repair of Router Bearing Marks: https://youtu.be/8YUnrmC1Tvc
Part 6 – Applying Veneers: https://youtu.be/j-ljqtfDoZI
Part 7 – Binding and Staining: https://youtu.be/rnTdnpMDk9A
Part 8 – Repairing Veneer Sand Through: https://youtu.be/J00EK_N2ZIA
Part 9 – Neck and Fretboard Assembly: https://youtu.be/Eyb1CNfowO4
Part 10 – Neck Finishing: https://youtu.be/DOtInN0RlWs
Part 11 – Fret Work: https://youtu.be/4kp4oLsinxo
Part 12 – Guitar Assembly (Electronics and Hardware Installation): https://youtu.be/3uCOaPo5dCE
Part 13 – Guitar Demonstration: https://youtu.be/1hUd9dKFX1w

Brian May Red Special Guitar Bridge Design, Function and Installation

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My YouTube video for September 2025 continues the recent theme of reviewing the design and function of the unique hardware on Brian May’s Red Special guitar by taking an in depth look at the frictionless roller bridge. Brian made all the individual components of this assembly by hand including the cylindrical saddles with their intricate axles. I discuss the fasteners and shims used to install it and set the desired string action. To illustrate the discussion, I show you two professionally engineered assemblies with different interpretations of Brian’s original design and I compare these with the one I made in January 2022 for a brief time lapse video on the CNC milling with no commentary.

Brian May Red Special Tremolo System – Function, Setup and Demonstration

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In the second part of my video series examining the tremolo system in Brian May’s Red Special guitar in detail, I demonstrate the installation, set-up and basic function of the system with the help of a test rig. I also take the opportunity to compare my DIY components with a professionally made hardware set that is commercially available in the U.K., the relic hardware kit made by RS Mods. Please check out their website:

https://rsmods.uk

Part 1 covered the design and fabrication of the three main steel components and although it isn’t necessary to have watched this first, it does provide useful context if you are not familiar with the basic design of the Red Special tremolo system.

Brian May Red Special Tremolo System – Design and Fabrication

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My latest YouTube video lasting 21 minutes covers the detailed design and fabrication of the three steel components in the knife-edge bearing tremolo system of Brian May’s Red Special guitar.

The tremolo (correctly the vibrato) system on Brian May’s Red Special guitar operates on the same principle (knife-edge bearing balanced by coil springs) as Fender’s 1954 patented two post floating tremolo. The main component is a vertical rocker block in which the strings are retained in a cowl. This pivots on a knife-edge bearing ground into a section of 1/8″ thick steel plate mounted horizontally flush with the top of the guitar body. String tension is counteracted by the compression force of two coil springs from a 1928 Panther motorcycle which abut the rocker block. The moving components are held in position with two 1/4″ hex head set screws which are anchored into a section of steel bar located between the upper and lower guitar body sections. Slots are milled into the set screws heads to allow spring tension to be adjusted by inserting a flat blade screwdriver through holes in the back of the guitar body.

Mini Brian May Red Special Design and Build Project (2013-2014)

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I have produced a new YouTube video this month covering my first foray into modifying and building guitars, a BMG Mini May conversion project which left only the truss rod of the donor guitar remaining. You can read more about this unusual and challenging project, dubbed the “1975 Red Special” because of its 19 inch scale and 75% body size elsewhere on this website:

https://dsgb.net/projects/1975rs/

Brian May SJ-200 12-String Vintage Sunburst

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The Gibson Brian May SJ-200 12-string features an AAA rosewood back and sides, an AAA Sitka spruce top with a vintage sunburst finish, and a 2-piece AAA maple neck with a rounded profile, walnut stringer, and a rosewood fretboard with Agoya shell 8-point star inlays. The headstock also features an 8-point Agoya shell star inlay, along with the Gibson logo in mother-of-pearl and gold Grover Mini Rotomatic tuning machines. The bridge is solid rosewood with four 60s-style Agoya inlays. The planetary-themed pickguard was designed by Brian and further reinforces the astronomy motif. The strings are mounted in reverse order, with the thicker strings at the top, followed by the octave strings beneath, giving it a distinctive sound that’s unlike other Gibson 12-string acoustic models. Electronics are Fishman Matrix. Only 100 instruments will be made by the Gibson Custom Shop located in Bozeman, Montana.

https://www.gibson.com/en-GB/p/Acoustic-Guitar/Brian-May-SJ-200-12-String/Vintage-Sunburst

“The idea for this guitar came when I needed a twelve string on tour, and the one I was accustomed to wasn’t performing right on stage. The guys at Gibson very kindly said, ‘We’ll make you something special that you can use on the tours.’ One of the things I asked for was for the octaves to be placed around the other way from where it is normally done, because I like to pick upwards and hear the top notes when I’m playing. I like to hear the high octave coming through as then I can play tunes on it. If you look at this guitar, the beauty of it, and the beauty of the sound, and look at the science in this guitar, look how much technology and craftsmanship has gone into this guitar. Gibson was able to put the universe on it in a figurative way and the planet Mercury is here, and that is a little nod to a friend of mine that is always with me.”

Brian May Red Special 12/6 Double Neck Guitars

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I have collaborated with renowned Scottish-Italian guitarist Will Barbero to produce my latest video about the rarest and most spectacular of the Brian May Red Special guitar variants, the 12/6 double neck.

The video’s duration is around 16 minutes and with Will’s assistance to skillfully demonstrate both the twelve string and six string necks, we showcase a custom guitar commissioned by Mark Tolcher from Liverpool in the U.K. from Raymon Guitars in Spain:

Will spends a lot of his free time meticulously analysing and recreating Brian’s recorded guitar parts on Queen album tracks and has made a superb series of YouTube videos on this topic. Please support his work by liking and commenting on his videos, subscribe and follow him on Facebook:

https://www.youtube.com/@willbarbero
https://www.facebook.com/will.barbero/