dsgb

Build guitars, modify guitars, collect guitars, play guitars

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2024 Annual Review and 2025 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 YouTube channel. Although I didn’t plan to release YouTube videos on a regular basis in 2024, I produced 11 videos with Brian May related content on an approximately monthly basis this year. Three of these covered challenging design and fabrication mini projects (Jeanrenaud switch replicas, Red Special tremolo arm and tremolo arm tip) which required learning 3D SLA printing techniques.

The highlight of the year was when Brian May attended our enthusiast meet-up in Berkshire, U.K. My coverage of this part of the event produced my best performing YouTube video which has attracted over 180,000 views, 2,800 likes and hundreds of positive, supportive comments at the time of writing. Read a small selection of these in the screen captures below.

For those of you who are interested in the statistics, dsgb.net has been on line for four years and has welcomed over 27,000 visitors and received over 96,000 views in 2024. This represented another substantial increase in the number of visitors although with approximately the same number of overall views as in 2022 and 2023.

Collaborations with professional and amateur musicians, luthiers, YouTube content creators and Brian May enthusiasts is always inspiring and enriching; this year I worked with Julian Hemingway to better understand Brian May’s original home made Eclipse magnet pickups and this led to an update video in November. Andrew Guyton and Martin Pitcher helped me to produce a short video on the Guyton RS Transporter to round off the year by providing audio and video media.

Although my media output is primarily Queen and Brian May related, I enjoy listening to many different bands and like many millions of people all around the world, I was captivated by the resurgence of interest in Oasis resulting from their planned 2025 world tour. This motivated me to arrange a visit to Oasis design central, MicroDot Creative in Kendal, Cumbria on our February break and produce a large framed display of the reissued Definitely Maybe 7″ vinyl singles and a quantity of 1996 fabric tour passes I bought from eBay. I bought a very good value “Scran” overdrive pedal which is designed, hand wired and assembled by SoundLad in Liverpool and makes Oasis tones readily accessible.

I look forward to exploring new opportunities in 2025 and tapping into the talents of Will Barbero who lives a short drive away from me in Edinburgh. I plan to produce a YouTube video exploring the design and fabrication of the Brian May Red Special tremolo system steelwork in Q1 2025. I would like to produce a video in which I discuss and demonstrate how to characterise the response of a selection of popular guitar pickups across the full audio spectrum using an exciter coil and a PicoScope oscilloscope PC interface.

Links to my social media accounts are below. Please follow, subscribe, like and comment on my content because music can’t propagate in a vacuum.

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

Brian May Attends the 2024 U.K. Red Special Enthusiast Meet-up

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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.

2023 Annual Review and 2024 Look Ahead

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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.

2022 Annual Review and Dr Sir Brian Harold May C.B.E.

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As the year comes to a close, we learn that Dr Brian Harold May, C.B.E., musician, songwriter and animal welfare advocate has received a richly deserved knighthood in the New Year honours list for services to music and charity and becomes Dr Sir Brian Harold May C.B.E. The full citation is included below.

Brian May is an acclaimed musician and songwriter, founding member of the rock group Queen. In 2020 he was named Greatest Guitarist of All Time by Total Guitar Magazine. Queen’s performance at Live Aid in 1985 is acknowledged as the greatest live set in history. Brian famously opened the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002 performing live on Buckingham Palace roof – and 20 years later returned to open the Platinum Jubilee concert atop the Victoria Monument. He is also an accomplished astrophysicist, now attached as stereoscopist to many NASA space exploration teams. He re-established the London Stereoscopic Company in 2008, was co-founder of Asteroid Day in 2015, for the protection of Earth from asteroid strikes, and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008-2013. His work defending Britain’s wild animals led him to found the Save-Me Trust in 2009, which is his continuing passion, campaigning for the rights of foxes and badgers, and hosting an active wild-life rescue operation.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4245753

I would like to thank you for supporting Doug Short Guitar Blog by visting this website, watching my YouTube videos and subscribing to my YouTube channel. I have produced 17 videos this year to augment the traditional words and pictures style of dsgb.net and present Brian May guitar and equipment related content via a more engaging medium. Most of these have been technically challenging to produce and some (BHMOHM and Tri-Sonic pick-ups, Deacy amp for example) have required investment amounting to a few hundred pounds on top of the US$100 per annum cost of keeping dsgb.net on line so please help me sustain this endeavour by liking and subscribing. The next milestone is to reach the 1,000 subscriber/4,000 watch hours milestone to join the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP). I have also populated my Pinterest and Instagram accounts with photographs from project activities and events I attended so please check them out too.

https://www.youtube.com/@dsgb
https://www.pinterest.com/dsguitarblog/
https://www.instagram.com/dsguitarblog/

Looking at the year in numbers, dsgb.net has been on line for two years and had 16,650 visitors and 95,500 views in 2022 representing 48% and 92% increases respectively over calendar year 2021. I am very pleased with this growth for what is a niche interest website. My YouTube channel has grown from 360 to 791 subscribers enjoying 125,227 views and 4,319 watch hours. After a much-needed seasonal break from my main line of work developing and delivering simulator training at EDF Energy’s Torness nuclear power plant, the main challenges for 2023 are to first complete the series of three videos on building a Deacy amp replica and then realise other ideas to give fresh insights into, and inspire others to start their own Brian May related guitar and equipment projects.

Brian May Red Special Guitar Podcast

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The one we have all been waiting for is finally here. Live at 19.00 on Saturday, 5th November 2022, Red Special Guitar Podcast host Jon Underhill brings us an intimate discussion with Queen guitar legend, astronomer, animal rights campaigner and stereoscopic photographer, Dr Brian May. Watch, listen, enjoy and show your support for Jon’s endeavours by liking, commenting and subscribing to The RSGP on its various platforms.

dsgb.net Website 12 Month Progress Update

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dsgb.net has now been fully populated since late December 2020 with all the content I originally planned and consists of 108 pages and 63 blog posts (including this one). As you can see from the WordPress statistics shown in the images below, the website is receiving 700-800 visitors per month and has settled to around 5,000-6,000 individual content views per month; the results for December 2021 are representative. The website has attracted over 8,600 visitors and over 64,000 content views since being fully populated, the bulk of which are from the USA and Western Europe. However, I am more fascinated by the small number of views from exotic locations, whether or not somebody on holiday or serving on a military base clicked on the wrong Google search result!

A huge thank you from me to everybody around the world who has shown interest in Doug Short Guitar Blog; I hope I have inspired and helped a few people around the world to launch their own guitar build or modification projects. The highlight of 2021 for me was attending the U.K. Red Special meet-up at Theale Village Hall. I am looking forward to the following Queen and Brian May related activities in 2022:

  • In January I will be a guest on Jon Underhill’s Red Special Guitar Podcast where we chat about how Curiosity Killed The Cat helped get me into Queen, the day I met Brian May and the challenges of building a Red Special replica.
  • In March (Covid-19 constraints permitting) Jon and I will be attending Luke Holwerda’s second U.S. Red Special meet-up in Phoenix, Arizona.
  • In June, I am looking forward to attending the Queen + Adam Lambert Rhapsody Tour postponed from 2020 at the O2 Arena in London with my wife and children.

I have a few more RS build videos planned and I will obviously post content from the enthusiast meets but workload permitting, I anticipate moving on to other guitar related projects including one I have wanted to attempt for some years: a 1959 Gibson Les Paul replica build.

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.

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.