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.
Tag: electric guitar
Luke Holwerda’s Brian May Red Special Build Project (2017 to 2019)
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
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.
Mini Brian May Red Special Design and Build Project (2013-2014)
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 Red Special 12/6 Double Neck Guitars
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/
The Guyton RS Transporter – Brian May’s Warm-Up Guitar
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.
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.
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.
How Did Brian May Design His Red Special Guitar?
In 1963, because they could not afford to buy a suitable instrument, Brian May and his father Harold took an innovative and practical approach to designing a new type of electric guitar. Later dubbed “The Red Special”, neither of them could have predicted that ten years later it would become as famous as Brian himself. In this video, I explore an urban myth in the Brian May Red Special enthusiast community that they drew around various household objects to form the basic outline and features of the guitar. Like all good urban myths, it might have an element of truth to it so watch the video and decide for yourself.
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