In this YouTube video published on 3rd April 2026, which is the first one of a series, I take you through my current method of assembling and finishing a neck for a Brian May Red Special guitar. I first attempted this in July 2018 and since then my experience and understanding of CAD, CNC machining and luthiery techniques have all improved so I have refined both my designs and process to exploit the accuracy, repeatability and convenience of CNC cutting.
My legacy video content on making the neck and fretboard does not have any commentary so making a replacement neck for my original Red Special guitar gives me the opportunity to share insights on how to execute the challenging operations whether you are using traditional tools and processes, or machine automation like me. I always strive to make video content that I wanted to see eight years ago when I was starting my Brian May Red Special build project and I knew very little about the guitar and how to approach making it. I have got a lot to explain and I share plenty of tips in this video which is just over 15 minutes in duration.
Tag: guitar
Brian May Red Special Guitar Bakelite String Spacer Design and Make
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)
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 SJ-200 12-String Vintage Sunburst
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
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/
Zero Fret Wear on Brian May Red Special Guitars: Reasons and Replacement with Stainless Steel Fretwire
My latest YouTube video is a follow-up to a 2021 YouTube short which illustrated strings pinging in and out of grooves worn into the zero fret of my Burns Brian May Red Special guitar.
I discuss the various factors which cause and exacerbate this issue then in the second part, I remove and replace the zero fret with Jescar FW57110 stainless steel fret wire. The crown is 2.8 mm wide and 1.45 mm high which is a good match to the jumbo 3 mm size fitted to this Burns Special.
You can find out more about the upgrades I carried out to this guitar in the project section:
https://dsgb.net/projects/burns/
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.
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