Guyton – dsgb

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.

In January 2019, I was very pleased to be able to acquire Guyton RS Transporter #0817154 (No. 9 of 25). I am the instrument’s third owner after it was originally commissioned by Craig Farley of Queen Tribute band Forever Queen. I’ve been unable to see them play live because most of the venues they play at are in the south of England. Check their pages out:

https://www.facebook.com/foreverqueenhampshireuk/
http://www.foreverqueen.co.uk/

The Guyton RS Transporter was designed by Red Special community stalwart Martin Pitcher and is expertly realised by Suffolk luthier Andy Guyton. It has achieved the distinction of replacing the scalloped fretboard Guyton Red Special as Brian May’s pre-concert warm-up guitar.

https://www.facebook.com/Guyton-Guitars-201657545404/
https://www.guytonrstransporter.com/

In the unlikely event that you’re not already familiar with this guitar, please check out Craig’s unboxing video on YouTube where he makes a significantly better job of demonstrating it than I ever could. The guitar is designed to be a travel variant of Brian May’s original Red Special with woods, neck dimensions, Adeson Tri-Sonic pickups, pickup spacing and controls closely reflecting those of the original instrument. It is obviously headless and makes good use of the JCustom XS tremolo bridge.