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Build guitars, modify guitars, collect guitars, play guitars

Tag: KAT

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/

Brian May Red Special Electronics: Potentiometers, Capacitor and KAT RS Superpot

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This YouTube video covers the evolution of the electronic circuit in Brian May’s Red Special guitar from the original 1964 build to the current state which dates from 2018. I focus primarily on the potentiometers and treble cut capacitor and also talk about the aluminium lathe turned control knobs and the original Bulgin/Radio spares 1/4″ jack socket.

I discuss how you can modify a vintage TCC Metalmite CP33N capacitor by removing the electrolyte and inserting a modern polyester Vishay item in the same manner as the Gibson heritage ‘bumblebee’ capacitors. I finish by showing you the KAT RS Superpot and discuss what factors you should consider before deciding to fit one to your guitar.

U.K. Brian May Red Special Meet-up TVH 2023

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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 Guitar Effects Processor Settings

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This video introduces you to some of the main settings that Brian May uses on his TC Electronic G-Major 2 digital effects processor units when playing Queen songs live so you can reproduce them for yourself with the same or similar equipment. It includes pictures of Brian May’s KAT touring and guesting mini rig at Allerton Hill and my ex Andy Barnett KAT Brian May rig being set up and tested by Pete Malandrone at Allerton Hill in June 2013 as well as Brian’s TC Electronic G-Major 2 global settings and user presets. You can read more about all the content featured in this video and download the settings in Adobe PDF format here:

https://dsgb.net/gear/brian-may-live-rig/

Credits to Nigel Knight and Pete Malandrone for the pictures taken at Brian’s equipment store at Allerton Hill featured in this video. I have a standing agreement with Nigel to reproduce KAT media with appropriate credit. Thanks to other Red Special enthusiasts for validating and publishing G-Major 2 settings in the public domain including Luke Timmins (guitarist with U.K. based Queen tribute band Supreme Queen), Iain Angell, Pete Michalowski and Mark Reynolds.

Brian May Treble Boosters: Varieties, How They Work + Build Your Own KAT Plush Kit

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In my latest YouTube video I explain how treble booster effects pedals work and why you need one if you want to emulate Brian May’s distinctive Queen live and studio tones. I show you eight variants associated with Brian May then assemble a KAT Treble Booster Plush kit. The video duration is 16m 41s and is divided into two parts and thirty chapters.

Brian May Deacy Amplifier Build Project Part 1 – Introduction

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In part one of a series of three videos about making a replica of Brian May’s legendary Deacy amplifier, I briefly discuss the origins of the Deacy amp circuit (salvaged from a vintage transistor radio that John Deacon found in a London dumpster in 1971) and what Queen tracks Brian used it to record on. I then move on to talk about the new Knight Audio Technologies (KAT) amplifier board kit and the other component parts required including suitable vintage and modern woofer and tweeter loudspeakers and the cabinet itself. I finish by introducing the only official Deacy amplifier replica which was made by Knight Audio Technologies between 2011 and 2019.

Brian May Red Special Meet-up TVH 2021

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The annual meet-up for enthusiasts of Brian May’s music and equipment was once again held at Theale Village Hall near Reading in Berkshire, U.K. on Saturday, 8th October 2021. The organiser, Jon Underhill, assisted by several other co-ordinators this year helped grow the event by increasing the numbers attending and stage-managing a series of talks and demonstrations. These included Martin Pitcher covering Brian’s Starlicks set-up, talks by Arielle and Queen’s Sound Engineer Justin Shirley-Smith and a 25th birthday present by Andy Guyton to Luke Timmins of his Guyton Time Warp Red Special. A raffle for some superb donated items including a KAT BM Mini Rig and a KAT Groundbreaker raised £530 for the Save Me trust. Click the link below to see additional content on the events section:

Red Special Meet-up TVH 2021

Brian May Rig Replica Build

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In late 2020, I was offered the opportunity to acquire a Brian May style live rig originally built for Andy Barnett by Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies (KAT). The rig was contained in an SKB roto-molded 6U shallow rack case (model 1SKB-R6S) and consisted of the following 19″ rack units:

  • Dunlop DCR-2SR CryBaby Wah Wah (1)
  • TC Electronic G-Major 2 guitar effects processor (1)
  • Sennheiser wireless receivers (2)
  • Custom made KAT audio routing and MIDI switching master controller (1)
  • Custom made KAT wireless receiver switcher (1)
  • Canford power supply unit (1)

The rig was designed to work with a custom made KAT 24 way floor switching unit with amplifier muting and MIDI/effect pedals switching features. Also included was a KAT RED-18 strap mounted treble booster and all ancillary items including two Sennheiser EW 500 G2 bodypack transmitters and various heavy duty professional cables (some custom made) to connect all the units.

I bought a second G-Major 2 unit from a U.K. eBay seller for £150 as a spare in case the supplied unit developed an unrepairable defect in the future. To house the units, I ordered a custom made shock-mounted 19″ rack flight case with removable front and rear covers and top lid with a wheeled trolley from NSP Cases (The Flight Case Company) in the U.K. The YouTube video below illustrates unboxing, assembly, connecting and powering up the rig. Also featured in the video are my home made Brian May Red Special replica, KAT Deacy replica amp and 2001 model Vox AC30 TBX amplifier.

Brian May rig replica build video

The six edited photographs in the gallery below were taken by Nigel Knight on 13 June 2013 in Brian’s equipment store at Allerton Hill and show his technician Pete Malandrone testing the components through Brian’s amplifiers and programming the TC Electronic G Major 2 effects processor.

Treble Boosters

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For the 100th distinct web page on dsgb.net and the 50th site blog post, I have published an article on one of the perennial topics of conversation in Brian May enthusiast circles: treble boosters:

https://dsgb.net/gear/trebleboosters/

I cover some background information and restrict the discussion to three treble booster variants related to Brian May and Queen, the current 3-in-1 BMG Treble Booster Classic unit developed by Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies for retail by Brian May Guitars, Brian’s KAT RED-18 strap-mounted treble booster and the Fryer Sound colour series (TB Touring, TB Plus, TB Super and TB Deluxe). There are embedded videos from Jamie Humphries demonstrating the Fryer treble boosters for Guitar Interactive and Frank Campese demonstrating the 70s setting of the BMG TB Classic.

DigiTech Red Special Pedal

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The fourth article for my musical equipment section covers the DigiTech Brian May Red Special pedal. It contains original photographs and PDF user manuals of this, and the other two DigiTech Artist’s Series pedals (Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton Crossroads), some additional photographs of the rack mounted version of this pedal that Nigel Knight built into Brian May’s back-up, touring and guesting rig, and an embedded demonstration video by Frank Campese.

https://dsgb.net/gear/digitech/