In part two of a series of three videos about making a replica of Brian May’s legendary Deacy amplifier, I unbox the Knight Audio Technologies (KAT) custom kit of electronic components and assemble it, discussing the characteristics of key components such as the transformers as I progress. The video duration is 21 minutes.
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.
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
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:
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 covers the unboxing, assembly, connection and demonstration of the rig. Also featured in the video are my home made Brian May Red Special replica, a KAT Deacy replica amp and a 2001 model Vox AC30 TBX amplifier.
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.
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/
Check out the third article in the musical equipment section of this website which covers the Brian May Deacy Amp replica made by Knight Audio Technologies (KAT):
https://dsgb.net/gear/deacyamp/
It contains the original pictures shown below, technical specifications for the amplifier, hyperlinks and four embedded YouTube videos, including Jamie Humphries‘ review for Guitar Interactive magazine and some demonstrations recorded by Martin Pitcher at the 2018 and 2019 Brian May Red Special enthusiast meets.
The new Groundbreaker from Knight Audio Technologies (KAT) is a fully transformer-coupled ground (earth) isolating interface that eliminates unwanted hum and noise caused by system ground loops. It is suitable for studio and live environments and is configured to accept both balanced and unbalanced signals. If your amplifier is exhibiting ground loop hum, simply connect a Groundbreaker to the amp’s input via a patch cable then connect the output of your effects chain, delay, chorus or treble booster pedal to the input of the unit.
http://www.deacyamp.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=52
Although similar products have been available (e.g. from Mike Hill Services) for some time, this unit is priced competitively at £64.50 recognising that multiple units will be required to fully eliminate ground loop hum depending on the configuration of the guitar rig. If you have read my other blog posts highlighting new and forthcoming KAT products then you will already appreciate that every KAT product is backed by Nigel Knight’s expertise as an electronics designer and many years of experience building and maintaining equipment for Brian May of Queen. This product works well in one, two and three amplifier outfits or when connecting mains powered effects (e.g. a Boss CE-1 Stereo Chorus pedal); eight examples of which are illustrated in the diagrams below.
Features
In his latest YouTube video, Nigel Knight (the guy who does Brian May’s electronic work) demonstrates how to assemble one of his excellent KAT treble booster Plush kits. The video is speeded up for the impatient amongst us. It is a must watch for any electronics enthusiasts who are also into Brian May gear.
The KAT treble booster Plush kit can be obtained direct from KAT (Knight Audio Technologies) at £49.50:
http://www.deacyamp.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=77
Information from Nigel’s website:
“This is a full kit of parts that will enable an electronics beginner to build a very high quality KAT treble booster. The components provided are the best for the job in-hand. They are the same components used for the builds of many KAT treble boosters and Fryer Sound TB Touring, Deluxe and Plus. The circuit board has been specially designed for the kit so that the build can be easy with all components identified on the board. The case is the same powder-coated, silk-screened folded steel unit used for the TB Touring, Deluxe and Plus, so rugged, durable and yet, attractive.
Sound-wise, this treble booster has been developed to emulate the 1980s era of Brian May’s tone with approximately 33 dB of gain, so think Queen from the late 70s through to the end. Think Wembley… Think Live Aid!
So, what’s in the kit?
Well, everything you need to successfully build the TB except for a few hand tools and a battery.”
Following up on the recent story of the KAT Studio-One all-valve practice amplifier, Nigel Knight has released details of the other part of his R&D endeavour over the past few years. Nigel recently announced:
Brian was never happy that we had to discontinue the production of the Deacy Amp replica, but the decision to do so was based purely on the fact that we could no longer source transistors with the correct characteristics that matched the original, either locally or globally and certainly not in the numbers we needed to extend production. So from the point that Deacy Amp replica serial number 0150 rolled out the door, I was on a bit of a mission to design its replacement.
This then, is the Studio-D. It is germanium Deacy’s silicon brother if you will. After years of trawling through transistor specifications, we finally found a set that could be configured to provide the same responses as the original AC125, AC126 and AC128 transistors. We are still using the original Deacy circuit, transformers and components albeit with the odd bias-tweak here and there and it still fires into a single 6.5″ twin-cone speaker. The resulting amplifier sounds magnificent and we’re really pleased with it.
The Studio-D is equipped with an adjustable battery simulator (DABS Unit), HF tone trim pot (that mimics the tone dulling effect of putting a tea-towel over the amplifier) and a built-in attenuator that has been optimised to the speaker and Deacy responses and, like the Studio-One, allows you to dial-down the volume.
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