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: Red Special
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.
Brian May Red Special Tremolo System – Function, Setup and Demonstration
In the second part of my video series examining the tremolo system in Brian May’s Red Special guitar in detail, I demonstrate the installation, set-up and basic function of the system with the help of a test rig. I also take the opportunity to compare my DIY components with a professionally made hardware set that is commercially available in the U.K., the relic hardware kit made by RS Mods. Please check out their website:
https://rsmods.uk
Part 1 covered the design and fabrication of the three main steel components and although it isn’t necessary to have watched this first, it does provide useful context if you are not familiar with the basic design of the Red Special tremolo system.
Brian May Red Special Tremolo System – Design and Fabrication
My latest YouTube video lasting 21 minutes covers the detailed design and fabrication of the three steel components in the knife-edge bearing tremolo system of Brian May’s Red Special guitar.
The tremolo (correctly the vibrato) system on Brian May’s Red Special guitar operates on the same principle (knife-edge bearing balanced by coil springs) as Fender’s 1954 patented two post floating tremolo. The main component is a vertical rocker block in which the strings are retained in a cowl. This pivots on a knife-edge bearing ground into a section of 1/8″ thick steel plate mounted horizontally flush with the top of the guitar body. String tension is counteracted by the compression force of two coil springs from a 1928 Panther motorcycle which abut the rocker block. The moving components are held in position with two 1/4″ hex head set screws which are anchored into a section of steel bar located between the upper and lower guitar body sections. Slots are milled into the set screws heads to allow spring tension to be adjusted by inserting a flat blade screwdriver through holes in the back of the guitar body.
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/
2024 Annual Review and 2025 Look Ahead
Thank you for supporting Doug Short Guitar Blog for another year by visiting this website, watching my YouTube videos and subscribing to my YouTube channel. Although I didn’t plan to release YouTube videos on a regular basis in 2024, I produced 11 videos with Brian May related content on an approximately monthly basis this year. Three of these covered challenging design and fabrication mini projects (Jeanrenaud switch replicas, Red Special tremolo arm and tremolo arm tip) which required learning 3D SLA printing techniques.
The highlight of the year was when Brian May attended our enthusiast meet-up in Berkshire, U.K. My coverage of this part of the event produced my best performing YouTube video which has attracted over 180,000 views, 2,800 likes and hundreds of positive, supportive comments at the time of writing. Read a small selection of these in the screen captures below.
For those of you who are interested in the statistics, dsgb.net has been on line for four years and has welcomed over 27,000 visitors and received over 96,000 views in 2024. This represented another substantial increase in the number of visitors although with approximately the same number of overall views as in 2022 and 2023.
Collaborations with professional and amateur musicians, luthiers, YouTube content creators and Brian May enthusiasts is always inspiring and enriching; this year I worked with Julian Hemingway to better understand Brian May’s original home made Eclipse magnet pickups and this led to an update video in November. Andrew Guyton and Martin Pitcher helped me to produce a short video on the Guyton RS Transporter to round off the year by providing audio and video media.
Although my media output is primarily Queen and Brian May related, I enjoy listening to many different bands and like many millions of people all around the world, I was captivated by the resurgence of interest in Oasis resulting from their planned 2025 world tour. This motivated me to arrange a visit to Oasis design central, MicroDot Creative in Kendal, Cumbria on our February break and produce a large framed display of the reissued Definitely Maybe 7″ vinyl singles and a quantity of 1996 fabric tour passes I bought from eBay. I bought a very good value “Scran” overdrive pedal which is designed, hand wired and assembled by SoundLad in Liverpool and makes Oasis tones readily accessible.
I look forward to exploring new opportunities in 2025 and tapping into the talents of Will Barbero who lives a short drive away from me in Edinburgh. I plan to produce a YouTube video exploring the design and fabrication of the Brian May Red Special tremolo system steelwork in Q1 2025. I would like to produce a video in which I discuss and demonstrate how to characterise the response of a selection of popular guitar pickups across the full audio spectrum using an exciter coil and a PicoScope oscilloscope PC interface.
Links to my social media accounts are below. Please follow, subscribe, like and comment on my content because music can’t propagate in a vacuum.
https://www.youtube.com/@dsgb
https://www.pinterest.com/dsguitarblog/
https://www.instagram.com/dsguitarblog/
https://www.facebook.com/DougShortGuitarBlog
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.
Brian May Red Special Original Eclipse Magnet Guitar Pickups: 2024 Update
In May 2022 I published a YouTube video about the original pickups that Brian May made and fitted to his Red Special guitar. Following his original 1962 design sketch as a guide for the dimensions, materials and general construction, I assembled and wound my own versions of these pickups. Since making the original video, I have found out more information about them, including their electromagnetic characteristics and some people have asked me about what they sound like and about making functional sets.
Julian Hemingway has made a replica Red Special to Brian’s original specification and he brought it to the U.K. Red Special enthusiast meet-ups in 2022 and 2024. Although we were hoping to hear it being played through a full Brian May stage rig, instead Julian got the opportunity to present it to Brian and discuss it for a few minutes. I took some loose components to display alongside his guitar. In this video, I update you about the additional work Julian and I have been doing to better understand Brian’s original home made Eclipse magnet pickups and how to approach making usable replica sets.
To re-cap, I originally interpreted Brian’s design with bases made from 1/8″ thick phenolic resin sheet, captive 6BA brass nuts to mount the Eclipse magnets, flush inset tinned brass solder tags and a 1/16″ thick top cover milled from white acrylic sheet. I filled the voids between the magnets with custom made acrylic inserts. I then wound 6,000 turns of 44 AWG (0.05 mm diameter) enamelled copper wire onto a thin cardboard strip. My overall goal was to produce a modern interpretation of this pickup with the DC resistance and inductance equivalent to a typical vintage Burns Tri-Sonic pickup. I wound the pickups using my CNC machine to traverse the wire feed nozzle and the AC variable frequency milling spindle to rotate the pickup on an acrylic backing plate. The only additional piece of equipment I bought for this set-up was a magnetic tensioner.
Ade Turner of Adeson made several sets of these pickups for the Red Special replica that Andrew Guyton made in 2018 to Brian’s original 1964 specification to celebrate his 70th birthday. This guitar was fitted with an ebony fretboard and a series/parallel changeover switch.
dsgb 