Brian May Tone

The beautiful, searing and singing tone with which Brian May has carved out a career as guitarist for Queen and a great songwriter in his own right.

Achieved by using his custom, handcrafted Red Special instrument which was made from an old Victorian oak fireplace augmented with rosewood (for the fret board) and mahogany. This is then fed into a Treble Booster (usually a modern one made by Greg Fryer) pedal, which is amplified by either the Deacy amp or three VOX AC30s with other effects such as delay and flanger added.

Many players can buy equivelant replicas of the equipment Brian May uses, but very few players can play guitar with the same style and brilliance as the man himself.

Almost any Queen song has a good example of Brian May tone, but the crowning moment of awesome has to be all his parts on Bohemian Rhapsody, especially the first solo where the guitar sounds like it is weeping and wailing.

Brian May Tone by SpoonCabal October 18, 2008