Brian May: using Vox AC30s for Bohemian Rhapsody

Brian May in an interview with Guitarplayer.com on getting the right tone for Bohemian Rhapsody

It’s all about Vox AC30s and the [Dallas Rangemaster] treble booster, which was all inspired by Rory Gallagher. There’s really very little else on my guitar. There are no effects boxes as a rule. I used delays and stuff, but the fundamental tone that you hear is the guitar and the treble booster and the AC30.

And the AC30 gives it that incredible throat, which is variable. The more you turn it up, the more it goes into saturation. It doesn’t distort that much, and you’re still in the position at about nine and a half, where you can still play chords and they still sound like chords. It doesn’t sound like a big fart.

So it’s a unique thing and we know why that is now, because the AC30 is fundamentally a Class A amplifier, and because of the way the valves are used. They’re biased halfway up, so they don’t distort until you drive them very, very hard, and then they go smoothly into that distortion. So that’s the whole thing. I get so used to that being the way that the guitar speaks, I take it for granted.

» brianmay.com

Brian May & Simon Bradley: Brian May's Red Special

Brian May's Red Special, the book documenting the origins and history of Queen guitar maestro's main axe, has been updated with two new chapters. Originally published in 2014 it is filled "with original diagrams, sketches and notes from the building of the guitar". Essential reading for gear heads.

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Brian May: The 1983 "Star Licks" tutorial video

Watch Brian May explaining some of his techniques for Star Licks video series. The video was recorded at Sarm West, London, UK and produced and directed by Mark Freed and Robert Decker. Originally released in 1983 and reissued in 1993/4, it's been out of print since then. Brian May:

Mark initially came to me with an idea for making audio cassettes of guitarists explaining their techniques. It seemed a good one and we arranged to meet and make it happen. But I said ... if we’re going to the trouble of recording this stuff, why not film it as well, and make it into a Video Cassette ?! So we made a ‘pilot’ video, and people liked it, and this became the template for a whole collection of videos which, I think, stand up very well to this day.

» brianmay.com

Cover Me: Since You've Been Gone

Watch The Brian May Band tackle the Russ Ballard classic Since You've Been Gone. It can be found on the Live At The Brixton Academy video, recorded in London on June 15, 1993.

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Rig Rundown: Brian May

Premier Guitar caught up with guitar tech Pete Malandrone who takes care of Brian May's guitars and rig.

Brian May’s entire career has been almost exclusively spent with the guitar that he and his father built in 1964. “Red Special” is a three-pickup, double-cutaway guitar with Burns pickups and a very unique (at the time) switching system that allows May to cover a huge range of tones. According to May, everything on the guitar is still original from when it was built except for the tuning pegs and the rollers on the bridge.

During a typical show, May switches guitars during two songs. "Fat Bottomed Girls," which is in dropped-D tuning, is played with a Red Special replica that's green and was built by British luthier Andrew Guyton.

For "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," he uses another Guyton Red Special replica with the addition of an f-hole—which was featured on May's original designs for the guitar— a non-trem bridge, and an internal piezo pickup that is utilized during the opening parts of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." All his guitars are strung with Optima 24 Carat Gold .009--.042 strings.

(thru Andee Blacksugar)

Brian May PhD

Brian May? That's Brian May PhD to you if you don't mind.

Over thirty years after he put away his thesis on interplanetary dust clouds in order to become the guitarist for Queen, 59-year-old Brian May has finally completed it, for his PhD in astrophysics. Although May had earned a degree in physics at Imperial College in London, and worked on the thesis from 1971 to 1974, once Queen began to enjoy success there was no time for him to pursue his doctorate.

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