Info on 'red specials'.....are they a kind of magic?

JonHosker

Looking at BMG / Red Special guitars.
Can anyone school me on models available and what differences there are. I seem to recall 2/3 makes/models/builders?
Ta Jon

rossi

My daughter was invited to look round the warehouse where he sells his commercial guitars by the guy who runs it  .Wow I said what was it like ?. Full of red guitars  says she ,  doesnt he like other colours .

Cols

Depends what you’re after; something to get you in the right ballpark or a precise replica.  

In terms of mass production Red Specials: Guild made replicas in the 80s/90s, Burns in the early 00s and Brian May Guitars from around 2004 onwards.   All of these have significant differences from the original in order to make them cost-effective to manufacture.  

The Burns and BMG are very similar to each other and are closer than the Guild (which had a Kahler trem, solid mahogany body and DiMarzio pickups).  However, the body is chambered mahogany (rather than oak and blockboard), the neck join is set neck rather than bolt in, the trem is a Wilkinson rather than Brian’s unique design, the fingerboard is ebony instead of oak, and the neck is much slimmer than the original.

Proper replicas - including the proper materials, bridge design and massive neck of the original - are made by Dansan Guitars and Carpinteri Guitars, and are apparently excellent.  An official BMG Super replica was available, but the waiting list is closed (and those on it have been waiting years).  KZ Guitars in Japan also made a superb reproduction.

JonHosker

Thanks for the info.

Funkfingers

Greg Fryer might deserve a mention.

phil_b

Harley Benton have a version also

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_bm_75_trans_red.htm

Funkfingers

Aye but the five-way lever selector switch kinda misses a fundamental point of the BHM circuitry.

Cols

Funkfingers said:

Greg Fryer might deserve a mention.

Certainly does; however, as far as I know he only did a few touring replicas for Brian and didn’t offer any commercially?  I should also mention Andrew Guyton’s replicas, which are totally accurate reproductions.  A limited run was made and all snapped up.

I suppose the single John Birch replica made for Brian in the 70s deserves a mention as well.  Didn’t sound right, wouldn’t hold its tuning, and was eventually destroyed by Brian throwing it off the stage in a fit of rage and frustration.

darcym

Cols said:

.  An official BMG Super replica was available, but the waiting list is closed (and those on it have been waiting years). 

did anyone ever get one of these ? I've not actually heard of one being delivered in any of the queen groups I follow, and a few of the tribute acts have expressed frustration at no instrument.

phil_b

Funkfingers said:

Aye but the five-way lever selector switch kinda misses a fundamental point of the BHM circuitry.

I agree. I did not say it was any good jst it was there. I have also seen some ebay Chinese red special but they mostly look awful

James Rundle youtube channel has a lot of red special related info  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQYskKOAwn79enMispbgh_w

phil_b

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/otramalditanoche/m.html?item=152115033788&hash=item236ac336bc%3Ag%3A5Q4AAOSwGvhUAQrI&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

there is a guy in Peru that has made some replicas but only seems to be selling the parts currently

phil_b

https://dansanguitars.com/the-red-psecial/

phil_b

the only other lead I can give you is RS custom guitars based in Nashville

http://www.rscustomguitars.com/home_page

The BMG seems like a good option an exact replica will be hard to find and will cost thousands. If you get one please let us know

Jalapeno

There's always the drop-in Strat version ....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Tri-Sonics-Loaded-Pickguard-Parchment/dp/B00YNJZXHE

ManWithoutSkin

Andrew, the owner of my local guitar shop is a huge Brian May fan. He supplies Brian's tech, so has had chance to play the red special a few times and he used to have Brian's own John Birch replica in his shop. He owns a Guyton replica, and I believe a Guild and Burns as well as stocking the BMG range in his shop.  I'm sure he'd be happy for to chat to you and get some advice. They have a live chat on their website or their phone number is on there too. https://www.astrings.co.uk

Musicwolf

I wish that people would stop going on about The Red Special, this is going to cost me money.

I've fancied one of these for a long while.  I'm not particularly a Queen fan but, having met Brian May about 10 years ago, I'd made a point to hunt one down.  On a trip to London found one and, despite being so right for me on paper, it was instant disappointment the moment that I picked it up.  It just felt wrong.

I've continued to like the look of them and last year I made a visit to Andertons where I got another chance to try one.  My tastes in necks have probably changed in the intervening years, plus I had lower expectations this time around, but this time it felt fine.  The trouble is that I don't need another mid-priced 6 string electric yet the itch won't go away.

phil_b

https://www.carpinteriguitars.com/   I found another possible maker

but the website states he has closed his orders for now as he is already booked up to the end of next year

ICBM

phil_b said:

Harley Benton have a version also

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_bm_75_trans_red.htm

Funkfingers said:

Aye but the five-way lever selector switch kinda misses a fundamental point of the BHM circuitry.

Totally - his most distinctive sound is the series-out-of-phase, which it doesn’t allow - but it should be fairly easy to have a replacement pickguard made with the correct switching. Probably the most cost-effective solution that’s in the right ballpark.

Cols said:

I suppose the single John Birch replica made for Brian in the 70s deserves a mention as well.  Didn’t sound right, wouldn’t hold its tuning, and was eventually destroyed by Brian throwing it off the stage in a fit of rage and frustration.

Even though I know it was a poor copy, and I can’t stand John Birch’s work either, if I ever wanted a BM guitar it would be that yellow colour - I’ve always thought it was the best-looking version. My first visual memory of Queen is seeing it in the We Will Rock You video... it was below freezing outside when it was filmed and Brian didn’t want to risk damaging the red one.

Funkfingers

Jalapeno said:

There's always the drop-in Strat version ....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Tri-Sonics-Loaded-Pickguard-Parchment/dp/B00YNJZXHE

Guitar Fetish (GFS) offers kits to do the same thing - with or without pickups.

Years ago, I tried using DiMarzio BHM pickups on an ash/maple host guitar. It did the basic Brian thing but lacked some of the detail … as did my playing!

Given that Mr. May does not actually use all of the available coil and phase permutations, it might be wiser to have a Freeway selector switch wired to provide the most useful ones. 

Suddenly, the H-B makes sense.

DrBob

The neck on the actual Red Special felt more like a Spanish guitar neck to me. I actually found it really comfortable for my “sausage fingers” (I really hope that and snorkledick are now forever lodged in our forum language)but it’s completely unlike any other electric guitar I’ve ever played

phil_b

DrBob said:

The neck on the actual Red Special felt more like a Spanish guitar neck to me. I actually found it really comfortable for my “sausage fingers” (I really hope that and snorkledick are now forever lodged in our forum language)but it’s completely unlike any other electric guitar I’ve ever played

apparently the original plan was to carve the neck down to something similar to other electric guitars but the wood was so hard to work (only using hand tools) Brian stopped when he got to something he thought was playable even though it was bigger than most necks