Brian May Guitar Style

Brian May's guitar, the Red Special, was built by May and his father Harold between 1963 and 1964 using unconventional materials. The neck was carved from an eighteenth-century oak fireplace mantel, the body is made of blockboard and oak, and the fretboard is painted oak with frets made from fencing wire. The tremolo system uses a hardened steel knife edge and a motorcycle valve spring. It features three Burns Tri-Sonic single-coil pickups with individual on/off and phase-reversal switches, giving it a unique tonal range. The guitar cost approximately eight pounds to build and has been May's primary instrument for his entire career.

Brian May uses a sixpence, a British pre-decimal coin, as his guitar pick. The sixpence is thicker and more rigid than conventional picks, producing a brighter, more articulate attack with increased harmonic content. The rounded edge creates a slightly different interaction with the strings compared to a pointed pick, adding to his distinctive tone. May has used this unusual pick throughout his entire career with Queen and has said that the stiffness and feel of the coin became integral to his playing technique. Modern British five-pence coins are similar in size but not identical in feel.

May creates Queen's signature guitar harmonies by overdubbing multiple guitar parts, each playing the same melody at different intervals, typically diatonic thirds and sixths. He records the main melody first, then adds a second layer a third above, and often a third layer a sixth below or a third below. Each layer is played with identical tone settings, dynamics, and articulation for a cohesive orchestral effect. The layers are panned across the stereo field. In some recordings, he layered six, eight, or even twelve guitar tracks to create massive, choir-like textures that audiences initially assumed required synthesizers.

Brian May's primary amplifier is the Vox AC30, often used in multiples. He drives the AC30 into natural overdrive using a Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster (or modern equivalent), which adds gain and midrange push before the amplifier. The AC30's characteristic chime and compression when driven hard are essential to his tone. For effects, he uses a long delay (originally an Echoplex tape delay, later digital units) set to approximately 800 milliseconds for his "Brighton Rock" echo technique. He also uses a treble booster as his primary gain stage and occasionally employs chorus and flanger effects.

Set a delay pedal to approximately 800 milliseconds with three or four repeats at moderate feedback. Start with a simple two-note phrase played in a steady rhythm, and listen to how the echoes create a rhythmic pattern. Play your next phrase timed so it interlocks with the delay repeats, creating a contrapuntal texture. The key is precise timing: each new phrase must land exactly between the echoes of the previous phrase. Start at slow tempos and gradually increase speed. Practice with a metronome, treating the delay repeats as additional rhythmic subdivisions. This technique requires patience and deep rhythmic awareness to master.

The Red Special has three single-coil pickups, each with its own on/off switch and phase-reversal switch, giving six switches total. When a pickup's phase switch is engaged, that pickup's signal is inverted relative to the others. Combining an in-phase pickup with an out-of-phase pickup creates a thin, nasal, hollow tone that cancels certain frequencies. Different combinations of pickups in and out of phase produce a wide range of tones, from full and warm (all pickups in phase) to honky and cutting (mixed phase settings). These out-of-phase combinations are central to many of Queen's most recognizable guitar tones.

May composes his solos as carefully crafted melodic statements rather than improvised performances. He has described his process as singing the solo melody first, finding it on the guitar, and then refining it note by note until every phrase serves the song's emotional arc. His solos typically follow a narrative structure: a restrained opening, a developing middle section, and a climactic conclusion with the highest notes and fastest passages saved for maximum impact. He often spent days perfecting a solo in the studio, recording multiple takes and selecting the best phrases from each. This compositional approach gives his solos their memorable, singable quality.

Start by learning your melody thoroughly in one position on the fretboard. Then determine the key and figure out the same melody transposed up a diatonic third, staying within the key signature. The interval between the two parts will alternate between major and minor thirds depending on the scale degree. Record the original melody, then play the harmonized version over it. For three-part harmony, add a voice a diatonic sixth below the melody (which is the same as a third below the upper harmony). Use identical tone, dynamics, and vibrato on all parts and pan them across the stereo field. Precision in timing and intonation is critical for a convincing orchestral effect.