{"id":2934,"date":"2026-06-18T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/?p=2934"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:06:11","slug":"the-story-of-how-brian-may-of-queen-built-his-hand-made-red-special-signature-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/the-story-of-how-brian-may-of-queen-built-his-hand-made-red-special-signature-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of How Brian May of Queen Built His Hand-Made Red Special Signature Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brian May is one of the most iconic rock guitarists of all time. His legendary contributions to Queen<\/a> are among some of the most signature guitar licks and riffs of all time. He’s one of those guitarist that’s hard to picture without his signature axe. Impressively, a young Brian May built his signature guitar himself, with the help of his father, of course. This was done in 1963, and the guitar would become iconic a decade later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview posted to YouTube through Enter The Jam<\/em><\/a>, May explained, “I was very poor, and the thought of a Stratocaster was way out of my price range. So me and my dad took it into our hands to make the guitar. It took about two years and we made it from all kinds of scraps and pieces.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Special contained pieces of a 100-year-old fireplace mantel along with pieces of an antique table made of oak. The guitar features custom Tri-Sonic pickups and a unique six-switch control layout. Three switches turn each pickup on or off, while the other three pickups reverse the phases of the pickups. This creates hollow, out-of-phase tones, and this effect was used during May’s solo on “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Additionally, May plays with a sixpence coin rather than a traditional guitar pick, which further sets apart his sound from others. The Red Special has a sixpence coin attached to the headstock of the guitar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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