Brian May's tone!
- Thread starter Grandor
- Start date
The New Guy
New member
Re: Brian May's tone!
Believe it or not when I was in college I could get a very passable Brian May tone from my Jackson soloist, Boss me-5 multi-effects unit and my crate amp....of course I was experimenting with a lot of things back then.......
Believe it or not when I was in college I could get a very passable Brian May tone from my Jackson soloist, Boss me-5 multi-effects unit and my crate amp....of course I was experimenting with a lot of things back then.......
Brow
Active member
Re: Brian May's tone!
Alot of Brian May's 'screech' comes from the fact that the Burns Tri-Sonic Pickups in his guitar are wired in Series rather than parallel, and he also has a phase switch and on/off switch for each pickups. This wiring gives him an amazing amount of pickup combinations.
About 85% of the Queen stuff is the Bridge and Middle pickups together in series and in Phase. The Bohemian Rhapsody Solo tone is the neck and middle pickups together in series, but out of Phase. There's alot more but don't have room to list them all
I tried my friends Burns Brian May Red Special through both my JCM800 and an old Laney amp I have and you could definitely hear the 'Brian May Tone' alittle, even with a totally different amp than an AC30.
Craig
Alot of Brian May's 'screech' comes from the fact that the Burns Tri-Sonic Pickups in his guitar are wired in Series rather than parallel, and he also has a phase switch and on/off switch for each pickups. This wiring gives him an amazing amount of pickup combinations.
About 85% of the Queen stuff is the Bridge and Middle pickups together in series and in Phase. The Bohemian Rhapsody Solo tone is the neck and middle pickups together in series, but out of Phase. There's alot more but don't have room to list them all
I tried my friends Burns Brian May Red Special through both my JCM800 and an old Laney amp I have and you could definitely hear the 'Brian May Tone' alittle, even with a totally different amp than an AC30.
Craig
Re: Brian May's tone!
I have nothing new to add to the gear list... unless you count the fact that his homemade Red Special has wood in the neck that came from a 300-yr old fireplace in a Victorian house. I always thought Brian had amazing tone but I was always fascinated by his phrasing and vibrato more than his actual tone. He goes through a lot of different ones but I'd have to say my favorite ones are on Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody and You're My Best Friend.
I have nothing new to add to the gear list... unless you count the fact that his homemade Red Special has wood in the neck that came from a 300-yr old fireplace in a Victorian house. I always thought Brian had amazing tone but I was always fascinated by his phrasing and vibrato more than his actual tone. He goes through a lot of different ones but I'd have to say my favorite ones are on Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody and You're My Best Friend.
