QUEEN's BRIAN MAY Talks To ABSOLUTE RADIO About His 'Red Special' Guitar (Video)

October 15, 2014

QUEEN guitarist Brian May recently spoke to UK's Absolute Radio about how he built the famous Red Special guitar with his father many years ago, how important it's been to him and to QUEEN's work, and lots more detailed guitar geekery. Check out the chat below.

Hal Leonard has set an October 21 release date for "Brian May's Red Special: The Story Of The Home-Made Guitar That Rocked Queen And The World".

May and his father Harold started to hand-build an electric guitar in 1963. Brian dreamed of a guitar that would outperform any of the existing commercially made electric guitars; his father had the technical knowledge and skills to help make the dream come true. Brian played his guitar on every QUEEN album and in all of QUEEN's live shows around the world.

In this book you will discover everything you ever wished to know about Brian's unique instrument. Brian talks about every aspect of the Red Special, from its birth to playing on the roof of Buckingham Palace, from Live Aid to the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics — and beyond. All of this is accompanied with original diagrams, sketches and notes dating from the building of the guitar, as well as a great selection of photographs including Brian on stage with his guitar, close-ups and x-rays.

"My dad and I decided to make an electric guitar," explains May. "I designed an instrument from scratch, with the intention that it would have a capability beyond anything that was out there, more tunable, with a greater range of pitches and sounds, with a better tremolo, and with a capability of feeding back through the air in a 'good' way.'"

Although May is best known to the world as the lead guitarist of the supergroup QUEEN, he has a PhD in astrophysics and is an expert in 3-D photography. He co-wrote "Bang! The Complete History Of The Universe" with Chris Lintott and Patrick Moore, "A Village Lost And Found" with Elena Vidal, and "Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures In Hell" with Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming.

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