Brian May guitar

Hootsmon

Are all those BM sounds from that red special available from any other guitar(s)?

AlexC

No.

soma1975

I'd say it's more amp/treble booster/post production than that particular guitar. 

ICBM

Yes, if you rewire them - the key to his sound is the pickups in series with phase switching. I can't think of any others which give that wiring as stock though.

Kittyfrisk

Yes, but it doesn't always look as pretty as a Red Special 
Please ignore the dust   
Guitar is a Maya Strat copy, from the 70-80's, the wiring was like that when I bought it & I haven't dared look 'under the bonnet'.
Black switch is a 7 position rotary, tone & volume do what they say, micro switches erm... work & the original switch channel is now a plastic thumb/hand rest thing. 
There are more weird tones in this thing than I can recall, because I haven't tried to map them all ( life's too short) but there are nasal out of phase sounds in abundance.



Edit : gratuitous backside shot.

bazxkr

I have the Digitech red special pedal which makes a good fist of 7 preset BM sounds

PFAllen2

This might interest you.
https://youtu.be/2QI18U-JK3s

Funkfingers

Guitar Fetish offers BM Red Special conversion pickguards and Burns style pickups to fit Stratocaster and copy guitars. 

The scale length and screwed on neck must make some difference but the basic idea is there.

Third party schematic diagrams exist for adding parallel interconnection of the pickup coils in addition to the BMRS series mode.

aspnet

Funkfingers said:

Guitar Fetish offers BM Red Special conversion pickguards and Burns style pickups to fit Stratocaster and copy guitars. 

Had a Red Special copy a few years ago - loved the sounds but the neck was too wide to be comfortable. A conversion kit could be useful for a project, and a good excuse for another guitar. 

Sassafras

Just use a sixpenny piece as a pick and you're halfway there.

Philly_Q

PFAllen2 said:

This might interest you.
https://youtu.be/2QI18U-JK3s

But be cautious from 11'00" to 15'10" if you're distressed by hamfisted woodworking.

Cols

aspnet said:

Funkfingers said:

Guitar Fetish offers BM Red Special conversion pickguards and Burns style pickups to fit Stratocaster and copy guitars. 

Had a Red Special copy a few years ago - loved the sounds but the neck was too wide to be comfortable. A conversion kit could be useful for a project, and a good excuse for another guitar. 

Apparently the original has an utterly massive neck, and the commercial copies are more modestly proportioned.  

I understand they measured a classical guitar before shaping the neck... but forgot to account for the fingerboard depth, which added another 5-7mm.  Brian must have big old hands.