Burns Brian May Signature BHM 4787 Red Special Upgrade

dsgb

Although this is a fait accompli, I am posting it here because it is a modification project rather than a finished full guitar build. It's another of my Brian May projects. The full details are on my website if you want to check it out:

https://dsgb.net/projects/burns/

At the end of September 2020, I bought a 2004 Burns Brian May Signature Red Special, serial number BHM 4787 from a local seller advertising on Gumtree. I had been searching for a budget priced Burns Special to attempt an upgrade for a few years. This example is in excellent condition and because it lacks the semicircular faux tremolo cover and associated screws, it is better suited to cosmetic improvements and hardware upgrades than the later BMG Special models.

I restricted the project specification to cosmetic upgrades and reversible hardware modifications. The majority of the man hours expended were on the CAD design of a new pickguard shape which is as close to Brian May’s original Red Special as possible given the constraints imposed by differences in the guitar body and cavity shapes of these otherwise good quality commercial replicas. The schedule of changes are listed below:

• Gotoh SG381-01 MG-T Locking 3L/3R Chrome finish, Thomann GmBH
• White pearloid small ‘butterbean’ tuning pegs (set of 6), WD Music U.K.
• Adeson “Original BM/Guyton Specification” Tri-Sonic pickups with DC resistances and inductances within 1% of the original Red Special (middle RWRP)
• Custom designed pickguard CNC cut from 3 mm gloss black perspex, 45 degree bevelled outer edge, hand polished
• Custom designed pickup surrounds CNC cut from 2 mm thick gloss black perspex, roundover edges, hand polished
• Custom designed rear cover plate from perspex (Red Dark Gloss 433)
• Roller bridge saddles by eBay seller Air cargo trader Ltd (outdoormarket)
• Brian May Guitars’ aluminium control knob set
• Bourns PDB181-GTR02-254A2 audio (log) taper potentiometers at 236 kOhm, remaining stock selected from 2014 Farnell order to match the original Red Special
• Vishay MKT1813 Polyester capacitor, 33 nF 400V, selected from a large batch to match the capacitance of the original Red Special
• Switchcraft 46200 LRX series DPDT parallel slide switches mounted on a custom designed perspex carrier plate
• Rotosound British Steels BS9 super light string set

phil_b

very nice

dsgb

phil_b said:

very nice

Thanks Phil. Although it was a fairly lightweight upgrade of a commercial Brian May RS replica, it still took a lot of fiddly and tediously repetitive work to execute it neatly. I'm pleased with the result. These are pretty sound guitars which, when coupled with BM style signal chains will do the business. They're good enough for professional tribute bands like the Queen Extravaganza but some of the details are too far away from Brian's original RS to satisfy the enthusiasts in that camp.

Doug

phil_b

@dsgb ; I also saw your link to your red special build.

I started a build myself but dont get enough time to work on it. Nor  do I have the skills so I have pretty much given up on the idea in preference to saving up my money to buy one.

I have also seen a few BMG's converted with a Brian May style trem that look rather good when finished.

In the mean time I have added burns pickups into a LP junior tribute

Mike58

I’m just starting my BMG mods , nothing too deep, just improving things here and there
i really like the roller saddles, they are on my list now. How is pickup height adjusted with the surrounds on? Can you tell me more about them.
ive some ideas to get a mod done retaining the BHM trem but giving a nod to the older Red Special original, once I’ve done that I’ll share ( but it might look too weird !!
thanks for listing suppliers, if I get to post my mods I’ll do the same, very helpful.
cheers
Mike

dsgb

Mike58 said:

I’m just starting my BMG mods , nothing too deep, just improving things here and there
i really like the roller saddles, they are on my list now. How is pickup height adjusted with the surrounds on? Can you tell me more about them.
ive some ideas to get a mod done retaining the BHM trem but giving a nod to the older Red Special original, once I’ve done that I’ll share ( but it might look too weird !!
thanks for listing suppliers, if I get to post my mods I’ll do the same, very helpful.
cheers
Mike

Hi Mike.

Personally, I don't adjust the pickup heights at all once they are set to the required height because I am satisfied with standard 'medium' string action (1/16" at fret 17) and I never change this. Therefore, on all my Brian May guitar variants I place manually thicknessed spacers (my preference is 8 mm PTFE rod) or sometimes stacked thin brass washers between the pickup mounting tab and the underside of the pickguard which fix the height of each side above the pickguard.

If you require to adjust the pickups, you would have to retain springs or gum washers and either (a) don't apply pickup surrounds at all - some people don't like the afterthought appearance of them anyway, (b) remove the pickup surrounds to make adjustments or (c) drill access holes in the pickup surrounds to allow adjustments to be made with them in place. Option (b) is o.k. if you only require to make infrequent adjustments. I only tack mine on with the bare minimum quantity of small strips of double sided adhesive tap in any case (as they are in the pictures) so that they are easy to remove for whatever reason.

The particular eBay supplier of the roller bridge saddles I quote is no longer listed but those exact same type are still available from various other Shenzhen based Chinese suppliers so you should be able to find them easily on an eBay keyword search.

Doug

Mike58

Cheers, I think the surrounds look great, and yes I could not locate the original seller of your saddles, I’ve seen something similar but they don’t look as good, so if you come across something really close please pm me.
I recently got some out of spec pots for this project ( thanks to ICBM forum stalwart) and I did not know the cap value, thanks.
my Strat wiring I shared with you is going to have a 6800pF fitted as it changes the tone but it’s never dull... just thickens it. ( I find 0.022uF and higher values virtually useless 0-4 on a tone pot). But I do have a 0.033uF ( yer 33nF) in a tele for wah effects  

guitargeek62

phil_b said:

@dsgb ; I also saw your link to your red special build.

I started a build myself but dont get enough time to work on it. Nor  do I have the skills so I have pretty much given up on the idea in preference to saving up my money to buy one.

I have also seen a few BMG's converted with a Brian May style trem that look rather good when finished.

In the mean time I have added burns pickups into a LP junior tribute

That looks kick-ass, why is this the first time I’ve seen that done?!

Jalapeno

Anyone done one of these Strat/Red Special hybrids ?

impmann

I reversed these mods on a Strat recently - whilst they are interesting and give a lot of interesting sounds, they don't sound like an RS. Its probably got a lot to do with the scale length/string tension.

phil_b

impmann said:

I reversed these mods on a Strat recently - whilst they are interesting and give a lot of interesting sounds, they don't sound like an RS. Its probably got a lot to do with the scale length/string tension.

even if you have a red special it is still quite difficult to sound like Brian May

impmann

phil_b said:

impmann said:

I reversed these mods on a Strat recently - whilst they are interesting and give a lot of interesting sounds, they don't sound like an RS. Its probably got a lot to do with the scale length/string tension.

even if you have a red special it is still quite difficult to sound like Brian May

This is very true.

dsgb

impmann said:

I reversed these mods on a Strat recently - whilst they are interesting and give a lot of interesting sounds, they don't sound like an RS. Its probably got a lot to do with the scale length/string tension.

Just on the guitar side of things, it's a lot to do with the pickups, not really the scale length/string tension. I mostly proved that with my Strat conversion. I put three BM spec. Adeson Tri-Sonics on it with a pushbutton version of the switching system. When I took it along to a Brian May RS meet-up in October 2018, a couple of guys played it through their rigs and it sounded very like a Red Special (see video below recorded on my iPhone 7 so not a really good representation of the tone).

That year we also ran a 14 guitar blind test where Luke Timmins (the guy in the video) played various Red Specials through his live rig and the rest of us tried to guess what each guitar was. I think most people recognised my Strat in some of the wild guessing going on and I was able to pick out some replicas with Adeson BM spec pickups but generally it proved that even a bunch of Brian May know-it-alls including some professional current and former members of Queen tribute bands couldn't really tell what was what.

https://www.supremequeen.co.uk/team/luke-timmins/

A mate (Shawn Leaver) played it through his set-up at his house including a Dave Peterson modified Vox AC30, treble booster and Boss Wazacraft stereo chorus and it sounded pretty much exactly like an RS to me. I would upload his go at some of the runs in Brighton Rock but they're private clips and he'd had a few pints of the amber nectar so it wouldn't be entirely fair.

Also, before you judge Luke's playing style, please bear in mind that he was really nervous because he offered to just stand up and play random Queen stuff to demo various people's guitars. Amongst the audience of about 25 people was Brian May's gear tech Pete Malandrone who lives nearby and decided to semi-randomly call in to see what we were doing.

Doug

Funkfingers

Jalapeno said:

Anyone done one of these Strat/Red Special hybrids ?

Yes.

impmann said:

these mods on a Strat … don't sound like an RS. It's probably got a lot to do with the scale length/string tension.

True enough. 

The series circuit with regular Stratocaster pickups doesn't stand a chance of sounding like an RS.

Burns Mini Trisonic, DiMarzio BHM or Lace Sensor pickups get closer but still no cigar.

Right now, I have a variation on the RS circuit in progress. It has an additional overall series/parallel mode switch. It is an utter headf to solder. I keeping finding excuses for taking breaks from the task. 

IMO, the series connected coil combinations are interesting and, certainly, different. Their usefulness in a musical context is subjective.

The only way to sound exactly like Brian is to BE Brian.

dsgb

Funkfingers said:
The only way to sound exactly like Brian is to BE Brian.

It isn’t. There are many good professional, semi-pro and amateur guitar players out there (I’ve met and listened to a fair few) who can reproduce all Brian’s style and tonal nuances sufficiently well to please a lifelong Queen fan.

With the right signal chain, even beginners can access all of Brian’s studio and live tones and sound plausible.

Eric Johnson is a different matter.

Doug