Has anyone bought one of the new Brian May Red Specials? These are supposed to be made at the same Korean factory that the Burns Brian May was made in, but I believe it is Brian's own company.
I have tried 2 of these and although the finish is good, have found them to be poorly made in some respects.
1) The scratchguard doesn't follow the contour of the body, is about 1/2" out.
2) The strings rattle on the frets at the top (headstock) end of the scale. Have checked string height and is comparable with my other guitars which are ok.
3) The tremolo arm fits into a hole and is held with a grubscrew, so if you tighten it up the trem wont move, and if you don't it falls out! with the previous manufacturer's it plugged in.
I was trying to start a collection of guitars for my personal use that were significant by their manufacturer, or time period, or player, eg, Gibson LP Standard, Gibson ES335 dot reissue, Burns Hank Marvin Signature to date, not sure if the RS will be part of it!
Always possible to get a dodgy example in any batch, I guess.
I've been drooling over the new Brian May Red Special Pedal, which recreates the sounds from Bo Rhap, Crazy Little Thing, Brighton Rock and (amongst others) Tie Your Mother Down. Cheaper than paying £500 for the axe and another grand for a VoxAC30
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
While discussing Red Special clones: I own a Dillon Red Special copy in Vintage quilted burst. The one I have was made in their Vietnam factory . The neck is SUPERB. The pickups sound amazing and the switches are accurate. The only problem I have is it goes out of tune alot - but i think that if I used graphite powder it would be much better - I will give that a try soon. This is a GREAT guitar overall and came with an additional pickguard in tortoise shell - no case however. price point was 380.00 - well worth the money.
Still don't have my Red Special yet, but told the modified ones should be in the country soon, reshaped scratchguard, modified trem and lots of other improvements authorised by Brian May, will be almost a year since my first purchase!
