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FEATURE_TONE ON A BUDGET
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‘B
rian May’s tone is without a doubt
one of the unique voices in Rock
guitar. It’s almost like a mystical
chain of events resulted in the
equipment that came together to produce his
sound. Although that sound has evolved and
changed slightly over the years, it has always
stayed faithful to Brian’s initial vision of how
he imagined his tone to be. I think that in
itself is a very interesting fact that, from the
very conception of the Red Special, he knew
in his mind how he imagined his voice on
the guitar.
Right from the outset, he wanted a rich
smooth distortion that would produce
feedback, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Jeff
Beck. Originally, in fact, the Red Special
was going to have an “F” hole, a design
that was actually used by Andrew Guyton
when building Brian’s “Badger” guitar. He
also wanted to produce a wide array of
Brian May - Tone on a budget
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Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 40