The Brian May Project - Play Music Pickup

The Brian May project: Red Special
TONE
CAP
VOL
Figure 2: One way of obtaining the pickup combinations of the Red
Special. In reality, it’s easier and neater to join the screen from each
pickup above the lower bank of switches, then join them to the nearest
Earth point, typically the switch top left.
The radical solution Brian came up with is shown in
Figure 2. There are three on/off switches that short
across unwanted pickups, so that the other pickups
continue to work. (That’s the top row.) Then there are
three phase reverse switches, which help to make some
of the distinctive, more ‘hollow’ tones the Red Special
can deliver. (Bottom row.)
The switches I’ve used don’t look much like the ones
on the Red Special but electrically, they’re identical.
Technically, they are sub-miniature Double Pole, Double
Throw (DPDT) and you can buy them in Maplins. (See
Figure 3.) They come in two varieties and the right ones
for this job are ‘on-on’, not the ones with a ‘centre off’
position.
Choosing the best switch size is a pay-off. The ones
I’ve used take up less room inside the guitar but they
were fiddly to solder and could be a bit scary to use on
stage if you’re used to dealing with standard
toggle/slider switches.
(The initial wiring took me about three hours and
even then it didn’t work. I traced it easily enough to one
of about 40 solder joints but this is a labour of love…)
Alternatively, you can find bigger DPDT switches on
line. They’ll be easier to wire and to operate but they will
take up a lot of space in your guitar’s body rout. I had to
Figure 3. The switches used are Double Pole, Double Throw. Left:
Inside, they are actually two switches ganged together, hence Double
Pole. Middle: The centre contacts connect to the upper contacts in one
position. Right: They connect to the lower contacts in the other
position, hence Double Throw.
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