Brian May Guitar Tone

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Whyte Ice

The Next Vanilla Ice
On the Queen tune, "Killer Queen," how does Brian May get that guitar tone during the solo?
 
A number of ways.
1. Brians own hand made (from 100 year old fireplace wood) guitar with hand wound pickups. He was quite the electrician
2. Vox amplifiers
3.Metal pick
4.Brian May is a legend.
5.Brian May has the best electric guitar sound ever in my opinion.
Also he holds his pick close. I mean not much pick pokes out of his fingers.
Has brilliant technique.




Scott

I use to wish for that sound too. Gave up and now have my own sound or soundssss. Much happier!
 
The first part of the solo is one guitar on bridge pickup then there's a bit of guitar harmonies there. Then the second part he flipps to the neck pickup for that mellower tone with a few overdubs. Fuck'n brilliant. The coolest of them alllllllll

Hey I could talk about Brian May and Dave Grohl all day.......every day.
 
ok, just one more thing. (I cant help it)

3 part guitar harmonies.
Only Brian may could do this and get away with it. It was his signature solo sound. Anyone else that tried to do such things sounded like a wanker....

Live he had a wall of some 40 Vox AC30's and only 3 of them were miked up. He used three to get his sterio delay happening
Not surprisingly the rest were'nt miked up and were'nt even turned on but were there for the head bangers that if they were'nt there the headbangers would have gone home. I mean he has to please everybody. Whats a guy gona do...
 
Brian is also an out-and-out THD fan, He's always used a THD HotPlate, meaning he could stoke up any amp and get the sound, but not drive the speakers, or his ears, to distruction.
Now he exclusively uses the THD UniValve as his main amp for recording and smaller gigs, where it drives one THD speaker cabinet containing 2 modified celestion 12" speakers. For larger gigs he uses the same set-up, but then the UniValve also functions as a pre to feed other amps, like the AC30's.
 
There's some debate as to whether he used a THD Hotplate ever. http://www.boardsprep.com/mp3/setup.htm

He might have started using the Univalve lately but was pretty straight on in the Vox ac30's in Queen days. People often try to emulate the trebble boost he had. When if you look at his guitar you'll see the bridge pickup is positioned right next to the bridge. not an inch and a half away like a strat. There's your trebble right there?
 
Scott Tansley said:
There's some debate as to whether he used a THD Hotplate ever. http://www.boardsprep.com/mp3/setup.htm

He might have started using the Univalve lately but was pretty straight on in the Vox ac30's in Queen days. People often try to emulate the trebble boost he had. When if you look at his guitar you'll see the bridge pickup is positioned right next to the bridge. not an inch and a half away like a strat. There's your trebble right there?
Click to expand...

There being "some debate as to" is a little different from knowing.;) My statement is not a guess, just fact.
 
John Deacon

I had heard that John Deacon, the bass player, was the real electronics whiz. In an interview I read years ago Brian said that John built him an in-line preamp that had some "crude treble boost". I also heard Roy Thomas Baker say that to get that edgy sound he used to boost the hell out of the highs, but WAY up, around 18kHz. He felt it had a harmonic effect on the lower frequencies.
 
Yeah, hasn't everyone at least once tried and failed to get a Brian May sound.

I think that guitar is the key to his sound. Like Scott said, virtually every part of it is hand made. I remember reading an interview where he said his father helped him build it when he was around 13 years old. His father worked in electronics somehow, but I don't recall specifically.

Technique can be mimicked, and I've heard many guitarists very convincingly imitate the sound and style of some of the greats. But, I've never heard anyone sound quite like Brian May. It's that quirky, one of a kind, guitar of his that makes the task next to impossible.

barefoot
 
:) stereo out from your pick-ups - into 2 different pre's - phase switch between them - going to 2 different amps. Play with that and you'll be able to get pretty close. However, you'll never ba able to beat handwired pick-ups by someone "in the know".
Its actually a trick used before by some, Pete T always did / does as well.
 
Yeh, sorry sjoko2 I dont know for "sure" about the THD Hotplate is just that there isn't any concrete evedence that he did use it in the early days. It would be nice to find out aye. You say you know for a fact. How?
 
The pick ups are rewound on his guit..proboly dipped{wax} to cut down on microphonics..But the electronics and pickups are from a Burns/Baldwin ,Britsh Strat typo thing ..it has a interesting 5 or 6 position rotary selector...It was cool, it had name for the positions like "wild dog" ect..some of his sounds can be gotten by useing a wah and finding the "notch" tone in the wah...good fun...also early on he would use a Echoplex for his delays for things like "Now Im Here"..Vox AC30s, as far as the THD??Maybe a " Power Soak ".. I don't remember seein' them in 70s, but one never knows..


Don
 
He has a custom made pedal/Vox AC30 modification called a "trebel booster" which he and his dad made themselves.
 
He would set up the delay (live) in the 3 vox's so that by the third note he was in three part harmonies. Just adjust the timing of the delay's to the song.
Had different tricks for live playing to kind of match his awsome recorded sound.

Its nice to see that people still respect the talents of Brian May, Jimi Hendrix and Richie Blackmore. Especially in these times that favor less musicianship. Fuck man, those were the days.
 
Anyone remember the delays he used post Echoplex?..I cant remember but it was fairly involved....


Don
 
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