Brian May Guitar Tone

  • Thread starter Thread starter Whyte Ice
  • Start date Start date
"Mastro Echoplex" was the tape delay he used..Same as Page,Blackmore ect."Univox" also made one but I think that he used the "Mastro" But later he started to use a more involved delay setup and I dont think that it was the Echoplex.......Sjoko2 you remember?Oh and for picks he used a small british coin ..I cant remember the denomination..

Don
 
Its right that the old echoplex was the original, after that he used and tried a load of different stuff.

The "more involved" setup Henri mentioned was a system of gates and delays which were volume activated. This was also the reason why there were a bunch of AC30's at the live gigs.

Basically this system tried to copy the system devised in the studio to make the sound get bigger and bigger when the volume went up. This system was typical for the wide dynamic rance guitar sound

The way this was done is by placing one AC30 in a long corridor. close milked. Then a series of mics at set intervals, each subsequent one gated a bit more, so the final one was gated most and only opened up when Brian turned his guitar way up.
Play low volume and you get just the close milked one. Turn it up a bit and the gate of the 2nd mic, some 8 ft away, opens. The distance crates natural delay and the sound get bigger. Louder and the next one kicked in etc.
 
May....be

Brian does use a metal pick. In fact what he uses is an English half penny.
Gotta agree with Scott..the man is a legend. You see his name more and more on film and movie credits, where he's headed or been a member of the music production team.
 
Brian May

Ahhhh.... my HERO!

Gotta love everything about the man, his guitar, and his PLAYING! Now there's one guy who always manages to sound fresh. Quite the astronomer too, I'm told. Published papers on the movements of interplanetary dust. (!!)

As for the movie credits thing, Brian himself stated that he often gets confused with an Australian film score writer who just happens to have the same name.

The "wall" of extra amps in concert are indeed used as backups. He switched back and forth several times during shows because it was less wear and tear on the AC30s. He also sent his legendary live harmony delays to separate amps for essentially the same reason.

Bruce in Korea

(and all my Queen and Brian May albums are here, too :D!!)
 
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