Specifications
- Body
- Oak and blockboard (with a mahogany veneer), semi-solid body
- Depth: 39 mm
- Neck
- Bolt-On, One large bolt which sits beneath the fingerboard and goes through a hole in the body then a nut is then attached, its also screwed down by two small wood screws at the tenon end which ends just before the bridge pickup. The Greg Fryer, Burns/Brian May Guitars, Guild, John Birch and Greco copies feature a Set Neck
- Oak taken from a two-hundred year old fireplace
- Neck Pitch: 2°
- Headstock Angle: 4°
- Width at nut: 47 mm
- Width at 12th fret: 51 mm
- Depth at 1st fret: 25 mm
- Depth at 12th fret: 27 mm
- Though utilizing a 24-fret fingerboard, the scale length of the Red Special is a short 24" (609.6 mm); compared to the Gibson standard of 24.75" (628.65 mm) and Fender's common 25.5" (647.7 mm) scale lengths, this creates a looser feel for the strings, which is conducive to May's extensive use of string bending and his wide vibrato.
- Fretboard
- Black-painted oak
- Radius: 7"+1/4"
- Scale length: 610 mm
- Number of frets: 24
- Fret gauge: 24 x 1.2
- Inlays: 3°, 5°, 9°, 15°, 17°, 21° (one dot), 7° and 19° (two dots), 12° and 24° (three dots)
- Nut
- "Zero" fret with Bakelite string guide
- Strings
- String spacing at nut: 41 mm
- String spacing at bridge: 49 mm
- Strings used - Optima Gold Brian May Custom Gauge - .009 .011 .016 .024 .032 .042 supplied by A Strings
- Misc
- Pickups: 3 modified Burns Tri-Sonic
- Tremolo Arm: Self-made from old motorcycle parts
- Pickguard/Pickup Surrounds/tailpiece: black Perspex
- Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone, On/Off (toggle) Switch for each pickup, In/Out of Phase Switch for each pickup
- Weight: approx 8 lb (3.6 kg)
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