Red Special - Specifications

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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