Brian May Super Antique Cherry Electric Guitar (used)

"It's an exact replica of my guitar, as close as you could possibly get. If I close my eyes with the Super, I don't know that it's not my guitar." — Sir Brian May

• Construction

  With the minimum of compromise, considerable effort has gone into reimagining the Red Special for modern musicians, hence the Super conforms to the original's dimensions and technical appointments in almost every regard. The distinctive body shape, headstock, scale length, fingerboard radius, binding, pickguards, pickup surrounds, roller bridge, knife edge vibrato, control knobs and electronics have all been all faithfully rendered... as well as the famous, magnificently broad neck profile.

  Of course, 60+ years on, there are inevitably some differences in materials; instead of oak and blockboard, the body is constructed from quartersawn mahogany with a book-matched, antique-cherry stained mahogany top, resulting in some minor modifications to the internal acoustic chambering, control cavity. In addition, the Super benefits from a much stronger, glued-in neck join, rather than single bolt-on construction and, in favour of black painted oak, features a wonderfully smooth 24 fret ebony fingerboard.

  Courtesy of the research carried out by Greg Fryer on the Red Special, and from additional knowledge acquired by Andrew Guyton during his restoration work, the Super's appointments, dimensions and modifications are assuredly true to the spirit and character of the original, as well as to the exacting demands of its creator.

• BMG® Super Pickups

  Developed and produced in the UK exclusively for this project by electronics specialist Aaron Armstrong, these new pickups are recreations of the Adeson-spec Tri-Sonic pickups installed on the 'Old Lady' herself and are wax-dipped, wired/reverse wired, baseplated, and hand-wound with the same gauge wire, and to the same tolerances, as the originals.

  Although Aaron has employed bobbins (rather than air coils) and a single ceramic magnet (instead of two squeezed together), both of these alterations have clearly added rather than detracted from the pickups’ performance as they come with the maestro's seal of approval, and his blind-test praise for delivering "more bite, growl and volume”.

• Electronics

  The Super's wiring scheme, switches, potentiometer and capacitor values are exactly the same as the original's with the switching system correctly secured to an aluminium mounting plate. Additional Greg Fryer-approved enhancements include shielding under the entire scratch plate surface area to reduce finger static noise and to assist in insulation from electrical and RF interference as well as a reinforcing plate inlaid into the guitar's body at the output jack to prevent accidental damage.

• Hardware

  Ongoing production of the Super now features Ron Smith and Woody Thomas' supremely authentic 'enhanced' roller bridge.

  This assembly, utilizing a unique 2-piece roller and anvil design, totally eliminates the risk of losing a roller during a string break. The rollers slip over a 1mm Ø x 9mm anvil with only 0.05mm clearance per side, ensuring that the roller rotates with as little friction as possible. The anvil presses into precision machined, intonation grooves on the bridge blocks, firmly locking the roller in place whilst allowing it to spin freely, providing the smoothest and most stable string movement possible.

  The knife-edge tremolo tailpiece is a modern reproduction of Brian's bespoke design, with an accurately curved arm, hand welded to exacting tolerances by Woody Thomas.

  In conjunction with the roller bridge and custom Graph Tech Black TUSQ-XL nut, the tremolo system (a modern reproduction of Sir Brian's bespoke design) performs with astonishing comfort, control, dexterity, and perfect return to pitch, aided by the inclusion of Gotoh's fantastic Magnum Lock® machineheads, augmented with pearl buttons.

  Control knobs and strap buttons are also now provided by expert machinist Ron Smith. The 6061 aluminum alloy controls — exactly the same as the one now fitted to the Red Special itself, after the original knob was lost at a Q+AL show in Dallas in 2019 — are precision made replicas with modern, red painted locator dimple, whilst the traditional buttons are made from nickel-plated brass, with red fibre washers and SBM-style silicon rubber strap locks.

• Our example is in near mint condition. We have left the original strings on the guitar at this point, because they are 24 carat Optima Gold strings.  We will happily put fresh D'addario NYXL strings on it for shipment, if the buyer prefers.
• Abides in the original custom Hiscox case.  The package includes a vegan guitar strap and COA signed by Brian May.
• The guitar has 3 x BMG Super series wired, single coil Tri-Sonic style pickups, hand-wound in the UK by Aaron Armtstong.
• The switches are Switchcraft slider switches with white attenuators - 3 x pickup on/off  / 3 x pickup phase in/out
• The controls are Master volume / Master tone
• SN: BMS 25622