A British teenager has channeled two of his guitar heroes, Brian May and Randy Rhoads, to built a Flying V–shaped electric guitar out of scrap wood.
Sam Golder spent 18 months building the guitar from scratch with wood from his grandfather’s stock. The results resemble the Jackson Rhoads, with its modified Flying V body shape and sharply angled head stock.
The project was born after the 18-year-old Golder saw his grandfather’s scrap material and realized the potential within it. He worked tirelessly to shape the guitar drafted in a school friend who 3D-printed a tool to help his cause.
The guitar’s unique inlays are sculpted from a mother-of-pearl button, and while the electronics were sourced online, they had to be dismantled and rebuilt.
Golder says Brian May and his Red Special were the impetus for his creation.
“Brian May was a huge inspiration for this project,” he tells his local paper, the Bristol Post.
“I grew up listening to Queen music, thanks to my dad, Robert. And last year I played lead piano in the band that provided the live soundtrack to our school production of We Will Rock You, which is, of course, based around Queen’s music and May’s iconic guitar sounds.”
Undoubtedly, May would appreciate Golder's fortitude, having famously built his Red Special by hand with his father, using a similar resourcefulness. The neck on May's guitar came from a fireplace mantel, while oak was scavenged from an old table for its body.
May — who was 19 at the time, just one year older than Golder — would also identify with Golder's decision to purchase pickups, considering his plight when he attempted to build his own pickups for the Red Special.
The May family’s faithful build, which looks set to receive a Gibson-built reissue, took two years to build, meaning Golder’s turnaround time is a little quicker. Yet it wasn’t any easier, even if parts are more readily available today.
Golder's guitar journey began during the COVID lockdown when he turned to YouTube videos to help him learn to play guitar. He hopes that the guitar’s creation marks the start of a long career in the music industry.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without the band, my friends, and our head of music, Mrs. Williams,” he says. “One day, it is my dream to share my music onstage to millions of people, whether that be guitar, piano or even both.”
It would be heartwarming to see May’s reaction to the instrument. The guitarist was suitably impressed by a meticulously fan-made Red Special copy when he viewed it an event last year.
Meanwhile, May has revealed a touching tribute to Freddie Mercury that sits at the heart of his first signature model — a uniquely strung JS-200 12-string acoustic guitar.
He’s also opened up on his very short-lived experimentation with Marshall amps. He could only get the stack to sound like “an angry wasp” before Jimi Hendrix stepped onto stage and turned the same amp into a “cataclysm.”
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