“When you would bend the strings across the fingerboard, the pickups would make this kind of rushing sound because the polepieces went north-south, north-south, north-south”: Brian May on the trials and tribulations of building the Red Special

In the rock world, Queen's Brian May has stood out over the last half century not only for his unique brand of guitar heroism – it can be argued that no guitarist on the planet can quite match his flair for the dramatic – but for his homemade Red Special electric guitar.

May famously built the original with his father while in his teens, crafting its neck with wood from an antique fireplace. Impressively, May and his father even originally built the guitar's pickups themselves, though on that front they faced some headwinds.

“We made the original pickups, which sounded pretty good except they had one bad fault,” May told GP in a 1983 interview. “When you would squeeze the strings – bend them across the fingerboard – they would make this kind of rushing sound because the polepieces went north-south, north-south, north-south, instead of north, north, north, north, north, north.

“I eventually bought some Burns pickups,” the Queen guitarist continued. “Burns were making guitars in England at the time, and they made some of the stuff for the Shadows.”

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Having already worked on the Red Special before, May turned to Burns – after initially working with Guild – to create Red Special replicas for the wider market. Eventually though, May created his own firm, Brian May Guitars, to produce the unique guitar worldwide.

Following May's surprise appearance earlier this year at the opening of the London Gibson Garage though, there's been ample speculation that Gibson may take up the mantle of producing more upscale Red Special replicas in the United States.

For his part, May has done little to dampen the rumors, publicly voicing his support for a potential collaboration.

“It’s not out of the question,” May told Guitar World in a recent interview. “We have spoken about such things, and it would be lovely to have an edition of the Brian May guitar based in the States. After all, that’s where I started with Guild.

“Guild made the first Brian May models, and then I went with Burns in [the UK]. And then things changed, and I just wanted to do it myself. Now we have our own Brian May Guitars company here, but to have the facility to have some made in the States would be wonderful.”