Brian May’s Red Special - The Book Launch

In 1963, Brian May and his father Harold started to hand-build an electric guitar. Brian dreamed of a guitar that would outperform any of the existing commercially-made electric guitars and his father had the technical skills to make the dream come true. Brian then played that guitar on every Queen album and in all of Queen's live shows around the world.

On Wednesday 1st October, Carlton Books celebrated the launch of Brian May's new book, published to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of the world's most iconic guitars, Brian May's Red Special.

Video by Neil Foster

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Brian May’s Red Special - The Book Launch

[jca]

I could listen to Brian talking and playing like this for hours.

[pablosorbara]

You can easily tell that... "He's old but still a child" ... He'll never stop rocking! 

[sterrenlaan]

I can see Brian talking to his grand children as a grand father, sitting near the fire place talking about his guitar and how it was the time with freddie . I could listen to his stories for hours since he has a lot to talk about.

[TruthSurge]

His guitar is a sweet example of if you want something done right, do it yourself.  The switches to allow inverting the phase is just great.  Those brittle clean sounds are so incredible and delicate.  And when those harmonics come out in the solos....  genius.

[emilyjohnson]

“If it’s worth doing it’s worth overdoing” “That’s the Queen philosophy.” Ah, I love it!!! Thanks Brian 😊

[crumplezone]

How can you not like this guy...he has an emotional empathy with is very charming :)

[gmailacct]

I can see why Freddie wanted to work with Brian (and Roger). They were cut from the same cloth-their deep love and the way they strove for perfection, was unparalleled. So happy they found each other and gave us the priceless gift of Queen!!! ❤️👑😘

[SteveReynoldsGuitarist]

Great guitarist and nice guy and you can really hear in this interview how much he loves his dad.

[velosouk]

Before anything else he's a true gentleman, a humble and awesome human being. I wish we had more people as him living in this planet. Such a pleasure to hear his words, it's a lesson about life even more than guitars. 

[amadeomenavicente]

This guitar is alive!! I saw Queen live 1977 in Germany, Frankfurt Festhalle. After hearing Brian Mays Solo I decided to play Guitar myself. Electric Guitar, and I`m doing this since them . - Thank you Brian!!

[vicweast]

Brian is one of the coolest and certainly broadest intelligences around... fact he figured out that "Queen" guitar sound is icing on the cake!

[Marius-vwhp]

Its funny how he could only dream of buying a guitar because he was poor, but ended up building something that was better than the most expensive guitars out there.

[ZiddersRooFurry]

I could sit here and listen to this dude read the phonebook and I'd be fascinated. 

[ArtisanSmithy]

One of my absolute idols. The word 'Genius' is often over-used...but NOT in his case!

[vbgbiomed]

The guy is a living legend, has created one of the most iconic guitar tones of all times and still is very humble with enough patience to show every detail of his technique and equipament. Thank you for showing me that I can do great things out of simple stuff, Mr. May. Your life story is inspiring.

[eyedunno]

What were the odds that a man of this caliber; astrophysicist, guitarist extraordinaire and renaissance man would end up running into and meeting one of the greatest, most charming vocalists, showman and musician extraordinaire and that those two would go to not only enthuse but write and perform some of the finest melodies ever recorded and then continue to perform them to maximum bravado live.

Life is beautiful and full of possibilities, never give up or ever stop believing in yourself. The universe awaits you and your gifts

[MarioQPF]

Red Special = Best Guitar of the History!!!

[the_minimalistic_adventure]

The fact that he's playing that guitar in this present day, a guitar that's created some of the most well known songs in history, including Boho Rhap is pretty awesome. I'd feel overwhelmed in its presence as crazy as that sounds, just knowing the history lol.

[erlinglarsen]

When a guitarist doesn't need to touch a string to make a guitar sound good you know there on legend status . If you can't appreciate what this man has done for music and guitar best you go learn . I could listen to him play for hours wow.

[DoubleVisionandco]

Master Guitarist, Down to earth Gentleman. Brian May doesn't even act or come off as being famous. But he's more than just famous, Now he's a Legend, Just as the Red Special is. One of the best sounding guitars I've ever heard is the Red Special.