Stephen R said:
As a side note I'm also considering a Brian May "red special" ... don't know what kind of single coil strat sound I can get out of that but I really like Mays lead tone. I like the sound of his guitar in general actually ... anyone know about the Brian May guitar?
OK, Brian May's guitar is a special one, The guitar reputedly has a baseball bat sized neck profile, the body is made out of very seasoned oak wood (an old fireplace mantle or something like that), the pickups are Burns single coils that have been allegedly tweaked a bit and the wiring scheme allows for series connection (instead of the more popular parrallel connection between pickups) and in & out of phase settings. Add the Vox amps that he used in the studio and multi tracked to death (or live using about 12 AC30s cranked up! - google Live Aid performance from Queen and see the backline volume distort the camera's vision
) you can see that replicating his tone is going to cost a fair bit to get close. Not omitting his own unique soft touch on the neck.....
To get close you could buy a BM guitar from a company he set up to replicate his Red Special and then buy an AC15 or so to start on your way to getting some Brian May tone for recording or if going for live overkill, get a couple of AC30s and link them up.
The thing about the BM guitar is it is only a close replica to the original and in all fairness no one will ever sound like May exactly.
If you want to do it Warmoth style and get in the ballpark, you could get a LPS body - flat top, made in a heavy mahogany, dyed transparent red, then get a hold of some Burns pickups and find the schematic for how the BM guitar is wired up and set about routing the pickup & contro, cavities. Neck wise, you'd have to lump for a tree trunk of mahogany and a v shaped headstock. Maybe a rosewood fingerboard - or ebony if you want to liven up the treble a bit and retain some sustain.
