Your opinions on a Red Special guitar by Dillion...?

[BigBeard]

Hey guys I want to throw this out there on this forum because honestly I do value everyone's opinion here than most....

I have always wanted a 'Red Special'  of my own.  For those who don't know the 'Red Special' is Brian May's guitar. 

Here are some of my thoughts on this and some facts on what is available:  Guild guitars has done I believe 2 runs of these guitars, neither of them really great copies of the RS as far as the tremolo and pickups etc.  All guild really got right from my research is the shape, and no lefties to my knowledge.  Burns made (or makes I'm not clear on if they still produce their rendition of the RS) a RS for a while, and now I guess there is a company called 'Brian May Guitars' that is doing them.  They don't do Brian's trem setup, they use some sort of floating trem.  There are guys out there that make conversion kits to do a trem like Brian's original setup, but I'm not really into cutting up my factory built guitars (I'll cut up a guitar I don't own!)  The problem for me is the left handed situation. 

What my question I guess is this: I saw on ebay a left handed brian may red special guitar built by "Dillion" and the price is so right.  But I'm skeptical.  I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for.  That being said, I am considering purchasing one to have as a template and model here in my shop, so I can build my own more detailed replica.  I would change a few construction aspects to make it feesable for me to build in my shop, I would use a 'Turtle' neck, if they would do the fret markers properly (Brian's guitar has different fret markers than most) and of course it would have my TRS effects loop.  But, what I am getting at is would I be wasting $4-500 buying one of these Dillion guitars?  Should I hold out to find a Lefty Burns or BMG? 

I'd just like to run this past Y'all

 

[Mor Paul]

Not really answering your question, but there's a LPS (double cut) with a flying V headstock. The body is padouk, I think. It makes a great red special inspired guitar, even if not really the right shape.

 

[CrackedPepper]

Seems like a lot of money to use as a template.  T0 me anyway...

Does this help?

http://www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com/BrianMayRedSpecial.htm

 

[BigBeard]

Seems like a lot of money to use as a template.  T0 me anyway...

Does this help?

http://www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com/BrianMayRedSpecial.htm

I hear you there.  It is a lot of money to spend for a template.  I was thinking that would be the fast way to get the guitar, while I worked on my own.  I would have one to use as reference to anything I wasn't completely sure of.  That and it has been quite some time since I bought a guitar.  That was my other justification.  The istant gratification of opening up a new guitar's case for the first time.  And I found really what I was looking for on musicians friends website, although the 'Brian May Guitars' sell for about $800 new.  But if I'm going to spend any money at all on a factory built guitar, I'd rather it be a BMG than from some company I have never heard of.

But then again, I have built guitars with less to go off of.  I was checking out the templates website.  I was reading that he is not the best to do business with, and he looks like he is the only gig in town so to speak that does this kind of thing.  I don't mind waiting a little for a template as long as I'm prepared to wait that long.  I waited forever for my turtle parts, so that doesn't bother me.  He has a 3 for $99 special that I might take advantage of.  So that is probably what I will do.

Thanks for getting back to me bud