Queen’s legendary guitarist Brian May recently revealed one aspect of his iconic Red Special guitar that he was not particularly fond of.
While many famous guitarists switch instruments throughout their careers, Brian stands out as one of the few who crafted a guitar from scratch and continues to use it for every live performance. When fans see him live, they are witnessing and hearing the very Red Special he built with his father years ago.
Since the guitar was created in the 1960s, Brian experimented with several unconventional modifications, including the integration of a distortion circuit. However, while this innovation seemed promising at the time, it may explain why the feature is not commonly found on modern guitars and why Brian had mixed feelings about it.
During a recent Red Special Meetup in the UK, May discussed the circuitry (as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), saying, “It was very early I put this on. I bought a Vox Distortion Booster, which is a red oblong box, a diecast box. I still have it, but I took the guts of it out and put it in here and put the switch in there.”
The Vox Distortion Booster, a compact device from the 1960s, is similar in size to today’s amPlug, functioning much like a distortion pedal but without any controls, designed to be plugged directly into an amplifier. May mentioned that he aimed to replicate the sound of Jimi Hendrix’s debut album. He explained, “But Jimi Hendrix didn’t use a fuzz box for very long either. He went back to using the distortion of the amps to keep him what he wanted.”
He added, “I watched a clip of Eddie Van Halen the other day where he said, ‘I don’t have any fuzz boxes or distortions. I just have a guitar and the amp.’ So, I feel like simplicity is the best way.”
Despite his reservations, May acknowledged some benefits of the fuzz box. “It was good to have that there for a while, especially when you’re playing in a place where you can’t turn up very loud. That would be very useful. But I just didn’t like the sound of it, to be honest, very much.”
Finally, he noted that there are a few recordings featuring the circuitry, although not for Queen but for his other bands, including The Left-Hand Marriage and Smile, Queen’s predecessor. He mentioned “Step on Me” as an example.
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