I have a question: You can alwas see, and read, the brian uses his "original" red special, and not very often the replicas. But my question is: Does he realy has only this one original Red Special from the 60's or are there any others which are also called the originals???
I hope you can anser someone knows the answer!
He made the red special partly because he couldn't afford a "real" guitar, and spent MONTHS experimenting with winding pickups, finding parts, sanding the neck (he even took it to school so he could spend more time smoothing it).
In order for there to be "two originals", he'd have to have either made two at the same time (twice the work), or, having finished one and made a guitar he was very proud of having worked painstakingly for years on, he'd choose not to play it but to start again AND use the same design.
In short, there's only one original.
There's always been ONE original Red Special.
But it looks slightly different now from the old pictures, after extensive restoration a few years ago.
Most noticeable differences: two small "Another World" star inserts were added (one to cover a hole in the pickguard, near the pickup switches, the other to replace a missing fretboard dot) and later on a sixpence coin was glued to the top of the headstock (for quicker identification among the array of replicas in low stage light I think).
HTH
Wow thats interesting, i knew, that he only made this one, but thought that he had made a few other "originals" later when queen where famous!
But the only others are the replicas then right?
Logically, if there is one original, all others MUST be replicas.
Another difference on the 90s restoration was the refinishing on the rear of the body (belt buckle marks)
Yeah, you've gotta have a spare incase of a string break. And the spare has to sound close to the original.
Sure, he has used a Strat, a Les Paul and a Flying V as backup but his main Red Special backups were:
Jon Birch replica (featured in the WWRY/Spread Your Wings video) but Brian threw that offstage as he was frustrated with the sound. I think someone has restored it since though.
Guild replica - can be seen at the FM Tribute on Hammer To Fall I think.
Greg Fryer replicas
Andrew Guyton replicas link