| una999 05.10.2007 13:30 |
I have the brian may red special and ok it is a nice guitar. Now i have a few problems with it. First of all i think the guitar neck is a bit too wide. Maybe this is just a personal preference, i think i like a narrower neck. Anyway i have a huge problem with my sound. If i play One Vision on it, it sounds fine - that's because you mute the chords after you play them, it's that sort of a song. However on Tie Your Mother Down when i play the riff the sound from it is terrible. It's all fuzzy. Getting back to my point about the neck width i think it makes that song hard to play. I have a Taylor acoustic guitar and i can play the riff perfect, but on the red special i can't. Now i don't have the treble up high or anything. Basically i can't get a nice clean but at the same time electric sound out of the guitar. Anyone recommend a good amp (not one for 50k dollars!). I've tried all combinations on the guitar... |
| Haystacks Calhoun II 05.10.2007 14:26 |
The cheapest way to get that "Brian May" sound is to run his $199 pedal clean into a decent amp. You can hook up any clean sounding guitar to it that you want to, and it sounds great. The only beef that I have with the pedal is that it is really limited in a live setting, as it is a pain in the ass to switch between sounds. If is were me, I would have made the thing much more "live music" friendly. But, for $199, it's a bargain for the sound. I, too, played around with the idea of a Red Special copy, and while it looks cool, I didn't care for the way it played. |
| Adam Baboolal 05.10.2007 20:03 |
If you don't like the neck, you're in trouble. Especially worrying that you can't play TYMD on it. That's like one of the simplest. Anyway, soundwise, I've been touting the only setup I feel is budget conscious enough for everyone. Forget that pedal from Brian. It's just not enough. The best solution is this... BHM guitar > treble booster £45 > Vox valvetronix amp (£145-180) (Ad50 model specifically) I guarantee, you'll get all the tones you want from that setup. It's not perfect, but for a budget setup, it works amazingly well. I'm still using it one year on and it's great stuff. Have a listen to me playing with my 2006 BHM guitar, Electrolead RSB booster and an AD30 vox amp with a different speaker in it - link If you're still stuck on the Brian pedal, here's a great deal - link £100 is damned good for what you get. Adam. |
| Guild84BHM1 05.10.2007 23:13 |
I would have to agree with Adam. I had been on an endless search for Brian's tone since the '80s. I can explain a little more detail about what equipment will sound good and get a reasonable Brian May tone so you have more choices available to you. First you should get a Class A tube amp with EL84 tubes. There are several inexpensive ones like Epiphone Valve Junior or Standard. I have the standard and it gets a reasonably good tone (although not as good as my AC30). Crate also have some. But you must also buy an attenuator. This is connected between the amps output and speaker and acts as a master volume. You need to crank the amp all the way up and use the attenuator to control the overall volume. Some attenuators are the THD Hotplate, Weber Mass etc. Just Google them and you'll find something. Also see brianmayworld.com . There is a good forum there for guitarists which is where I got alot of my information. In regards to the thick neck, just keep practicing and it will get easier. I don't have big hands and I can play it easily. Good Luck |
| john bodega 06.10.2007 03:35 |
The Brian May pedal is hit and miss depending on who is using it. I've heard very compelling samples, and I've heard some that simply make sound like an overpriced chorus unit..... bleh! It seems the most common misconception is that it will automatically make any guitar sound like the Red Special. It doesn't seem to be the case ; again, maybe the examples I've heard are just dodgy, But some of those screamy sounds aren't really attainable just by using the pedal ya know. A lot of it is in the pickup settings Brian uses, but you can get an approximation of that just by playing a little differently. To its credit, the pedal seems to be pretty good at modelling the rest of his rig though and I haven't heard anyone baffle the harmoniser yet. For me though... it's going to have to take a back seat to the ME-50!! |
| Penetration_Guru 06.10.2007 04:48 |
Further point - the Burns neck is narrower than the real thing, which apparently is well known for being ridiculously wide.... |
| David Jones 06.10.2007 05:47 |
Yeah, I would say the Burns/BMG neck is average. I've played alot of guitars with fatter necks. My Strat copy has quite a thin neck, whereas my Burns Marquee has a fatter neck than the RS. I've also held off buying a BM pedal, just because the samples didn't sound that conviincing or radically different/better to what I can already produce with my old Korg fx pedal. So your saying that when you turn up the gain on your amp it sounds all fuzzy (or wooly as Brian would say in Starlicks :-)? To get a decent gain sound you would need a decent amp. But if you can't run your amp too loud then look at getting an effects pedal. |
| una999 06.10.2007 07:44 |
Adam Baboolal wrote: If you don't like the neck, you're in trouble. Especially worrying that you can't play TYMD on it. That's like one of the simplest. Anyway, soundwise, I've been touting the only setup I feel is budget conscious enough for everyone. Forget that pedal from Brian. It's just not enough. The best solution is this... BHM guitar > treble booster £45 > Vox valvetronix amp (£145-180) (Ad50 model specifically) I guarantee, you'll get all the tones you want from that setup. It's not perfect, but for a budget setup, it works amazingly well. I'm still using it one year on and it's great stuff. Have a listen to me playing with my 2006 BHM guitar, Electrolead RSB booster and an AD30 vox amp with a different speaker in it - link If you're still stuck on the Brian pedal, here's a great deal - link £100 is damned good for what you get. Adam.Interesting...TYMD is easy to play on a guitar with a narrow neck (for me anyway) but on the wide neck of the red special i find that there is too much room between the strings and it ends up being patchy. But ya i can play it on the narrow neck of my acoustic pretty good. Your sound is good, just listened to that file you posted. |
| FriedChicken 08.10.2007 08:35 |
I'm sorry if this is a stupid question. But why on earth did you buy a guitar that isn't comfortable to play on for you. Isn't this the thing that is most important thing for a guitar? Maybe you should've tried it before you bought it |
| Haystacks Calhoun II 08.10.2007 09:58 |
Odd, I get great tones out of the pedal.....and is far and away cheaper than buying guitars, amps, etc. Again, the only beef I have with it is that you really can't use it live over the course 3 hours of playing....they dropped the ball there. |
| john bodega 08.10.2007 10:50 |
Well the aberration here might be that you know what you're doing?? :P All I am saying is that it's entirely possible for the pedal to 'not' get the right sound... as with any equipment, I spose. |
| Haystacks Calhoun II 09.10.2007 10:42 |
I do know what I am doing, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. |
| john bodega 10.10.2007 05:16 |
Well that answers that! I've been wanting to try out a Red Special pedal for a while now so I can form my own opinion on it, having heard so many wildly ranging opinions and tests. Can't throw down money on such a thing when I already have an effects unit that makes me happy, unfortunately - but I imagine I'll meet someone with one sooner or later. |
| Adam Baboolal 10.10.2007 10:34 |
It's a shame you're in a different country cause I'd love to share the sounds with you. I have three other electrics and the RS2006 is the most comfortable for me. Adam. |
| tenchijin2 11.10.2007 23:33 |
I'm on my way up tomorrow to purchase a Laney VC30 to go with my Burns Brian May. I also own a Vox AD30VT which is featured on my covers of Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, and a V-Stack BHM pedal which does a very nice emulation of the AC30/treble booster combo. But ultimately modelers just don't *quite* cut it. It's a matter of degrees, of course, but a real tube amp just can't be beaten for the Brian May tone. I've also got the parts on order to build a treble booster modeled after the one Brian uses now. I've had my Burns Brian May for a couple years now. I really enjoy playing it. I think it's a bit overpriced for the build quality. To contrast I have a very nice limited edition stratocaster from 1997 that I bought new (ah, when I was only 23 years old!) and I paid about the same as the cost of the Burns. The strat is much superior in build quality, no question. Ten years later and I've never had an issue aside from the input jack going bad. Got a new jack, soldered it in, all done. Having said that I prefer the Burns because I love the tone. It just makes sounds that I really enjoy. I'm having a build issue with it right now... two of the frets are pulling *slightly* away from the neck on the high string side. I need to fill the gap and file the tiny lip off of the fret. |
| MercuryArts 13.10.2007 20:09 |
Anyone try out those Crate Palomino amps? The V16, (15w class A) or a V32, (30w class A) all tube amp? I have thought about the 15w model, its $400 from GC. The 30w is $550 or $600 I think. I recently bought a Fireplace TB from G. Covington. Teamed w/ my AD30VT & Burns BM it is excellent! |
| Fireplace 14.10.2007 11:29 |
The Digitech Brian May signature pedal is excellent value for money imho. I have just two (minor) gripes: it's not really usable in a live setting and will not give you Brian's amp-all-cranked-up-with-volume-knob-on-the-guitar-turned-down sound. I had no trouble at all getting a good sound, just plugged in my Burns BM and rocked away. |
| David Jones 15.10.2007 14:40 |
In the words of Ian Faith - "Thats considerably more than minor" |
| Fireplace 15.10.2007 16:15 |
David Jones wrote: In the words of Ian Faith - "Thats considerably more than minor"I suppose that depends on what one expected in the first place. I bought it for my home studio, and it does what I want it to do. |
| Brian_Mays_Wig 22.10.2007 11:28 |
FriedChicken<br><font size=1>The Almighty</font> wrote: I'm sorry if this is a stupid question. But why on earth did you buy a guitar that isn't comfortable to play on for you. Isn't this the thing that is most important thing for a guitar? Maybe you should've tried it before you bought itIts because He's a Queen fan! I brought my BM guitar in 2005 and had sold it within 10 months! The neck was to wide as opposed to the Jackson/BC Rich I was used to and I just couldnt get a clean enough sound through my Marshall set up, But at least I can say I owned one! |
| john bodega 23.10.2007 05:23 |
"I just couldnt get a clean enough sound through my Marshall set up" And there you have it. |