The result of a unique collaboration between Sir Brian May, his long-standing guitar tech Pete Malandrone, and House Music, the best-selling BMG Special combines the distinctive aesthetics and sound of the legendary Red Special with a wealth of modern appointments and superb quality, production-line craftsmanship.
All the foundations of the trademark BM sound are present and correct, with construction, pickups and electronics faithfully reproducing the original's unique character and tonal versatility. But this is so much more than just a replica... With a price-tag and a range of new colours driven by Brian's concept of a guitar "for the people", the Special is designed to provide modern players of all musical persuasions with an affordable pro-grade instrument that is the perfect go-to guitar for any performance environment.
True to the look and spirit of the "Old Lady", the instantly recognisable pinstripe-bound, double cutaway mahogany body shape features an acoustic chamber modelled on Brian's original design that enhances the Special's natural resonance and decreases weight.
Engineered with a decidedly contemporary feel, and considerably less deeply contoured than the somewhat gargantuan proportions of the iconic original, the glued-in mahogany neck sports a generous 45mm nut width, comfortably spacious "D" profile, and wonderfully smooth 24 fret ebony fingerboard.
Modern replicas of the vintage '60s Burns design units that are so fundamental to the Red Special's powerful sonic character, the three series-wired, single-coil pickups feature the same retro-styling and magnet alignment as the originals.
As per the original BM design, the Special is equipped with six white-capped slider switches controlling individual pickup on/off and phase reversal, providing a vast range of tonal variations.
Trevor Wilkinson's "Wave" tremolo-bridge provides a striking modern look to the BMG Special as well as smooth, comfortable performance with exceptional stability and sustain.
The distinctive BM style headstock sports 3-a-side locking chrome tuners with an 18:1 gear ratio for precise tuning and a thumbwheel locking mechanism that clamps the string securely. These superb quality machine heads allow for quick and easy string change with fewer string wraps and will maintain rock-solid tuning stability and more accurate return-to-pitch, even with lots of vibrato and string bends.
Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the completion of the Red Special and 20 glorious years since the launch of the Brian May Guitars brand, every BMG Special now comes complete with a FREE 2024 Sir Brian May "Official Queen Pick" in a perspex collector's case.
A premium quality, padded gig-bag, made from durable showerproof material, with twin rucksack-style shoulder straps, side and front grab handles, dual front pockets and stitched BMG logo, is supplied as standard with all Special models. An optional BMG Custom Fitted Hard Case is also available.
An exclusive demonstration of the first iteration of the BMG Special by the maestro himself.
A superb demo of the Brian May Guitars SPECIAL from young, Brazilian guitar ace Lucas Vianna, a performer in the 2016 São Paulo and 2017 Danish touring productions of the smash hit Queen musical "We Will Rock You".
Lucas uses the Special to demonstrate some of Sir Brian May's favourite switch settings.
Here, Lucas shows off the Special's unique, genre-busting tonal dexterity.
I love that guitar
I'll preface this by saying that the setup out of the box was pretty appalling, the strings were way too high and it wouldn't stay in tune for more than a few minutes. The guitar did come a long ways, so that is somewhat to be expected, and a fresh set of strings and a few hours of tweaking got it playing great. With that out of the way, this is simply a fantastic instrument. The flawless sunburst finish sits on a gorgeous mahogany top, the workmanship is solid, and most importantly you can get all the great Brian may tones. I play it through a treble booster into a little Vox tube amp. Crank the volume and the gain on the amp, and with the volume up on the guitar you get that great saturated sound à la 'Hammer to Fall', turn it down and you get sparkling cleans such as you hear on 'Under Pressure'. It isn't just a one trick pony either, by fiddling with the switches you can come up with tones reminiscent of Rickenbacker, Fender or Gibson guitars, or completely new and original sounds. So, be prepared to put some work in to setting it up to play (or to spend the extra money to have a tech set it up), and then be prepared to rip out some queen tunes and to shape your own sound with all the great pickup combinations.
I tried many guitars in my life, many brands and many models.Recently I tried a Fender Stratocaster Ed O'Brien and a Telecaster Hybrid Japan, because I love fat necks (U shapes and V shapes) the guitars were more expensive and the quality was lower than BMG,I bought a 3 Tone Sunburst BMG Special Limited Edition and WOW, just WOW, let me tell you :Stays in tune perfectly, like for real.The guitar fine tuning (Wilkinson) octaves is perfect even in high notes (whole neck scale is in tune).Every chords sounds great thanks to the fret zero (ultra rare nowadays).The tuning mechanism is one of the best available on the market and ultra smoothebony touch.The pickups are just crazy, never seen this much output level from single coils(If you play guitar on external USB interface, you will be amazed. Usually, on electric guitars, you need to boost the IN signal a lot and normalize it to obtain decent dB level, and a nice waveform but not with this guitar, the output is HIGH, and its the first time I see this).The Wilkinson is very nice.Volume and tone knob are metal (aluminium), my model is a 2019.The phase switch system is wonderful, personaly I use only the bridge pickup out of phase.I also want to say to people : this guitar can play a ton of different sounds, versatile and interesting sounds.I'm very happy and this guitar is worth every dollar/euro/pound.THANKS EVERYBODY, THANKS BRIAN AND THE TEAM, YOU ARE AMAZING.
I received the guitar, and I am ecstatic! It is gorgeous and sounds exactly how I wished (basically, just like the old lady ;-p ). I’ve been trying to recreate these tones since I was 15 when I picked up the guitar. It’s awesome to actually have them and in such a fabulous replica of the original, too!Many thanks to you, Barry, and your whole staff for making these. Not just the product, but your service is top-notch! You can tell Barry the long-distance phone bill was well worth the chat we had. ;-DShould you see Dr. May or Mr. Malandrone, please thank them on behalf of a grateful American fan whose other instruments are about to become very jealous of the time he'll be affording his new BMG. Also, my whole family – including my teenage kids – can’t wait for them to come back to San Jose, CA! In the meantime, we’re contenting ourselves with covering Queen tunes in our garage.
I am glad to have the best guitar sound at an affordable price.
Hi, I'm Jimi from Colombia, South America.I just wanted to tell you that since i have the BMG Special, I can't find a better guitar, nor even higher in price. I play some cumbia with rock and it works great having vintage and modern sounds as well.Thanks for such a great instrument.
