BMG Special LE - 3 Tone Sunburst
BMG Special LE - 3 Tone Sunburst
BMG Special LE - 3 Tone Sunburst
BMG Special LE - 3 Tone Sunburst

BMG Special LE - 3 Tone Sunburst

List Price £995.00
UK Price  £895.00 Inc. 20% VAT
WORLDWIDE PRICE £745.83
(5 Reviews)
In Stock
Product Details
"The variety and uniqueness on offer here make this an outstanding
recording guitar when you've run out of options on your usual guitar" 
Jason Sidwell • Guitar Techniques

Brian May Guitars Special - 3 Tone Sunburst

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.

Acoustic Chambered Mahogany Body

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.

24" Scale Mahogany Neck

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. 

Tri-Sonic Style Pickups

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.

Original BM Switching System

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.

Wilkinson Knife-Edge Tremolo

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.

Locking Tuners

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.

Complete with Padded Gig Bag

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.

Specifications
Body Acoustic chambered mahogany with mahogany top
FINISH Gloss polyurethane
Binding 6-ply pinstripe, front and back
Neck 1-piece mahogany
NECK JOIN Set neck construction
Truss Rod Dual action / 440mm
Fingerboard Coromandel ebony
Frets 24 x medium jumbo 18% nickel/silver vintage size frets + zero fret
Fret Wire Crown Height: 0.914mm (0.036") / Crown Width: 2.7mm (0.106") / Radius: 230mm (9.0")
Inlays BM pattern white front + side dots (Φ 6mm / Φ 1.5mm)
StriNG GUIDE PPS (45mm x 6mm)
Pickups 3 x BM brand custom Tri-Sonic style series wired single coil pickups
Switches White slider switches – 3 x pickup on/off / 3 x pickup phase in/out
Controls Master volume / Master Tone (A500K / B500K) with BM replica aluminium control knobs
Bridge Wilkinson WVP 2-point, knife edge tremolo (36mm block) with brass saddles
Tremolo Arm Custom BMG arm with plastic tip
Machineheads 3-a-side chrome thumbwheel locking tuners with 18:1 gear ratio
Pickguards Plastic main control plate and half-moon tail plate with matching truss rod cover, black tremolo cavity cover
Overall Length 98.8cm (38.9")
Body Length 40.63cm (16")
Body Width 35.67cm (14")
Body Depth 40mm (1.57")
WEIGHT Approx. 3.2kg (7lb)
Scale 610mm (24")
FINGERBOARD RADIUS 250mm (9.8")
Neck Width at Nut 45mm (1.77")
Neck Width at 12th Fret 53mm (2.09")
Neck Width at 24th Fret 57mm (2.24")
Neck Depth at 1st Fret 22mm (0.87")
Neck Depth at 12th Fret 24mm (0.94")
String Spacing at Nut 36mm (1.42")
String Spacing at 12th Fret 45mm (1.77")
String Spacing at Bridge 54mm (2.13")
Strings D'Addario EXL120 Nickel Wound Super Light – Plain Steel .009 - .011 - .016 / Wound .024 - .032 - .042
INCLUDED GIG BAG Premium quality BMG gig bag with twin shoulder straps, side/front grab handles, dual zipped front pockets and stitched logo
Country Of Origin World Musical Instruments Co. Ltd., South Korea
Audio Demos

SIR Brian May

An exclusive demonstration of the first iteration of the BMG Special by the maestro himself.

 

Lucas Vianna

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.

 

Customer Reviews
Write a Review and share your opinions!
5 Reviews:

Rocks harder than anything out there
Rating:
27 May 2020  | 

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.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Perfect! Better than Fender!
Rating:
28 April 2020  | 

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 smooth
ebony 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.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Gorgeous
Rating:
27 September 2017  | 

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. ;-D

Should 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.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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I get it!
Rating:
22 November 2016  | 

I am glad to have the best guitar sound at an affordable price.

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Works Great!
Rating:
09 March 2016  | 

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.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful.
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