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'm not giving it 5 stars, because 5 stars would go to the guitar you built - or tailored - yourself... and occupies a special place in your ears and heart. Still, after owning two BMs from different eras and crafts (industrial and luthier) - and RS-izing myself other old guitars - I must say THIS instrument speaks to the heart. You'll be drawn to play B's riffs all the time, sure... but hey, that's cool. Explore this instrument in other ways and you'll be surprised what you can achieve creatively. The thinner neck and the other features that make this guitar different from the "Old Lady" are fundamental to achieve that freedom with such an iconic instrument.
I have been eyeing the LE Natural wood design for some time to go with my Cherry Red. It is one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever seen, sounds amazing and feels right while playing.
Love it. Also, my brother was a guitar tech and he said it's really well put together guitar.
I Received my BMG Natural and it is absolutely beautiful, the sales team were fabulous and very professional.I can't recommend BMG instruments highly enough, they are simply amazing – "Treat yourself and rock on".
It´s a piece of art. The natural colour of the wood further enhances the beauty of the guitar. It´s pleasurable to play it, and the switches allow you to discover new sounds, and try to play the wonderful songs of Queen.
Great guitar for the price!Always loved the unstained wood!
Coming from a Strat style guitar, a MusicMan Silhouette, the BMG with its small scaling is so much fun to play, so easy. I found myself grabbing the BMG more and more and now it has become MY GUITAR. For those of you who like playing lots of soulful bendings (and hate blisters on the fingers)... try it out P.S. Im using the BMG together with 008 Pyramid String (one of the softest strings) and need only two spring of the tremolo, which pushes the softness even further. Cheers, Andy!
This is an amazing guitar, and I’m so happy that I purchased it. The different tones you can get on this guitar make you want to play it for hours. It is beautiful in every aspect, and the attention to detail is flawless. I was hesitant for years on buying a guitar that I would not be able to play prior to purchasing, and I live in the USA. This is the easiest guitar I have ever played. The shipping was great as it only took four days. This guitar gets rave reviews. Now I know why
Thank you, Brian, for making these wonderful guitars, I have played Strats, PRS, Ibanez and Jacksons and the minute I picked this up, I knew it was right. Thank you for your build quality, for your quality control, for your amazing price point – bearing in mind the quality of the instrument, you and your father sure designed a great guitar, love and peace.
The guitar has arrived perfectly to my home. The finish is a little bit more bright than image in the website but it's okay anyway, the Antique Cherry finish (that I have) is too dark. Anyway, I changed the pickups with a set wound by me with right isotropic ferrite magnets (as with Antique Cherry) and now it sounds perfectly. Nice guitar, nice job, nice website. Greetings from Southern Italy!!
Where to start with this review? I originally bought a 'standard' Red Special for my son's Christmas and was mightily impressed to the point of buying myself one too. I bought the LE Natural one and it's such a versatile guitar. I love Brian May (who doesn't?) but I play all styles of music and went for this guitar because it really covers all the bases. You won't be disappointed with this instrument. It joins another 14 guitars and since it arrived, they haven't been out of the cases.A quick word on the service from BMG / House Music. I had emailed asking a question re. the finish on the natural guitar and rather than an email response, received a phone call to explain the answer to me from Barry Moorhouse himself, who promptly asked how my son was getting on with his RS and had we received the pick guard screw I had requested. The service and attention to detail is fabulous and was the deciding factor for me when I bought my own.Thanks again folks - Great product & experience!
First off, what a beautiful piece of craftsmanship this is! While a natural finish like this can be considered easier to produce, the final product is just spectacular to look at. As far as the instrument plays, the fretboard and associated action feels very comfortable under the fingers. Though it is a bit wider than I'm personally used to, that will just take a little time to become accustomed. The slightly shorter than typical Gibson and Fender scale length certainly allows for easier bending, I definitely appreciate the locking tuners in conjunction with the tremolo system - pitch doesn't seem to go out very easily, even when you really crank on the bar! The use of a "0 fret" instead of a traditional nut is an interesting design choice as well - this may only be my experience, but when bending the G string, the upper part of the string past the nut vibrates, creating a very high pitch. You don't really hear it when the instrument is plugged in, and it in no way effects the playability. It's just a funny quirk. Now for the way it sounds, I couldn't say enough good things! I love the simplicity of one volume and one tone knob to control everything. Simplicity in performance settings is really crucial, and despite having three pickups, managing everything with so little makes for a smoother experience (at least for me!). Not to mention, the wide variety of tones you can get by rolling on or off either of the knobs. That, in addition to what this guitar is so famous for - its ability to pair unusual pickups and switch their phasing - make for a truly versatile color palette. When paired with a treble boosting pedal, the instrument shines like no other! It's also pretty lightweight which is nice on the shoulder. Bravo, BMG. You've really got a wonderful product to showcase!
I only started playing 2 years ago and I've had many guitars trying to find the right one. I have three now after buying and selling some - A Strat, a Gibson SG copy, and now the Brian May Special. It is without a doubt the best of them and the one I play most. I seem to be able to get any tone out of it. It’s a beautiful guitar, so well made. I always dreamed of a guitar that could do everything, I even thought of putting a humbucker onto my strat with 3 single coils but couldn’t find a place for it. I could go on here for ages about everything that’s great about this guitar, but let me just say that everything is great on this guitar. The pickups designed by Brian May are just perfect, you can use the neck on its own and it sounds as good, maybe even better, then a custom shop Strat pickup (I had a set before), but this guitar has so much more tone than that from the other pickups and selections. It can be a chill out clean tone, beautiful guitar tone, or an absolute snarling beast with the best and most distinctive voice ever heard. I got the natural LE one and I love it. JUST GET IT! You will not regret it
These guitars are the best I've ever played and have the amazing Brian May tone, these are totally worth every penny!
The Special is the nicest guitar I have played, full stop. Without plugging it in, the neck, the fretboard and action are superb. Amplified, a really wide range of tones is available. I can't recommend these guitars highly enough.This is not the only Special I own. I bought a new, old-stock Burns Red Special a few years ago and since then have rarely picked up another guitar. I don't have time for the narrow neck, nasty frets and high tension of my Stat any more. I love the ability of a single coil pickup to cut through in a band and for decades, the Strat was my main guitar. But once you get used to playing on a wider neck with smoother frets, it's hard to go back. The Strat is really a guitar designed for cheap mass production and though it sounds great, the Special is a far more modern approach to a guitar - which is odd since the Red Special appeared a long time ago.Since getting a Red Special, my style of playing has changed a lot. I play far higher up the neck and bend a lot more - the 600mm scale length makes big bends easy and painless. The action and neck are as fast as a Maton and they're hard to beat but perhaps a little too thin...Well, I worried a lot about my Burns getting knocked off or broken and at some stage put my name down for a Super. Now here's the difficult bit - I slightly prefer the Special. This isn't so much because of the daunting size of the neck on the Super, you get used to that fairly soon and it appears to make things like hammering on a little more accurate. It's mostly to do with the tremolo. The one fitted to Burns and the BMG Specials can be used with the palm of your hand to give a really nice vibrato. Because the Super has a different style and position of tremolo, this can't be done.By mistake, I played a current spec BMG Special in a shop and found it had all the good features of the Burns version, and a bit more all around. The neck and string alignment is a bit better and strings don't fall off the side or get caught under a fret end and the Wilkinson tremolo works the same way. The other thing is that the Super is a bit too nice to play all the time (sorry, it's my problem!) so I decided to get the BMG Special, and it had to be the LE so I didn't get them mixed up, even though that ran the risk that "the authorities" might say that one had to go!What puzzles me a bit is how the great man himself (with a little help from his dad) came up with a guitar so good all those years ago, and no manufacturer from the other side of the pond thought to copy it. I see people playing Les Pauls and Stratocasters (mine's actually a "The Strat") and wonder if they have tried a Special. Why would you play anything else? (Unless it's that nice, very special, green Guyton semi-accoustic).
This guitar is very nicely finished and well built. Out of the box it was very well set up and the frets were well polished making bending strings and vibrato almost effortless.It has a very comfortable neck profile even for my large hands, it is well balanced and comfortable when sitting down or standing. The tremolo system stays in tune far better than similar units I have used - I assume this is down to the combination of the straight pull through the nut, 2 point tremolo, locking tuners and shorter scale length.As for the sound, even without any effects you can hear these pickups have their own tone and once you start experimenting with the switches you start to realise the extent of the tonal pallete, but to get the most out of it and try to sound like Brian you definitely need the treble booster, chorus etc.So if you need upgrade your guitar or are looking for inspiration, try a RS or one of the LE's as you can never have too many tones.
This guitar looks great, the finish is very well done and the sonic possibilities are endless. The sounds you can get out of this guitar are really amazing and It surely has that Brian May tone to It. Marvelous instrument!!!
Outstanding guitar beautifully built and fantastic sound and tones.
Ordered this guitar from House Music and it arrived quickly and set up to perfection for me. It's my second Brian May guitar as I bought one about 4 years ago and I can tell you the quality was good then, but the new example I got has shown me the quality is even better now. I got the extras for free as well (Replica Control Knobs/BMG Microfibre Cloth/Elites Strings/Brian May Sixpence/BMG T-Shirt)which is a bonus.This guitar looks and plays superb.
