The Fastlane Motorsports Forum

It's a Burns Red Special, a replica of Brian May's homemade guitar



Sorry, very dodgy photo

Nice guitar. That picture caused a weird flashback...

Welcome to this board Mark Knopfler!

Lets HiJack this thread.

This is now known as 'Caption this...'

"Sorry I've been away of late guys, I've been learning about 'Instruments'. I'm also going to be taking some time off soon. Tall Oaks Band Camp for me guys! I'm really looking forward to it!!"

Warren, how easy is this to do?:

http://sglguitars.s5.com/BurnsRed%20Spe ... allery.htm

The Burns model is nothing like the real one and that link shows various steps towards making it closer to the real thing...

Also, the pickup selectors are black when they should be white. Can I just remove them and spray them or paint them? Which would you recommend?

For an experienced craftsman, the Trem Conversion would be fairly simple to do. I don't think you have the skills for that, just yet. I don't understand the routing part. It doesn't look, at all, like the pickup cavity was routed...It looks like the bridge cavity was routed and then filled, moving it closer to the bridge pickup. The problem with this is that this changes the scale length of the instrument and would make the instrument never in tune with itself. Maybe I'm missing something, but that's what the picture is telling me. The routing job for the trem kit looks pretty shitty, too. Too many rough edges, even if it is covered. He should've put a layer of masking tape down, before routing.

As far as the color of the switches goes, I'd get white ones and solder them in. Painting them wouldn't look good, nor would it hold up to flicking, over time. There is an aerosol paint on the market which is supposed to bond to plastic at a molecular level, but the problem with that is the nozzle wouldn't be able to make the spray fine enough to look good The paint would tend to go on thick and fill the ridges on the switch tops.

Sorry for the negative comments but I've got a fair amount of experience doing this sort of thing.

4000 Pound replica of a guitar that cost Brian May 17.50 Pounds to make...

Ah, irony...

Warren wrote:For an experienced craftsman, the Trem Conversion would be fairly simple to do. I don't think you have the skills for that, just yet.

I don't have the skills for it full stop I'd get someone more professional to do it...maybe there's someone on my dad's side of the family who happens to have a few carpentry skills...

Warren wrote:I don't understand the routing part. It doesn't look, at all, like the pickup cavity was routed...It looks like the bridge cavity was routed and then filled, moving it closer to the bridge pickup.

What's routing actually mean?

Warren wrote:The problem with this is that this changes the scale length of the instrument and would make the instrument never in tune with itself.

Well, the thing with Brian May's real guitar is that pitch bends and moving the tremolo about doesn't affect the tuning at all. My Burns copy goes out of tune in the same way my shitty Squier strat did! And with the guitar modification in the link - the bridge itself doesn't move, although the tremolo bit of it does.

PTfan54 wrote:4000 Pound replica of a guitar that cost Brian May 17.50 Pounds to make...

Ah, irony...

No...profit

Nice Guitar Paul...........Lucky Bugger. Brian May would be plaesed .

PTRACER wrote:

Warren wrote:For an experienced craftsman, the Trem Conversion would be fairly simple to do. I don't think you have the skills for that, just yet.

I don't have the skills for it full stop I'd get someone more professional to do it...maybe there's someone on my dad's side of the family who happens to have a few carpentry skills...

Warren wrote:I don't understand the routing part. It doesn't look, at all, like the pickup cavity was routed...It looks like the bridge cavity was routed and then filled, moving it closer to the bridge pickup.

What's routing actually mean?

Warren wrote:The problem with this is that this changes the scale length of the instrument and would make the instrument never in tune with itself.

Well, the thing with Brian May's real guitar is that pitch bends and moving the tremolo about doesn't affect the tuning at all. My Burns copy goes out of tune in the same way my shitty Squier strat did! And with the guitar modification in the link - the bridge itself doesn't move, although the tremolo bit of it does.

In all honesty, I think it would take the skills of a luthier, more than a carpenter, but maybe.

Routing is the action of removing material with a router.

It's difficult to keep most non-locking tremolos in tune, actually. Having rollers in the bridge saddles and nut, along with locking tuners is the best bet. We're getting into physics on this one, but anyway.

Measure twice, cut once!

PTRACER wrote:
What's routing actually mean?

Isn't that the art of finding more than one way home?

Warren wrote:That picture caused a weird flashback...

Care to enlighten us.

Nope.