| Burns Brian May Red Special with
hardshell Burns case. Burns London ran
their Brian May Signature guitar from
October 2001 to July 2004. After this point,
Brian's organisation took control of the
manufacture and distribution of the guitar,
using essentially the same design. This
guitar took over two years to come to
fruition, with considerable input from Brian
himself. The development process involved 22
prototype models (of which there were 6
major steps), with additional pre-production
prototypes once the design was finalised.
The construction of the guitar has been
compromised a little to keep costs down -
the choice of wood and the tremolo unit are
the most obvious differences from the
original Red Special. However, the guitar
does feature the excellent Burns Tri-Sonic
pickups. These guitars feature a mahogany
body and neck - some early prototypes were
made from basswood and this was erroneously
reported in some magazines as being used for
the production models, which are in fact
mahogany.
Several colours were available. Vintage
Cherry Red is obviously the most popular
choice, but three-tone sunburst, green, blue
and black models were also available. Gold
and 'honeyburst' custom models with gold
hardware are also available in limited
numbers.
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