# Building a Brian May Red Special Guitar - The movie inspired me



## Rick Hubka

Hi People. I promised a few members I'd create a Build Thread for the guitar I'm building.

It's Rick Hubka here from Chemainus BC on Vancouver Island. I just retired 3 months ago and it's time to have some fun!!!!

I've always been a Queen and Brian May fan but the recent release of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody pushed me over the edge. I wanted to build an authentic copy of Brian's Red Special.

If you'd like to see a Red Special guitar made step by step, follow along. I do you my own CNC machine for wood carving. 5 years ago I built my own CNC machine because... I wanted it to make my guitar necks. The guitar can still be made with a router and other tools. It just takes longer.

I bought this book a few months back that brian co-wrote in 2014. It has a wealth of information on how the 1962-1964 homemade build was done.









I obtained the files for the plans here:
Plans | Red Special Library
for only $7.80 US. A steal.
The metric plans come in PDF, DXF, STEP, SolidWorks and Fusion 360. Wow!
I'd like to use Fusion 360 but... I'd have to become an advanced user over night. However, I am proficient in Vetric Aspire so...
I figured out how to get Fusion 360 to convert mm to inches and saved a copy. Easy. Next I split out the drawing into seperate components and saved them separately. Then I learned how to select the objects I wanted and saved them as drawings that I can export to DXF. Then I import the DXF into Vectric Aspire. Now in Aspire I have spent 50 hours so far manipulating measurements, creating toolpaths and creating a 3D model of the 3 connected holes for the Jack Plug.
Next I have to learn how to model the Red Special neck in Aspire and using this tutorial:
Making a Guitar Neck | Vectric
and others that could take another 100 hours. Yikes!

The Red Special (RS) Body is made up of 2x layers of 18-19mm blockboard (pinecore) these have solid Oak sections inserted to add strength which holds neck, tremolo, neck. The blockboard is hollowed out with a router or CNC, 16-17mm deep, so you don't go all the way through, the only totally through cut is the electronic chamber, some of this is under cut with the router/cnc.
The next layer(s) is mahogany veneer, which covers the entire body.

Brian and his dad got their blockboard from an old Oak dinning table they had. Maybe 100 years old now. Oddly enough I could source blockboard from the UK, but could not source it locally here in Canada. So like others who insist on an authentic build, I will make my own blockboard from pine wood and oak veneer covering layers.

I cut up enough pine blockboard wood for 2 guitars which means 4 layers of blockboard.









Once glued the blockboard pieces get a layer of oak veneer top and bottom that will never be seen later.
Later I even have to glue a 6 pence coin into the electronics cavity later that will never be seen.
Brian and his dad had never built a guitar and had no $ or cool tools like us. It's totally amazing what they did!!!
So... Just saying to do an authentic build requires I pretend I am in the UK in 1960 with no wood sources or modern tools at times 










Glue up 8 half layers of pine wood (alternating the end grain to minimize warping).
My planner is 13" wide and my pre-CNC pineboard width must be 15.5" to I need to glue up the pine in half's requiring 8 glue-ups for 2 guitars.









I cut out all large knots and made the pine pieces various lengths for authenticity.









More to follow in additional posts...


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## Rick Hubka

2nd Post.

Gluing pine half's together after running through the planner. I use a dowel jig to ensure a level fit.
All joints are checked for 90 degree edge and run through an edge planner if needed.










Next I will glue on the oak veneer to both sides of the the laminated pine that will never be seen 
Some builders use 2 layers of solid mahogany for this guitar.
I'll have 8 layers (2 pine), (4 oak veneer), (2 mahogany veneer) to be authentic.


Building a Red Special is takes a lot longer than most other guitars. It's a lot more work than building most electric guitars.
1) Making your own Pine blockboard with Oak veneer is a pain. Laminate various lengths/pieces of pine to 0.63" thickness, then add Oak veneer both sides. Much more work than I thought. I'd buy it locally if I could.

2) Parts/Hardware - It takes a lot of research to know what parts you need. Many parts are non-standard for an electric and only sold in the U.K. I got many parts here at Guitar and Woods in the U.K.:
RED SPECIAL PARTS KIT #1
Guitars and Woods - Luthier Supplies
I bought the pickups here:
Tri-sonic Vintage Guitar Accessories London

I have most parts now and it looks like it will cost me approximately $1100.00 U.S. for parts to build one Red Special. I'm building two.
Here's a picture of just some of the parts that have arrived:








Pickups from Burns of London in U.K.









Gluing Oak Veneer to one side of a Pine Blockboard.









Clamping









More to follow in additional posts...


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## Rick Hubka

3rd post

It's Blockboard now!









Countless fun hours taking Fusion 360 sketches and exporting them to DXF files to be able to import into Vectric Aspire. Then modify and creating toolpaths. The big opening in the middle of the left body gets a solid piece of oak. Why? It's for the bridge to neck connect and... that's how Brian May and his dad built the original Red Special in the early 60's.










I have been very busy converting measurments and drawing in Vectric Aspire to get the bloakboard pieces for the Red Special ready for cnc cutout. Way too many hours!

With the Bloakboard ready I screwed down the 4 corners and had the cnc drill needed holes that will later be used for screwing the 2 bloackboard halfs together









Then I cut the large piece of oak which will be inserted into this layer.









I CNC cut the recess for the oak into the bloackboard. I could spread the hole using a relief cut I made at the top and that same cut allowed me to clamp the oak insert. My first oak piece was too small but my second try fit perfect. I always seem to have trouble with clearances for inlays 









More to follow in additional posts...


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## Rick Hubka

4th post

This is the drawing I used to create the cutting toolpaths for this lower bloackboard piece. It's one of a dozen drawings I'm working on for the multi piece body, neck and fretboard. I have to hand it to Brian May and his father. They created a very unique work of art when they built the Red Special by hand in the early 60's.









After glueing in the Oak I ran the first set of toolpath cuts on the oak for the guitar tremelo cavities here.









Yeehaw!!! bliss The bottom bloackboard piece is done. The large left cavity is half of the guitars internal acoustic chamber. The large right cavity is for the electrics.









Front angle









Test fit the Tremelo assembly I purchased in the UK. Brian's tremelo is a one of a kind!









Hopefully I'll update the build with pictures of the upper bloackboard layer in about a week because the drawing is 90% done.
Cheers!


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## nnieman

That’s awesome!

I’m definitely following along!

Nathan


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## reckless toboggan

Subscribed.

Unreal work.


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## RBlakeney

awesome work!


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## cboutilier

Ditto. I'm especially interested in learning about your CAD work.


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## greco

Thanks for this thread and for all of the pics. This build is amazing!


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## Rozz

Impressive stuff. I hope it exceeds your expectations.

Sidebar: Chemainus is a cool little place. My mom lives on SSI and I take her back-and-forth to Duncan via the Vesuvius ferry for Dr. appts.a couple of times a year. If she behaves sometimes I take her to Chemainus for ice cream. ;-)


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## Rick Hubka

Hi People
Just a small update on an important 3" wide piece of oak for the bridge and temolo mount I just CNC cut this morning. 
Note... This piece is my second try  The first one failed quality control 
This piece gets glued into a small recess in the lower large oak piece. It will protrude up into the upper Blockboard piece.









Here the small oak piece sits in it's home and it am test fitting the purchased tremolo and bridge parts.









Trivia time...
Did you know that Brian May has used a UK 6 pence coin as a guitar pick his whole life?
He glued a 6 pence coin on the head stock of his Red Special guitar and glued a 6 pence coin inside the guitar electrics cavity.
I purchased 50 of the old 6 pence coins on eBay for $10









Another update next week. I hope.
Cheers


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## greco

Pics are not showing on todays post.


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## Rick Hubka

greco said:


> Pics are not showing on todays post.


You're too fast for me...%h(*&

Pics up now!


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## Guest

Rick Hubka said:


> I purchased 50 of the old 6 pence coins on eBay for $10


How many BM specials do you plan to make?


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## Rick Hubka

laristotle said:


> How many BM specials do you plan to make?


 Why 50 pence coins? On eBay it was $3 for 1..... $10 for 50. Thought I'd try using them for a pick but doubt I'll like that.

I'm building 2 Red Specials. Might be finished in August sometime??? One for myself and 1 to sell. Then... I may make 2 more??? This guitar is quite complex to build so the first one takes a long time. Brian and his father spent 2 years designing and building his original. I just retired 3 months and I'm one of those guys who has to stay busy all the time. Maybe build 5 or 6 guitars a year?
There is more than a dozen builders making Red Special copies including Brian May himself who gets a version manufactured in Korea. 2 companies in the UK sell the hardware kits for making a Red Specials. Excluding painting all the parts for 1 Red Special cost me $1100 US. I Don't know how long this first one will take to build yet but my CAD drawing time will be over 100 hours because I'm slow at it.

Hey... I'm retired now. It's most important I have fun with this project.

Cheers


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## Frenchy

Great thread, amazing work !


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## Sneaky

Yup. This is my favourite thread of the year! Awesome work.


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## Dorian2

Just saw this. Great work. Following this one.


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## MarkusV

That trem system has always fascinated me.
So well designed and robust. I'd like to build one for myself (the tremolo that is) -stick it in a custom strat or even a les paul type guitar


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## Rick Hubka

"The Naked Red Special" coming soon Not really... I'm just giving my future experiment a name. This is just a 1 day test of a RS with no body.

I have had so many wonderful comments on this build. Thanks!

People especially liked how complex and fantastic the "small tremolo/bridge oak block" is that I'm going to spill my guts on a cool surprise project diversion I have for you all soon.

Here goes... I think Brian and his father unknowingly created kind of an electric guitar system just by the way they designed and built the Red Special's internals. I mean internals could remain the same and they could have wrapped any shape electric guitar body around it.

To prove my "Brian May Guitar System" theory I am going to assemble and play a "Naked Red Special". I'll start by putting together just the RS internal 2 oak blocks and the neck.
Then install the tremolo/bridge and pickups, ETC. Then plugin and play my RS naked. It will look like a skinny travel guitar or... something like this...
The marvel of CAD eh! (Canadians love to say eh)









The wiring? Oh... it will be a hanging mess but we don't care.

I'm really excited about doing this little diversion project in the middle of my RS build. I will take lots of pictures and maybe a video.

Stay tuned for my "Naked Red Special" experiment in mid June.

Ok. Back to my RS build. Being retired now is so cool. I have so much time to do silly little fun things!

Cheers
Rick Hubka


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## reckless toboggan

Rick Hubka said:


> "The Naked Red Special" coming soon


At first I was very worried.

.
.
.


Then I read on,... and now I'm intrigued.


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## Markus 1

I admire your commitment. This is a big project


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## Rick Hubka

Hi Gang.
This update demonstrates making the upper blockboard cnc cut steps. This is more work than the lower bloackboard was because we need to make the top/bottom cuts precisely aligned cuts on both sides of this piece.

Cutting the Upper side of the top Blockboard piece. Some of these cuts only go part way through with the full cut being completed from the underside. I spent hours deciding and planning how this piece would best be cnc cut from 2 sides.









Ok... The upper side is cut and I am very pleased!









Now the piece is turned over and I had to align the 5 screw you see here to 5 screw holes I cut into the cnc table surface. I was very worried about this because I had never cut 2-sided on my cnc machine before where the top and bottom machining must line up 100%. I built this cnc machine myself 5 years ago but had never had the need to do precise 2-sided until today. Yikes!









Well it's seems to be cutting in the right areas? I hope I have not destroyed the whole piece??? I need the line up to be within 1/100th of an inch!









Here a big 1/2" bit is clearing out 95% of the 2 large pockets fast before before a 3/16" smaller bit tidyies up the edges. Saves 1 hour of cutting time that way. I use Vectric Aspire CAD/CAM software to draw and create the toolpath files for the cnc machine. The software cost $2k US. Yikes again!









Continued...


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## Rick Hubka

Continuation from above.

I am over the top happy with the alignment of the 2 cuts. It was perfect!









Showing you how the 2 blockboard pieces are like a clam shell which will soon be glued and screwed together. Man... How did Brian ever design this baby that long ago!









It's starting to look like a guitar! We have the blockboard wood portion of the Red Special body build done. This will all be covered with a beautiful layer of red mahogany veneer soon. But before that there is a lot of work ahead of me. The neck and fret board. The wiring, Staining. Painting. ETC...









Stay tuned. I'll have another update in about a week.

Cheers
Rick Hubka


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## bolero

fascinating, I had no idea they put that much work into designing that thing


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## Markus 1

Interesting ...so Brian is a musician and his dad had no interest in rock n roll. 
He approached things like an engineer or a designer. Takes the emotion and preconceptions out of it I think. I love that kind of collaboration.
These folks ask questions and when you try to answer you go: "huh"?
"Oh ok maybe this was a cost saving measure that became tradition"

Teaches me a hell of a lot when speaking with non musicians


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## Rick Hubka

I had someone comment on wanting me to work faster to I could post more updates. I'd like that too but...

This post shows one of many small obscurities in the RS build. It will also show that I am cursed with being way over the top obsessed with detail and doing it right.

Brian installed 6 posts (nails) in the electrical cavity to connect the 3 pickups to the 6 switches. Now normally we just solder pickups directly to the one 3-way switch (or other) and there is no posts or nails. Us RS builders believe that Brian did this so he could repeatadly test and modify pickup phase/polarity etc.
See the 6 yellow wires in the picture. The posts have square holes around them cut into the shielding copper foil to ensure the grounded foil does not touch the posts.










Questions I have about what I see here are:
Are those nails directly pounded into the wood or are they insulated? Do they need to be insulated? I have a pinned moisture meter that tells me the mositure content in a piece of wood. Moisture means electrical connectivity. The UK. has high humidity the same as where I live on an island off the west coast of Canada. I have a dehumidifier in my shop that keeps the humidity at 35% if it is greater.

So... To make a long story short... I have decide to insulate the posts/nails from the wood. I have also decided to protect the wood from the wire soldering heat.

Common solder melts at 370 F. But someone soldering will often heat the surface past that temperature.
I researched and have decided to seat the nails in High temperature Gasket Silicone.
I bought and tested with an ohm meter what I hoped would do the job. Tested it. No connectivity after curing. Excellent!










Specifically I am using Permatex Ultra Copper Silicone which protects against temperatures uo to 600/700 F.









Ok. Time to install my 0.097" nails into Ultra Copper. I trimed them with bolt cutters and touched them up on my grinder.

Can I work faster and post more updates? Not likely. It's Brians fault not mine. 

Hey... White plastic binding material arrived in the mail today!

Cheers
Rick hubka


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## Rick Hubka

Oh.... I just saw this and it is so good!!!
As you probably know Brian May used a Treble Booster.
Well today Pete Thorn just posted a new video titled...
TREBLE BOOSTERS- the most UNDERRATED GUITAR EFFECT!
The video starts off featuring the Brian May sound.
If you enjoy Brian May guitar sound, this video is a must see.





Cheers


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## vokey design

Rick Hubka said:


> Oh.... I just saw this and it is so good!!!
> As you probably know Brian May used a Treble Booster.
> Well today Pete Thorn just posted a new video titled...
> TREBLE BOOSTERS- the most UNDERRATED GUITAR EFFECT!
> The video starts off featuring the Brian May sound.
> If you enjoy Brian May guitar sound, this video is a must see.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers


Thanks for sharing, love May, love Pete and loving this thread so far


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## Anthony G

Here’s my homemade build.










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## Anthony G

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## Anthony G

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## LanceT

Anthony G said:


> Here’s my homemade build.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Nice, but you should start your own thread.


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## Rick Hubka

Beautiful work Anthony
From the outside it looks very authentic right down to locking tuners with Pearloids!
Are the internals authentic also? How long ago did you build it?
Today I made a test fretboard and am glad I tested the process first. May do another test tomorrow. CNC is wonderful but... It can be a real pain at times too 
Cheers
Rick Hubka


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## Anthony G

Rick Hubka said:


> Beautiful work Anthony
> From the outside it looks very authentic right down to locking tuners with Pearloids!
> Are the internals authentic also? How long ago did you build it?
> Today I made a test fretboard and am glad I tested the process first. May do another test tomorrow. CNC is wonderful but... It can be a real pain at times too
> Cheers
> Rick Hubka



Hi Rick,

The inside is pretty much as close as you can get. The pickups are Authentic Adesons. They are vintage correct to the 1960s Trisonics. I didn’t build it. It was built by a guy I know in the States. 
It’s quite the beast to play but it sounds pretty damn good.










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## Mooh

This is one of the greatest threads. Fascinating.

Don't know what my retirement will look like, but tinkering with guitars will certainly be a huge part of it. Often thought about combining some Red Special features with either a Tele or Strat...or a lapsteel.


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## Rick Hubka

Hey Mooh
When designing/building, Brian's actually planned to have an F hole cut in the top of the acoustic chamber of the Red Special. He just never got around to it. Building an semi-acoustic F hole Tele would allow all the Red Special parts to be installed. When would be a cool project?!?!


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## Anthony G

This is an F hole one add by Brian May’s luthier, Guyton Guitars in the UK. He uses this guitar on the recent Queen concerts for playing Crazy Little Thing Called Love.


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## Rick Hubka

Sorry. Almost 2 weeks since an update I had some non guitar projects that needed doing.

Black acrylic paint, cooper foil tape and a 6 pence coin. Still need to solder the tape layers together. Then I'll be able to permanently glue/screw/join the upper and lower halfs









Picture of Brian's Red with the 6 pence when his paint job was refurbished and the binding repaired. His has cooper foil now too.









I wanted to mix up the build process a bit so decided to work on the shiney black oak fretboard.
Mahogany neck stock to the right. Oak fretboard center. One of 4 pine test fretboards was just radius cut. Far left is a radius sanding block I just cut to sand the fretboard.
Yes... no way I'm going to cnc that oak until I have done several tests with some cheap pine fretboard material.









I made a jig to hold the fretboard on edge while drilling the tiny fret side dots and lines. Brian's side dots consist of 1, 2, and 3 dot sets as well as a couple of lines.









Originally Brian's side dots were just painted on the side. But now they are inlay-ed and filled with white epoxy. That's why I have that bottle of epoxy white pigment there so I can do the same.









Continued below...


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## Rick Hubka

I'm so glad I'm testing with cheap pine. We can see here (on the 24th fret) that I need to make a tiny shift to the left to line up the side dots.









Ok... Testing almost done. Time to cut, dye and grain fill an oak fretboard.









StewMac's Black Fingerboard Stain is actually "India Ink" so I bought Super Black India ink from a local Art store. I gave the fretboard 2 coats of dye.









Look at those huge deep pores! Tomorrow I'll start to grain fill that dyed oak wood. I'm going to use "Aqua Coat". It's a clear water base filler and has been used by many luthiers for several years now. Just don't use it on Koa wood.
There are dozens of YouTube video demo's on using Aqua Coat.









That's all for now folks. Hope to have another update in about a week.

Cheers


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## Rick Hubka

Hi. It's been a few weeks. Was waiting for more parts and had friends visit for a week.

Continued... The fretboard - Usually fretboards are not oak and they are not painted black like the RS.
When I installed the pearl dots and sanded them down, about half the black ink dye was sanded off. So I re-dyed it black but... the pearl absorbed some black and each dot was cleaned with a Q-Tip and solivent.
So I still had a second fretboard to make and decided to improve the process.
On the second fretboard I drilled the 1/4" pearl dot holes first. Then filed the holes with black epoxy before inserting the pearl 6mm dots which are a tad smaller than 1/4". The black epoxy fills the larger hole and there is no gap.
Once the epoxy sets I radius the fretboard with dots and no sanding is required. Nice! 









Then before putting on the black dye I covered the pearl dots with 1/4" red stickers from the local stationary store.









The fret slots will be done after a clear finish is applied to the fretboard to eliminate masking the frets.

The bridge has 6 brass nuts that hold down the 6 aluminum pieces. The brass nuts are epoxied into 6 pocketed holes in the oak bridge block. To ensure perfect alignment I temporarily crazy glued the 6 aluminum pices together and mounted the 6 brass nuts. Once assembled I epoxied the brass into the oak block.









The tremolo blade is held in place by 3 screws and (2 bolts that go right through the guitar body). Brian did not want it to come loose because mahogany veneer will cover the tremolo blade. I have pointed out the 2 bolts on the blade with red arrows and show the 2 back nuts on the body back which again will be covered with mahogany veneer.
The tremolo arm pivots on the blade. The string tension and the 2 motor cycle valve springs tension keep the tremolo arm balanced. This system along with using a zero fret allows the guitar to stay in tune better than most guitars.









In this image I have glued the upper and lower half's of the body together. I removed the tremolo blade and soldered a ground wire to the metal tremolo tension block. Also soldered the pieces of copper foil together in the electrical cavity. Painted the neck cavity black. Showing both fretboards.









Continued...


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## Rick Hubka

Continued...

Mahogany Veneer Color - I have hundreds of images of the Red Special guitar and 90 of them are of the origional. Yet... most of the color pictures show Brian Mays Red Special in different colors for one reason or another. This image shows 6 different colors and all 6 are of Brian's original guitar.









In the last few weeks I have been experimenting with many stains ($$$) on the mahogany veneer I have made the decision. The stain below gives me the red shade I want. I also added the stain to the grain filler. Once a high gloss finish is applied it will look stunning. I hope you agree?









Next...
Veneer the body and add the top/bottom white bindings.
Make the neck.

I'll have an update in about a week just before we jump on a bird to a family wedding.

Cheers
Rick Hubka


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## Dorian2

Pretty amazing so far. Thanks again for sharing this.


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## sambonee

Agreed. You’ve got some fine skills.


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## Markus 1

Hey Sean...
He has patience and skill. You and I talk about this quite a bit

I have patience but little discipline


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## sambonee

Cheers to that.


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## Crisp

You're doing some great work, Rick! Happy to be able to follow your progress.


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