Brian May is best known for playing his self-made Red Special, and there’s a reason why he very rarely uses other guitars.

May crafted the original with help from his father as a teenager, but has also been known to play other models from brands like Fender and Gibson; he can even be spotted in the music video for Crazy Little Thing Called Love with a black Telecaster in-hand. Yet, according the Queen guitarist, no other electric models besides his Red Special have ever really felt like the right fit.

• READ MORE: Tony Iommi wanted Brian May to play on more of his new solo album: “But he went, ‘Oh no, it’s your album!’”

In an interview with radio station Planet Rock, May is asked by a listener what guitar he would play as his main instrument if he didn’t have his Red Special, to which he confesses he never found one to have his desired tone.

“Nothing ever really worked for me apart from my own one, it’s odd. I always found the Fenders too thin and scratchy for the sound I was trying to get, and I found the Gibsons a little too much in the other direction, a bit too dark. They didn’t have the crispness and the top end that I wanted.

“My guitar, partly by design and partly by good luck, sits somewhere in the middle. It also has a very wide range of tones because of the way I have hooked it up and wired pickups in series, but in phase and out of phase. So it has a wide range of bright to dark.”

He concludes, “I can only really get my sound with the guitar I created with my dad, or a copy of it. Now we make them, we sell them. I take great pride in the fact that they’re well made and they’re not too expensive… It’s an extension of me and always will be.”

Watch the interview below:

The Red Special might be the perfect fit for May, but other artists who have played it have found its build to be a little peculiar. Namely, Steve Vai recalled getting his hands on the original, and struggling to play it: “The neck is like a bat, it’s got like, what, gauge .08 strings? But it was a miracle to actually have the guitar under my fingers, and he allowed that. And Joe [Satriani] and I have had a great relationship with him since,” he said.

Rachel began writing for Guitar.com in 2021 while finishing up her degree. A proud DIY guitarist, she has been playing for over 10 years and has written for the likes of Kerrang!, The Forty-Five, and MusicTech. An enjoyer of all things heavy, you’ll find her at a festival or downtuning her guitars when away from her desk.