I have always wanted a Red Special. Queen is, without a doubt, my all time favorite band (and I am not only referring to the American standards of "we Will Rock You/We Are The Champions, etc. I mean songs like Scandal, Innuendo, Sleeping on the Sidewalk, etc.) so it would only make sense to make a Red Special.

So Cosmo and I hit the sawmill to find the perfect piece of wood. Yes, I work with Cosmo at Hetzer Guitars. Anyway, I found this big a** chunk of spalted hard maple and at that price, I couldn't go wrong.


Front of the Hard Maple


Back of the hard maple

We cut it in half using the circular saw (and that was NOT a fun task). Once we got it into two pieces, we threw it through the bandsaw and had a nice one piece blank.


Running it through the sander

I didn't have a template handy, so I just rough drew the body shape using the Burns pickguard I picked up a few years back.


Body roughly traced (I made it too big on purpose)

Onto the rough bandsaw cut. This is NOT the final cut.


Before the cut


The Rough Cut


Waiting for the final cut (notice the new lines)

So that's the beginning of the Red Special build. I plan on it being a neckthru with Tri-Sonic pups, etc. I am NOT sure, however, what type of trem I am going to put on it. I am not going to find the correct trem used (hell, Guild, Dillon, Burns, Stars and even the new line are all wrong), so I have to improvise. I don't want a "strat" style trem, and not a Floyd, so I am looking at a few others. Suggestions there would be helpful.

That's awesome. Sounds like a fun project.

Yeah, the trem is going to be the issue with me, seeing how I wont find the correct one. I am thinking of maybe a Kahler

Kahler would be awesome!

Probably the closest thing to Brian May's original is actually somewhere between the (totally non-functional) Gibson Maestro Trem as found on some SGs and Firebirds, and of all things the Fender Mustang/Jaguar/Jazzmaster trem - I know Warmoth sell the latter, but bear in mind that the really low break angle over the bridge, and lots and lots of small rattling bits are going to do very little for the sustain of the guitar!

How about the Wilkinson/Gotoh 2 point trem with the bolt down stainless steel saddles - I have always thought they are a particularly nice non-locking trem........

Project looking great - bet she's a bit on the weighty side!

Nice project! re the trem, how about this:

http://english.redspecialparts.com/p...o_unit_set.htm

cheers,

wemedge

Looks wonderful, but $600 + for a trem is out of my range. Especially when I could buy the new BHM for about a hundred dollars more, lol.

i like the trem in the ebmm jpm, i think it would look cool, but maybe it isn´t what your looking for.
that is a really nice project!

Few progress photos. Nothing major to report. Just some routing ...





I'm still unsure on the trem and will probably use the trem in the photo.

Wow! That's like, er, fanatical!

The guitar is looking great so far!

Interesting. I've heard that Spalted woods are great for a cap, but aren't the best for an entire body because the spalting is caused by parasites and causes problems with the entire body not resonating like other woods. Doesn't look like a heavy spalt so probably not an issue.

Trem update. We (Hetzer Guitars) are attempting to make our own. Many thanks to Cosmo who surprised me with this little dandy ...








It is sitting on a crap piece of wood and is just a prototype, but I think we will end up using our own trem. Makes finishing it a lot easier.

Well ... it's a dead build now, lol. After being at the Hard Rock and seeing a BHM sitting there, my build was too small, lol. Then I started pricing all the parts and I would be better off buying one than making one so I can be sure to get the "Brian May" Sound. Wasn't a total loss, but it was a learning experience.

Dude no point stopping when you are this far, I say keep on going until it's finished, should still be a sweet guitar.