The Brian May Gibson SJ-200 12-string in the hands of the artist himself.
Together, with a legion of Vox AC30s and a few effects, May and his homemade Red Special have created some of the richest, most glorious guitar sounds that have ever been documented. It is with that guitar in his hands that he’s crafted everything from his velveteen guitar orchestras to his frenetic riffs and luxuriant harmonies to his effortlessly lyrical leads, which matched the dramatic melodic motifs of Freddie Mercury in one of the most dynamic lead singer/guitarist pairings in rock music.
Although it has a smaller role in his body of work, overshadowed by such an accomplished, prolific electric guitar C.V., May’s acoustic playing is a major part of the story of his music. His bold opening strums of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are some of the most recognizable D-major chords in the classic-rock canon, and his supportive work on “Spread Your Wings” adds lush dimension between Freddie Mercury’s arpeggiated piano chords and his rich electric guitarmonies. The multi-tracked 12-string figure that opens “’39”—his “cosmic folk song”—is among his most recognizable.
It’s a surprise, then, that when I ask May about the acoustic guitars used while recording with Queen, the most notable is his Hallfredh acoustic, a “cheap as hell” guitar from a virtually unknown brand. “My little old acoustic, which I swapped with my dear friend at school,” he reminisces. “The strings were so low on it that everything buzzed like a sitar. I capitalized on that and put pins on it instead of the bridge saddles, and you can hear that stuff on ‘The Night Comes Down’ [from Queen]. I used it all the way through Queen’s recordings, like on ‘Jealousy’ [from Jazz] years later and lots of things.” He also recalls his Ovation 12-string and some others, but the Hallfredh remains in the foreground of his acoustic memories.
The cosmic inlays on the Brian May SJ-200 represent the rock legend’s work in the field of astrophysics, in which he holds a PhD.
In recent years, May has been performing the 1975 ballad and emotional Mercury vehicle “Love of My Life,” which appears on A Night at the Opera, as an acoustic tribute to the late singer. May and his acoustic 12-string sit center stage each night as he leads the crowd through a heartwarming rendition of the song, joined at its climax by a video of Mercury. For that powerful, commanding moment, he’s relied on “a number of guitars we won’t mention, but it just came to the point where I’m thinking, ‘This isn’t sounding as good as I would like it to.’”
At one concert, a Gibson representative who was around piped up and offered to make him a guitar to his specs specifically for this piece. “I was surprised that they would notice me in the first place,” May recalls, “because part of me never grew up.” A surprising take from a rock star of such stature, but he explains, “I’m still a kid who was reading the Gibson catalogs and not able to afford anything, seeing the SGs and the Les Pauls and dreaming of being able to own a Gibson guitar. I now have a couple of the SGs, which I absolutely love, but, of course, I made my own guitar and I now have my own guitar company, so I went a different way. But to me this was a joy that they would offer to make me a guitar, which I could take out onstage.”
After building one for the guitarist, Gibson created a limited edition run of 100 instruments of the new model, called the Brian May SJ-200 12-string. Featuring a AAA Sitka spruce top with a vintage sunburst finish, AAA rosewood back and sides, a 2-piece AAA maple neck with walnut stringer, and a rosewood fretboard, it’s a top-of-the-line acoustic. The most noticeable feature on the SJ-200 is probably the string arrangement, which is flipped—as is most commonly found on Rickenbacker 12-strings—with the lower string above the higher string in each course. May has made that modification on other 12s, because he likes to string the high string first when fingerpicking. “You get an incredibly pure sound that way,” he points out. “‘Love of My Life’ is a good example—if it’s strung the other way, it sounds very different.”
On its pickguard, all seven of the other planets in our solar system are etched. The shaded one, close at hand, is Mercury, a tribute to the Queen singer.
May’s aesthetic customizations draw from his astrophysics work and add a personal sparkle to the large-bodied acoustic. The pickguard features a custom design with the seven other planets in the system, which is to say, not Earth. Mercury sits close at hand, a tribute to the singer. The fretboard and headstock include 8-point star inlays—to give a “more cosmic feeling”—that are made from agoya shell, as are the bridge inlays.
“It became a discussion about art and science, which I love,” May says of the design process. “That’s probably the biggest thread in my life, this path trodden, some people would say, between art and science. But I would say that they’re the same thing. So, I just tread among art and science.”
May’s own Gibson has already appeared in concert during the “Love of My Life” segment of Queen’s show, and occasionally for “’39.” On social media, where May stays active, many fans caught a glimpse of the guitar when he posted a new song for Christmas Eve. “I just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and that’s the way it came out,” he says. “It was incredibly spontaneous. I wanted it to be a gift. I didn’t want it to be, in any way, a way of advertising or making money or anything. It was just a Merry Christmas gift to whoever wants to listen to me.”
“It became a discussion about art and science, which I love,”
While that was one of the first things created with the new Gibson, he has more plans. “I’ve been playing around with it. In fact, we’ve been dropping the D,” he says, hinting at some future plans with guitarist-vocalist Arielle. “I have quite a few songs with the bottom D dropped. I haven’t normally played them acoustic or 12-string, but I’m discovering that some of that sounds really good. It gets such a lovely big clang and a big depth to it.”
Recently, May spent a great deal of time looking back as the band prepped the Queen I box set. The remixed, remastered, and very expanded version of their 1973 debut, Queen—they’ve added the “I” here—which was released last October, encompasses a rebuild of the entire record, plus additional takes, backing tracks, a version recorded specifically for John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show, and a 1974 live concert recording from London’s Rainbow Theatre.
May says of his new Gibson: “To me, this was a joy that they would offer to make me a guitar."
Revisiting this early document over 50 years later, it’s amazing to hear how well-developed the guitarist’s sound already was—full of the propulsive riffs and harmonies that would become part of his signature. May concurs, “You go back into these tracks quite forensically, and I hear myself in the naked tracks and I think, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize that I could do that at that point.’ It must have happened very quickly.”
Reflecting on those formative times, he continues, “I think there’s a period of just exploding, knowing what it is in your head, and striving to make what you play match what’s in your head. But I see it in other people, too. Sometimes, I go back and listen to the first Zeppelin album, and they were pretty young when they made that. But I think, ‘My God, how did they get that far and so quick?’”
“I thought guitars do work as primary orchestral instruments, so that’s what I want to do.”
Before Queen, May had already recorded a two-part guitar solo on the song “Earth,” a late-’60s track recorded with his earlier band, Smile, which also featured future Queen drummer Roger Taylor. While that lead certainly points toward the ambition in May’s later work, its raw untamedness doesn’t quite show evidence of his ultimate precision. But he says he had it in mind from early on. “There weren’t any more tracks to do three parts” when they recorded with Smile, he says, “but I always dreamed of it. It goes back a long, long way to hearing harmonies in other ways from the Everly Brothers, from Buddy Holly and the Crickets, from all sorts of things that we were listening to when we were kids.
“I wanted to make the sound of an orchestra just using guitars, and there’s other little inspirations along the way,” he continues. “Jeff Beck was an inspiration because there’s that wonderful track, ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining,’ which Jeff hated. But there’s one bit where he double-tracks the solo and in just one point it breaks into a two-part harmony, probably by accident. I guess I should have asked him—damn well wish I had. But that sound echoed in my head, and I thought guitars do work as primary orchestral instruments, so that’s what I want to do. I could hear it in my head for a long time before I could make it actually happen.”
Brian May and his Red Special at a recent concert.
Photo by Steve Rose
Though the Queenrecording sessions gave the guitarist his first opportunity to explore the larger harmonized sections that would become part of his signature, many of the sounds on the record left the band dissatisfied. Recorded at Trident Studios in London, the young band could only afford to use the room during downtime. Over the course of four months, they had sessions, usually at night, with in-house producers John Anthony and Roy Thomas Baker, both early supporters. However, the Trident style and sound wasn’t what Queen had in their collective ears, and they’ve remained unhappy with the sonic quality of their debut all these years.
The drums were the band’s primary issue, which Taylor describes as having a “very dry, quite fat, dead sound.” May’s tone is recognizably his own. “Well, I’m a very pushy person,” he laughs. “But nevertheless, it was difficult for me, too. Because of this Trident style of recording, the intention was not to have room sound on it. I kind of pushed, I suppose, to have a mic on the back of the amp as well as the front. That gave me a bit more air. I did feel a little hampered and the change is more subtle on the guitar, but it’s there.
“Jeff Beck was an inspiration because there’s that wonderful track, ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining,’ which Jeff hated. But there’s one bit where he double tracks the solo and in just one point it breaks into a two-part harmony, probably by accident.”
“It’s funny because it changed radically as time went on,” he continues. “And I can remember by the time we got to Sheer Heart Attack, Roy is putting mics all over the room and miking up windows in the booth and whatever to get maximum room sounds. It’s certainly nice to go back and make everything sound the way we pretty much would’ve liked it to sound at the time.”
With Queen I out, a new Queen IIset is in the works, which May calls “a very different kettle of fish.” The drum sounds on their sophomore effort were more in line with the band’s original vision, but the dense layers of overdubs that famously appear on the record came at a cost. “I think it is the biggest step musically and recording-wise that we ever made,” says May. “But there’s a lot of congestion in there. There’s mud because of all this generation-loss stuff [caused by overdubs], and because we liked to saturate the tape, which seemed like a good idea at the time. It made it sound loud. But if you disentangle that and get the bigness in other ways, I think Queen II is going to sound massive.”
The AAA rosewood back and sides of May’s signature acoustic are stunning.
At 77 years old, May certainly seems to keep his schedule packed with music work—not to mention his animal advocacy and scientific endeavors. In May of last year, though, everything came to a halt when the guitarist suffered a stroke. “I couldn’t get a fork from the table to my mouth without it all going all over the place,” he recalls. “It was scary.” Luckily, things began turning around quickly. “After only a few days, it’s amazing what you can get back. By sheer willpower, you just start retraining your muscle.” Not quite a year on when we speak, May estimates he’s regained 95 percent of his abilities, which, he says, “is enough.
“The short answer is, ‘I’m good,’” he assures.
May is in great spirits and appears excited about all his recent projects, finished and in-progress alike. In this time of looking back on his earliest works, I ask him to think about his beginnings, when he would gaze at Gibson catalogs but had to build his own guitar out of necessity, because, as he points out, he “couldn’t afford anything else.”
So, what would young Brian May, stepping into an afterhours session at Trident, making his band’s debut, think about his new limited edition signature model Gibson acoustic? He takes a long pause. “It would have been …” he pauses again, “unthinkable.”
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Every level of player uses backlines, from the smallest stages to the biggest. Here, SIR Chicago sets up a backline for Bettye LaVette before she opened for the Rolling Stones at Soldier Field.
At some point in your gigging life, you can likely expect to run into a situation where you’ll be plugging into a pre-arranged backline. A backline, as defined by the production pros we spoke with for this article, is essentially all the equipment that you, as a band, need to play a show. It’s usually either provided by the promoter that has hired you to play, or you’ve provided a backline supplier with a rider that lays out exactly what your band needs to execute your set just the way you want. But that latter situation is usually reserved for bands that are already operating with quite a bit of success. If you’re just starting out and you don’t have the dough behind you to have a supplier set you up for every gig, it’s more likely that the first time you run into questions about backline will be in the context of a festival or showcase.
Case Jumper, the live events manager of backline supply company and rehearsal studio Soundcheck Nashville, lays out the way things go down for the Country Music Association’s summer extravaganza, CMA Fest.
“We do five small stages of backline, then we do the River Stage, which is a larger package, and then we do Nissan Stadium,” Jumper says. “So, on the smallest stages, CMA says, ‘Look, we need something where bands can come up, play, get off, and get the next band on in 30 minutes.’ It has to be a very quick turnaround, and that means that it has to be things that people are going to play and use. So for something like CMA Fest, on the small stages, you’re probably going to get a Nord keyboard. There’s going to be a Fender Twin, there’s going to be a Vox AC30, there’s going to be a [Fender] Deluxe [Reverb], and then there’s going to be probably a Gallien-Krueger bass rig, and then an assorted drum kit with cymbals. I give them those specs, and then they use that in their advance with bands. With something like the River Stage, which is still that same format of ‘quick-on, quick-off,’ but it’s a little bit larger scale, we up it. There are multiple key rigs but also a Hammond B3 and Leslie, and a pretty giant drum set. Sometimes we do a grand piano, and then the amp range goes more. So there’re Peavey Nashville 400s, there’s a Marshall JCM900 rig. There are Voxes, Twins, maybe some Deluxes, probably a Roland KC-550 keyboard amp. It just becomes a larger thing. For the stadium, we basically build it out per band. Then we get into specifics of riders, where we’re doing exactly what they’re asking for.”Here are some of the most common pieces you’ll see on backlines in Nashville. Do you know how your guitar and effects rig sounds through them?
Vox AC30
Fender Twin Reverb
Fender Deluxe Reverb
Marshall JCM900
Gallien-Krueger bass amp
Peavey Nashville 400
Nord keyboards
Hammond B3 organ
“For the stadium, we basically build it out per band. Then we get into specifics of riders, where we’re doing exactly what they’re asking for,” says Soundcheck Nashville’s Case Jumper.
Photo by Case Jumper
The equipment provided in a backline changes in every situation, but generally a band can expect that, onstage, they’ll be provided amplifiers, drums, and microphones. Depending on your needs, you might also have a keyboard and keyboard amp, and some stands. Generally it’s up to your band to bring your guitars, basses, pedals, and your drummer’s breakables, plus snare drum. But because the situation differs with every gig, it’s best to have an in-depth conversation with whoever is providing backline so that no one is left high and dry without the gear they need to get through the show. Some things get overlooked more than others. When we asked Jumper to tell us the most important thing for guitarists and bassists to remember about dealing with backlines, he immediately provided a pro tip: “Bring your cables!” And capos, he adds.
When it comes to the specific amp brands and models that one might expect from a typical backline which has been put together without artist input, Jumper notes a few common examples. In Nashville, AC30s, Twins, and Deluxe Reverbs are nearly ubiquitous. In Los Angeles, players might be more likely to find Marshall and Mesa/Boogie rigs. “Depending on what the sound of the area is, I think that dictates which amps you’re going to use,” says Jumper. “Bass rigs are another prime example. Ampeg SVT rigs may be more prevalent in Nashville, where Aguilar might be more prevalent in New York and L.A. And maybe Gallien-Krueger and some of the more funk rigs are more prevalent in Atlanta. Then Texas is its own market. It’s such a mix.”
It’s a good idea to figure out how your rig interacts with Fender Twin Reverbs, because you’ll encounter plenty of them on backline gigs.
Photo courtesy of Fender
Vox AC30s come up often in Jumper’s responses, for good reason. He notes that they’re incredibly versatile, which makes them great for many situations.
"You can go very clean, but very loud, still [with an AC30],” he says. “And then it works well, because most players are coming in with a pedalboard system. So while some old-school, L.A.-type players might still use the gain structures from a Marshall head or a Mesa head, most of the people are doing that all internally now.”
On that note, Jumper has noticed that in Nashville many players have been moving away from guitar amps altogether and opting instead for modelers and profilers like Kempers and Fractals.
“It’s a unit, much like a keyboard, where you say, ‘I’m looking for this particular sound,’ and you can plug in and it’ll get you very close to that sound,” says Jumper. “So maybe you’re a touring guy, and you’re having to do lots of flights—instead of trying to work with a backline company to make sure they have all your exact amps in every city, you might invest in a Kemper, and outfit the Kemper to sound exactly like you want. That way you’re just rolling into every venue with an SKB case instead of wondering what you’re gonna get.”
If you’re a backlinin’ bass player, you should probably know your way around Gallien-Krueger amps, like these Legacy 800 heads.
Photo by J.B. Stuart, SIR Phoenix
It’s worth pointing out, too, that every company is different, and some backline providers don’t necessarily advise clients about what they should use in specific situations, or build one-size-fits-all sort of packages. Some companies, like Studio Instrument Rentals [SIR] in New York, work pretty much strictly with equipment riders provided by bands or promoters, putting together their preferences exactly. So it’s also best to know exactly what you might need to ask for if you know you’ll be in a situation where backline rentals will make up a large part of your on-stage gear.
The best way to get that in order is by writing out an equipment rider. Jumper notes that it’s important to keep that rider constantly updated in order to avoid unnecessary confusion come gig day, pointing out that plenty of artists just forget to update riders after they’ve made changes in their sound.
An equipment rider is exactly what it sounds like—a document that very clearly lays out all the gear you’ll need to play a show. It will certainly contain the number of pieces per gear you’ll need (e.g. two guitar amps, one bass amp, etc.), but it should also note preferred brands and models, as well as brands and models that will work if your preferred amps are not available; wattage and power specifications; sizes of speakers; drums and drum sizes; and microphone preferences, if you have them. Essentially, you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of what must be on stage to pull off a great show. With a detailed equipment rider, backline pros can solve problems more quickly, giving them the tools they need to improvise when your preferred amp or mic isn’t available locally.
Do you have an equipment rider and stage plot for your band? Those are the first steps to getting ready for pulling together your own backline.
Photo by William O’Leary, SIR New York
Another document that works either alone or in tandem with a detailed equipment rider is the stage plot. As noted above, it’s not necessarily common that you’ll run into a situation where you’re able to simply ask for everything you want. But you will definitely wind up in situations where a stage manager needs to know how to set everything up. The stage plot is a visual document that indicates how gear should be arranged. This should include the placement for microphones, amps, drums, keyboards, and any other instruments, helping a stage manager quickly discern where band members will be standing or sitting.
If you’ve got any worries about your potential backline situation, or communication with the promoter leaves you with more questions than answers, it might help to generally expect workhorse gear. As Jumper says, in this part of show business, reliability is key—the aforementioned AC30s and Fender Twins are reliable, as are solid-state bass rigs. So it’s likely that you’ll encounter this gear on the regular. It could be a good idea to get familiar with these pieces and how your specific rig interacts with them.
And, of course, if you do get the privilege of working directly with a backline supplier, clear and friendly communication goes a long way to making sure your big gig goes off without a hitch.
“When people are coming to Soundcheck, I want them to ask how I can help them make their event, whether it be a festival or one-off, run as smoothly as possible from a backline perspective,” Jumper says. “I obviously can’t run it all, but I can make it so our gear is not faulty, you know—we’re not the chain that breaks. That allows artists to focus on whatever else they’re having to worry about. They know that Soundcheck is always going to provide top quality equipment, and they’re always going to provide people to make sure it works right.”
