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by Jim Button September 10, 2021 4 min read
Brian May's unique guitar tone can be heard all over Queen's fourth studio album, A Night At The Opera.
A Night At The Opera saw Queen take their place as rightful superstars with Bohemian Rhapsody and led the way to the stadium rock of Queen's subsequent albums.
Following its release in November 1975, A Night At The Opera spent 44 weeks in the UK album charts, including four weeks at number 1. In the USA Billboard album chart it reached a peak position of number 4.
Perhaps Brian May's most famous part of his guitar rig is the 'Red Special' guitar he built with his father Harold in 1963, and which he has used throughout his career.
The neck was crafted from part of a 100-year-old mahogany fireplace, with a painted oak fingerboard inlaid with filed-down pearl shirt buttons!
The semi-hollow body has solid oak centre inserts and a mahogany veneer, stained with wood dye and polished to a gloss between coats of Rustin’s Plastic Coating.
Customised switching allows for plenty of tonal options from the three direct-body-mounted Burns Tri-Sonic pickups, including phase-switching and individual on/off controls for each pickup. These single-coil Burns pickups replaced the original pickups which Brian wound himself.
The vibrato utilises roller saddles in the bridge and valve springs from a motorbike engine.
Brian May is primarily associated with using a Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster in front of the Normal channel of a cranked Vox AC30, often keeping the Cut control on the amp turned all the way down for maximum treble attack. This setup was his weapon of choice for A Night At The Opera, but he also made use of a homemade amp - the "Deacy" amp.
The Deacy amp was built from the circuit board of an old Supersonic PR80 germanium transistor radio found in a skip by Queen bassist, John Deacon. Deacon fitted it into a bookshelf speaker cabinet and powered it with a large PP9 9V battery.
Notable for its lack of controls, originally the Deacy amp had a volume pot but this was removed soon afterwards. When Brian May tested Deacon's handmade amp, he found that using his Treble Booster in front of it gave it definition and sustain.
The Deacy amp became an important studio tool for May, allowing him to produce sounds that the Vox AC30 couldn't manage. He favoured using it to layer guitar sounds and even created faux orchestra effects with it. On a Night At The Opera, May used the Deacy amp most notably on "God Save The Queen" and "Good Company".
The combination of Brian May's Vox AC30 (and Deacy amp) with his Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster gave beautifully saturated, cutting tones with complex harmonics.
You can hear this germanium-based pedal on Queen's first four albums - including A Night At The Opera - but it was lost in 1976 and replaced with a silicon transistor Treble Booster built by Pete Cornish (the Pete Cornish TB83), offering a fuller-range character. This was eventually superseded by the Greg Fryer Treble Booster in Brian May's rig in more recent years.
Brian also used a wah pedal in fixed positions as a tone control played through the Deacy amp for the jazz band-inspired "Good Company".
Brian May's sound is easy to ballpark but difficult to emulate precisely - mostly because of his use of the one-off "Red Special" guitar. You could use any single-coil or humbucker equipped guitar really but if you're really serious, you can buy official replicas these days from Brian May Guitars.
You will need a Vox AC30 or AC30-style amp on the Normal channel. It's the unique circuitry of the AC30 (Class A, 4 cathode-biased EL84 valves, no negative feedback) which gives it that lively, complex vocal quality.
You'll then need a boost pedal - ideally a boost pedal based on the Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster, which will give the amp clean gain and push it into glorious overdrive.
The Tate FX Hot Coals is based on the germanium Dallas Rangemaster and includes a toggle to switch between original treble boost and a fuller boost which is closer to the Pete Cornish version Brian May used subsequently. If you have a guitar and Vox, this is the missing piece of the puzzle to elevate your tone to the guitar sounds heard on classic Queen albums such as A Night At The Opera
[product=tate-fx-hot-coals]
The Tate FX Hot Coals is based on the germanium Dallas Rangemaster and includes a toggle to switch between original treble boost and a fuller boost which is closer to the Pete Cornish version Brian May used subsequently. If you have a guitar and Vox, this is the missing piece of the puzzle to elevate your tone to the guitar sounds heard on classic Queen albums such as A Night At The Opera.
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[product=signal-cheyne-oberon-germanium-boost]
The Signal Cheyne Oberon Germanium Boost is a Rangemaster-style pedal handmade in France. It uses a NOS PNP germanium transistor that's carefully measured for leakage and gain, and biased for optimum performance. The Oberon Germanium Boost comprises a single knob and a 3-way toggle, making it a simple but effective tool in your pedalboard arsenal. A built in charge pump reverses polarity of the power supply, ensuring your modern power plays nicely with the old-school NOS germanium transistor.
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So to sound like Brian May you don't need much in the way of gear, but you do need the right gear to get within spitting distance. One of May's secret weapons was an old sixpence, so try using a coin to eek out extra harmonics and string attack. But don't forget that you'll need to brush up on your Brian May-esque chops too!
Originally published 7th April 2020. Updated 10th September 2021
by Jim Button December 21, 2022 6 min read
by Jim Button October 18, 2021 6 min read
by Jim Button September 02, 2021 6 min read
This Pedal is easy to use and has many sweet spots! Perfectly tuned combination of two legendary circuits! Highly recommended!
super fun trem, decent sound, huge volume. havent spent a lot of time messing about with it, but did have a play with the slide and drift feature which are a nice bonus. cant wait to have more time to play around with it.
Boost Guitar Pedals are great as always, fast delivery
been playing it a few days now, and have it set up so it works with with whatever i thow at it. its in my chain after OD but Before Distortion. feedback dial is great and can have it very far clockwise before it sends you in an infinity loop, mix is a bonus, i haven't messed about with the shapes much yet because i found a dreamy setting i dont want to change. would highly recommend isolated power suppy, it did not like daisy chain or cheap single wall one, but works smooth with isloated brick
Boost Guitar is great again to got it within 24 hours of shipping
Perfect for that traynor amp growl on bass. There’s a lot of scope with gain and EQ controls (which sound ace wherever you dial them in). Had the Tronographic Rusty Box before this which I regrettably had to sell; this is a perfect (and smaller, less power hungry) substitute.
I spent months searching for an affordable vibe pedal that actually sounded authentic.
Not only does this have the very sound that I was after, without a ton of tweaking, but it is priced reasonably too. It is not at the cheap end of the market, but for a hand-built pedal with dual speeds this is unbeatable.
The sound is spot on. Warm and rich with the throb missing from many of the lower-priced pedals. The second speed makes it easy to switch between chord and solo settings.
The delivery was amazing too - ordered in Friday afternoon and delivered on Sunday morning!
I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone looking for the best univibe around.
add another 5 stars, im no pro but i know what sounds i like and the Bloom is the sound i like. ive had Boss BD2, donner dumble drive, Tumnus and Tumnus deluxe but to me The Bloom tops them all. its a well built easy to dial in. having full gain is so clear and not nosiy. only tried with my strat single coils atm. the distortion isint the best but im comparing it to the Drunk Beaver Batv2 and have a feeling that its a layer distortion for another distortion pedal. fuzz is lush. the chip and fat switch really bring it to live and gives you more options for sound. i cant believe this is made by 1 guy. To me Drunk Beaver are up there with the best pedal makers. could send hours going on about the great things. and im only useing a boss katana mk2 no tube amp but you can get some faux tube headroom with the right switch. if you like the demos, well i got good news, it sound way better in person
Boost Guitat Pedals are great too, fast delivery, great communication. couldnt ask for a better store
Bone white Davies 1611
The Bleak District Tapescape is one of the best delay and ambience style pedals ever invented. The controls are all intuitive but highly flexible, the sounds are rich and detailed, the modulation can go from dreamy to nightmarish very quickly, and all of that inside a small footprint with a low power requirement. It's difficult to get a bad sound out of it, honestly.
Add in that Boost shipped it out quickly and it arrived with a nice note written on the invoice, is there anything else you could ask for? Definitely will be buying more from both Boost and Bleak District in future.
Part came as described. Website was easy use.
very cool pedal
Awesome service and communication all along!
Will gladly order again
I ordered a set of strings from Boost, that did not initially turn up. After contacting Boost via the website they immediately sent out another set (no questions asked). Both sets arrived a few days later (Thanks Royal Mail!). Boost were prompt in dealing with the issue (gave) me a set of strings and got things sorted out. Highly recommend you use these guys.
My favourite strings, at a great price! Very reasonable postage rates and speedy service. My first purchase from Boost, but will definitely not be my last. Hassle free, excellent...
Jazzmaster happy🙏
I didn’t know that particular manufacturer from Italy, but I definitely recommend their "Vintage Vibe”. It’s simple, intuitive, it looks awesome, the build quality seems impeccable, and most importantly, it sounds fantastic.
Pre-ordered the Tapescape through Boost Pedals. Great pedal, great order experience
I'll be away from my pedalboard from 6th - 18th April...but you can still browse!
I'll ship all outstanding orders on Friday 19th April.
All the best,
Jim