GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! This preset (and others) is finally available for download via the New Vintage Audio website! If you're a Helix user you can get your hands on it now! 👍 www.newvintageaudio.com/store/.b/toby-pearson
This might be a bit of an odd question, but how tall are you? Plan on getting one of these as a gift but have no reference in terms of the size of the guitar, Don't know if it's too big or too small. thanks.
I hate to bring the tone down (pun intended) but how the fuck does this guy only have 800 and odd subscribers. I know a lot about Brian May and his rig, but this video nailed everything and this guys playing is absolutely spot on. Wish I could like the video twice.
This is the best Brian May guitar explainer video on RUclips. It was fun and I understand his effects strategy much better now. It must be so much easier to do them electronically than with the old analog setups.
Sometimes, as here, home made is better than factory made. Custom shop and Masterbuilt guitars are like home made guitars. All of the electronics, tuners, etc. were factory parts. I have an old Burns Red Special with Brian's signature on it. It's great and very versatile guitar. You can play more than Queen on it, you know.
Excellent rundown Toby! Not only do you clearly cover just how Brian uses the Red Special in the context of the songs, but you can also PLAY! And you play very well. There are demo video's of guys (I won't mention names) where they are demoing gear but they don't have the chops (or any chops for that matter) to do justice to the gear they are attempting to review. So hats off to you sir for a spot on clip.! I'm a subscriber!
This is definitely a good walk-through of how Brian shaped his tone, as well as how it could be approximated using something like Line 6 Helix. I would imagine it could be done also with a slender edition of the Helix family, Firehawk, if ]a given musician] had one in [their] possession. Ever since the middle part of 2018, just before the film adaptation of Bohemian Rhapsody hit the cinema, I have been going around in circles about getting a Red Special of my own. I even went so far as to have a Stratocaster assembled for me out of discarded parts and equipped with a scratch plate that included similar pick ups to the ones that are in the original red special and Brian‘s version of switching. It wasn’t about what almost everybody else has been after, trying to duplicate what Brian does. It was about the pallet of total options one would have with the switching. I’m now winning as of this comment closer to getting an actual red special, even if it is not in that same red finish. It would not be with the purpose of emulating the sound of Queen tracks; it would be for a purpose that almost no one seems to think of, just playing music in general with it.
Great playing. Isn't that just the most fun music to do ever? I was in a Queen cover show last year (more or less the movie soundtrack plus 6 or so other tunes). It was challenging material to learn for sure. No coasting there! Even on "regular" songs. Lots of timing changes, key changes, arrangement changes ... not like your normal boring pop song where you pretty much know it all after you have heard the first verse and chorus. But SO MUCH FUN to play! I can see it in your face - the same feeling I had. You apologize for the "guitar face" but I feel it would be almost physically impossible not to do that (or that triumphant right hand in the air after a big chord). The music just moves you. I fear we may have seen the end of the big live shows. Dr. Bri has put on a brave face after his medical problems, but that triple stent surgery is serious business. A good friend of mine suffered the same problem and surgery, and while it saved his life, his life was changed for good. But the music is timeless and will be with us forever.
I only even came for the Borhap solo tone but this video is incredibly in-depth and well made! Thank you for taking the time to make this and I am definitely saving it for future reference!
Yes... I found another crazy talented guitar underdog doing great stuff. Love it to call me one of their first subscribers when they go big in the future
I think the 24 inch scale and light string gauge is a large part of why the original Red Special has never needed a refret. It was setup to play like butter from the very beginning so he's never really had to dig in.
The live tone at least, the chorus-y 3 AC30 tone.. the only time I ever heard the 70s tone proper was Brian May or this old site (forget the site) where a guy made his own Red Special. But yeah, much MUCH respect to Toby here he gets the "hands" part here absolutely right which is 9/10ths of it.
You got his mid-80-now setup, for the 70s replace the chorus with the fox phaser. That's how he got that metal-sounding(not the genre) sound. It's a six-stage phaser with a wah sort of sound, if you listen to white queen or don't stop me now you can hear it.
Love this. A tiny thing tho ; it seems to the ear that Brian May always was a tiny bit ahead of the beat on the fast shreddy parts of the solo. That might make it sound more closer to the original , that tiny bit of syncopation that hits hard
One aspect of Brian’s sound that I think people overlook is his guitar’s remarkably short scale length. I fully realized the power of scale length when messing with a student’s mini Strat back in the day. Compared to my full sized Strat, it had this extra weight…noticed it on ANOTHER student’s mini Strat and that’s when it hit me. Shorter scale lengths tend to coincide with added heft in the low mids, etc…which is a place where Brian’s tone is at its most sublime. Short scale length with single coils will get you in the ballpark almost immediately.
Thanks for the interesting demo, you definitely get very close. Some impressive playing, too. One suggestion, as with the chorus demo section, click the effect on and off a few times WITHOUT backing tracks, before the backing tracks come on. It's much harder to pick out the effect of a chorus underneath the rest of Queen.
You are a Amazing guitar player, it's kind of a drag for me knowing I probably will never play as well as you, but congratulations to you on you skill , also I enjoyed your video very much!!!
Well first of all, thanks very much for the kind words! It's because of things like that I continue to play and hone the skills I have acquired over years of playing. Secondly, I may not know the circumstances of your life, how old you are, where you live, what you do for a living, but I can tell you that with enough practice and determination, anyone could play guitar just as well as me - if not better! Be patient, give yourself time, and you will see great changes happen in the end, believe me! BTW, it's taken me around 11 years of practice to play the way I do now. Ask any of the great guitar players out there (I don't really count myself among them!), they'd all have similar stories... If you want it enough, it will happen in the end. 🙂 Thanks for watching/subscribing! 👍
Well done mate ! Glad RUclips popped your channel up for me today !! He liked to play sometimes with the serrated edges of the coins for more attack on some tracks but he seems to use it less now and appears to use his fingers a lot. Shame he didn’t create more solo albums with other singers over the years. You got the Tones right a lot of the time with a different setup. Good anaylsis. Hard to do !
5:22 Ahh...I often wondered how Brian would get that little "croak" at the beginning of notes sometimes. I wonder if that's how. The intro to Dreamers Ball for example.
i love the octave up sound in the upper range. Amazing that it is achieved by the pickups being out of phase. Any old fart like me probably remembers that adding out of phase switches was all the rage in guitar magazines of the late seventies but ever since then it kind of disappeared completely.
God -- this was fucking incredible! I'm a huge Brian May enthusiast, but I know next to nothing about the nuances of the technical side of things (despite my best efforts ... I'm an artist, not a musician!!) It always floors me just how much innovation he brought to the scene -- his sound really is something else and you captured it extremely well -- and explained it wonderfully! I have a BMG myself, but I'm such a beginner I won't even pretend to know what I'm doing -- I'll leave that to the professionals! Thank you for this!! Your covers absolutely kicked ass, and I loved seeing how much fun you were having with them!
Great video and explanation of Mr. May's sound. Excellent playing as well. Lastly, your accent (to someone in the USA) is reminiscent of George Harrison. Keep up the great work.
Thank you for a brilliant video. And for some great playing. From your facial expressions I feel that you might have enjoyed playing those great tunes, almost as much as I enjoyed listening to you. Well done.
Great job mate 👍 I think we should take a minute to realise just how much of a fantastic job Line 6 have, and continue to, do with their HX gear. I've got the HX Stomp myself and the quality of their amp & effects modelling is getting to the point where you can hardly tell the difference between real amps & pedals and what Line 6 give guitarists. If I was brave enough I'd sell all my amps & pedals but I don't think I can right at the moment.....one day I probably will 😆
All you need for Dr Bri’s god-like tone are:- HIS Red spesh, a treble booster (guitar into booster then amp!!), a Vox AC30 amp and HIS fingers!!! He’ll sound like him on any guitar!!
great video dude . i got the tone with a harley benton tele and a wha half cocked into a fly rig worked pretty good too . brians tone and licks are ace ! ps nice playing dude
Thank you, this is an awesome preset! I don't have a BHM guitar, I play a Strat with David Gilmour EMG pickups, so I had to tame the treble a bit, but it still gives a very convincing Brian May tone. Kudos!
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!
This preset (and others) is finally available for download via the New Vintage Audio website! If you're a Helix user you can get your hands on it now! 👍
www.newvintageaudio.com/store/.b/toby-pearson
This might be a bit of an odd question, but how tall are you? Plan on getting one of these as a gift but have no reference in terms of the size of the guitar, Don't know if it's too big or too small. thanks.
@@Silkaz7 no worries! I'm 5'11" 🙂
I hate to bring the tone down (pun intended) but how the fuck does this guy only have 800 and odd subscribers. I know a lot about Brian May and his rig, but this video nailed everything and this guys playing is absolutely spot on. Wish I could like the video twice.
So very kind, thank you! More videos to come soon... 😁
Man that intro solo sounds EXACTLY like the one on the original song this is amazing
A Red Special replica from Brian's company is on my holy grail list. It's such a unique and beautiful guitar. Nothing else sound like it.
This is the best Brian May guitar explainer video on RUclips. It was fun and I understand his effects strategy much better now. It must be so much easier to do them electronically than with the old analog setups.
It’s amazing what Brian May has been able to accomplish with a home made guitar! I have a signed BMG Red Special and it is awesome.
Sometimes, as here, home made is better than factory made. Custom shop and Masterbuilt guitars are like home made guitars. All of the electronics, tuners, etc. were factory parts.
I have an old Burns Red Special with Brian's signature on it. It's great and very versatile guitar. You can play more than Queen on it, you know.
His father was an electrical engineer who absolutely loved building all sorts of things. That type of education and knowledge really made it amazing.
Nice! Your Bohemian Rhapsody solo was perfect.
Excellent rundown Toby! Not only do you clearly cover just how Brian uses the Red Special in the context of the songs, but you can also PLAY! And you play very well. There are demo video's of guys (I won't mention names) where they are demoing gear but they don't have the chops (or any chops for that matter) to do justice to the gear they are attempting to review. So hats off to you sir for a spot on clip.! I'm a subscriber!
Bloody brilliant!❤
This is such a valuable and excellent video thank you!!
The best non Brian May approach in every sense to a Brian May tone. Congrats.
Very detailed, thank you
Absolutely brilliant, Toby. Congrats for the splendid viedo from Spain!
This is definitely a good walk-through of how Brian shaped his tone, as well as how it could be approximated using something like Line 6 Helix. I would imagine it could be done also with a slender edition of the Helix family, Firehawk, if ]a given musician] had one in [their] possession.
Ever since the middle part of 2018, just before the film adaptation of Bohemian Rhapsody hit the cinema, I have been going around in circles about getting a Red Special of my own. I even went so far as to have a Stratocaster assembled for me out of discarded parts and equipped with a scratch plate that included similar pick ups to the ones that are in the original red special and Brian‘s version of switching. It wasn’t about what almost everybody else has been after, trying to duplicate what Brian does. It was about the pallet of total options one would have with the switching. I’m now winning as of this comment closer to getting an actual red special, even if it is not in that same red finish. It would not be with the purpose of emulating the sound of Queen tracks; it would be for a purpose that almost no one seems to think of, just playing music in general with it.
Great playing. Isn't that just the most fun music to do ever? I was in a Queen cover show last year (more or less the movie soundtrack plus 6 or so other tunes). It was challenging material to learn for sure. No coasting there! Even on "regular" songs. Lots of timing changes, key changes, arrangement changes ... not like your normal boring pop song where you pretty much know it all after you have heard the first verse and chorus. But SO MUCH FUN to play! I can see it in your face - the same feeling I had. You apologize for the "guitar face" but I feel it would be almost physically impossible not to do that (or that triumphant right hand in the air after a big chord). The music just moves you. I fear we may have seen the end of the big live shows. Dr. Bri has put on a brave face after his medical problems, but that triple stent surgery is serious business. A good friend of mine suffered the same problem and surgery, and while it saved his life, his life was changed for good. But the music is timeless and will be with us forever.
Thank you very much for those deep insights into the tone 👍
Amazing job there! Well done!
GREAT JOB!!!
The I Want It All was really good m8, faces and all
Superb video - thanks for sharing.
Fantastic video, playing and as far as I'm concerned you nailed Brian's tone exactly 👍👍
This is spot on ! The best on RUclips. And that with just the Helix. Subscribed man !
I only even came for the Borhap solo tone but this video is incredibly in-depth and well made! Thank you for taking the time to make this and I am definitely saving it for future reference!
Great video and phenomenal playing!
You are great... hugs from Italy
Great video, brilliant playing!!!!
Great tones guy!
Yes... I found another crazy talented guitar underdog doing great stuff. Love it to call me one of their first subscribers when they go big in the future
great tone vid and playing! thx.
OMG, you rock!!!! Fantastic video, thanks!!!!!!
I think the 24 inch scale and light string gauge is a large part of why the original Red Special has never needed a refret. It was setup to play like butter from the very beginning so he's never really had to dig in.
This guy fuckin NAILS the tone.
The live tone at least, the chorus-y 3 AC30 tone.. the only time I ever heard the 70s tone proper was Brian May or this old site (forget the site) where a guy made his own Red Special. But yeah, much MUCH respect to Toby here he gets the "hands" part here absolutely right which is 9/10ths of it.
Great video.
Epic video. Brilliant.
Love this video! Excellent tips and superb playing!!! Thanks!
You got his mid-80-now setup, for the 70s replace the chorus with the fox phaser. That's how he got that metal-sounding(not the genre) sound. It's a six-stage phaser with a wah sort of sound, if you listen to white queen or don't stop me now you can hear it.
Very impressed with your skills. Well done.
i’m impressed
Great video!
Wow! I don’t comment on videos all that often but this was superb. Keep up the fantastic work 👌
Talent!
OMG your playing is ON POINT!
Thank you very much! 🙂
Brian would be proud! Love this video and the guitar playing is magic, now I want the guitar! ;-)
Great playing man! Nice touch and excellent control.
Impressive Toby! 🙌
Love this. A tiny thing tho ; it seems to the ear that Brian May always was a tiny bit ahead of the beat on the fast shreddy parts of the solo. That might make it sound more closer to the original , that tiny bit of syncopation that hits hard
Great video editing skills! Very competent guitarist.
Awesome material Toby! Care to do Blackmore? Maybe "Lazy"?
B.M. isn't easy to replicate and you showed him some great respect with some great playing.
One aspect of Brian’s sound that I think people overlook is his guitar’s remarkably short scale length. I fully realized the power of scale length when messing with a student’s mini Strat back in the day. Compared to my full sized Strat, it had this extra weight…noticed it on ANOTHER student’s mini Strat and that’s when it hit me. Shorter scale lengths tend to coincide with added heft in the low mids, etc…which is a place where Brian’s tone is at its most sublime. Short scale length with single coils will get you in the ballpark almost immediately.
Good point. A lot easier to bend too
Man fantastic job, super professional!!
Wow! Great video and your sound is very close to Brian. Amazing playing, well done work! 🎸🔥
lovely demos!
Amazing Video. This definitely needs more Views
Es realmente un muy buen análisis del sonido Brian May! Muchas gracias!
Great video, subbed! I'm surprised I haven't come across your channel before.
Good musical taste, great work!
at last someone with the right picking! good job Toby!
Thanks for the interesting demo, you definitely get very close. Some impressive playing, too. One suggestion, as with the chorus demo section, click the effect on and off a few times WITHOUT backing tracks, before the backing tracks come on. It's much harder to pick out the effect of a chorus underneath the rest of Queen.
This is incredibly helpful. Thank you.
Nice vid buddy. Brian is class!! Not bad yourself 👍
during the early Queen days, around their first record, Brian played 12-?(dont remember the low ones) gauge strings
Great great explanation and very informative. Very good playing as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing 👏 how u show how it works with the full band! But not necessarily on its own! Tone smart by all means. 💯
Did great with these tones man
Great performance video.
Such a great video. Keep going brother . Great technique, great ear that catching the exact tone . Thanks a lot
You are a Amazing guitar player, it's kind of a drag for me knowing I probably will never play as well as you, but congratulations to you on you skill , also I enjoyed your video very much!!!
Well first of all, thanks very much for the kind words! It's because of things like that I continue to play and hone the skills I have acquired over years of playing.
Secondly, I may not know the circumstances of your life, how old you are, where you live, what you do for a living, but I can tell you that with enough practice and determination, anyone could play guitar just as well as me - if not better! Be patient, give yourself time, and you will see great changes happen in the end, believe me!
BTW, it's taken me around 11 years of practice to play the way I do now. Ask any of the great guitar players out there (I don't really count myself among them!), they'd all have similar stories... If you want it enough, it will happen in the end. 🙂
Thanks for watching/subscribing! 👍
Well done mate ! Glad RUclips popped your channel up for me today !! He liked to play sometimes with the serrated edges of the coins for more attack on some tracks but he seems to use it less now and appears to use his fingers a lot. Shame he didn’t create more solo albums with other singers over the years. You got the Tones right a lot of the time with a different setup. Good anaylsis. Hard to do !
He didn't need other singers. He sings great himself.
You've done it again! You've totally nailed the guitar sound. The guitar faces... Maybe not so much?! 😂😂👍
I can only apologise... Absolutely outrageous! 😂
amazing playing
Amazing! 🔥🔥🔥Thanks for making. Great guitar playing, video was educational and fun. Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮
Very good video. Thanks a lot! Can’t wait till I finish building my own RS.
5:22 Ahh...I often wondered how Brian would get that little "croak" at the beginning of notes sometimes. I wonder if that's how. The intro to Dreamers Ball for example.
What a great video. Thank you man!
Thanks very much! Glad you enjoyed! :)
The sounds on Hammer to fall are phenomenal especially for a gauge 9 string. I'm trying to find a good setting like that with my chorus pedal.
Amazing job dude! Nice playing 🔥🔥
i love the octave up sound in the upper range. Amazing that it is achieved by the pickups being out of phase. Any old fart like me probably remembers that adding out of phase switches was all the rage in guitar magazines of the late seventies but ever since then it kind of disappeared completely.
Good video man
God -- this was fucking incredible! I'm a huge Brian May enthusiast, but I know next to nothing about the nuances of the technical side of things (despite my best efforts ... I'm an artist, not a musician!!)
It always floors me just how much innovation he brought to the scene -- his sound really is something else and you captured it extremely well -- and explained it wonderfully!
I have a BMG myself, but I'm such a beginner I won't even pretend to know what I'm doing -- I'll leave that to the professionals!
Thank you for this!! Your covers absolutely kicked ass, and I loved seeing how much fun you were having with them!
Thanks so much for your wonderful comments, I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
BTW, I've now seen your artwork on Instagram, it's fantastic!
Congrats you nailed it man.
Great video and explanation of Mr. May's sound. Excellent playing as well. Lastly, your accent (to someone in the USA) is reminiscent of George Harrison. Keep up the great work.
Thank you for a brilliant video. And for some great playing. From your facial expressions I feel that you might have enjoyed playing those great tunes, almost as much as I enjoyed listening to you. Well done.
Excelent! Grettings from Argentina
Great job mate 👍
I think we should take a minute to realise just how much of a fantastic job Line 6 have, and continue to, do with their HX gear. I've got the HX Stomp myself and the quality of their amp & effects modelling is getting to the point where you can hardly tell the difference between real amps & pedals and what Line 6 give guitarists. If I was brave enough I'd sell all my amps & pedals but I don't think I can right at the moment.....one day I probably will 😆
I know the feeling! I still have most of my old gear... 😂 Thanks for watching! 🙂👍
What a great video, thanks
wow my friend ! guitar tone + playing in this video were absolutely stellar imo !! 👍
It would have been interesting to play a different guitar with the same chain to get a feel for how much the Brian May guitar makes.
Hey man great work and great playing. You deserve way more subs. They will come! Just subbed myself.
Great video and yes, you are honest.
All you need for Dr Bri’s god-like tone are:-
HIS Red spesh, a treble booster (guitar into booster then amp!!), a Vox AC30 amp and HIS fingers!!!
He’ll sound like him on any guitar!!
Absolutely! Fingers do trump all other tone components - no doubt! 👍
You forgot his hair. that is the secret to his power
Great detail and playing, you deserve more subscribers for the effort you are clearly putting in.
Amazing! Thx!
Cool looking studio.
You should have far more subscribers! Excellent content, Cheers from Belgium!
I don't have a 6p coin but I use titanium picks and I get a similar tone (compared to a plastic or nylon pick). Great video!
great video dude . i got the tone with a harley benton tele and a wha half cocked into a fly rig worked pretty good too . brians tone and licks are ace ! ps nice playing dude
Great video! Very understable English for a French like me... thumbed up and subscribed!
Thank you, this is an awesome preset! I don't have a BHM guitar, I play a Strat with David Gilmour EMG pickups, so I had to tame the treble a bit, but it still gives a very convincing Brian May tone. Kudos!
You channel is amazing 🔥🔥🤯