Mini May Guitar Owners...

Having lucked into an ebay auction for one of these a couple of weeks ago (despite initially being put off by the disproportionate nature of the piece), I now like it quite a bit. But I'd be surious as to the views of others, specifically...

1. What pickup did you get in it? When I tried one at the convention, I was told that the black pickup was just for the prototypes and there would be a trisonic in place for production. However the one I bought, and every other one I can see on ebay, has the plain black pickup, although there has been use of a stock press pic with a trisonic in place.

1a. Anyone with a black pickup want to go thirds on a set of trisonics? Or does anyone know where one can buy pickup covers?

2. What are you tuning to? Mine came regularly tuned, which sounded ok but felt a little slack ( I was bending whole chords...), and I thought I recalled reading a suggestion to tune to ADGBEA, which seemed like a sensible suggestion, so I tried that. Hated it - nothing sounded right playing that far transposed, couldn't play anything low enough to be listenable. I tried to compromise by going back down a step to G, but that wasn't much better so I'm now back to E and a plan for some thicker strings (or should that be thinner?)

3. Is it just me or is it poorly balanced? There needs to be a counterweight just above the jack socket to get anywhere near equilibrium when on the strap.

Well, for the pickup option I'd suggest getting one of these Adeson's - http://www.adeson.co.uk/Guitar.htm

The Adeson Classic British pups are supposed to be better than the Tri's in the Burns and the BHM sigs versions. Just do a little searching on this forum - http://p209.ezboard.com/fbrianmayworldfrm13 - You'll find many wanting to big them up. I've also talked to the guy (Adeson) on the phone and he was very helpful. I had problems with them and he gave a refund.

Now...I couldn't get them to work in my setup. An isolated incident it seems. Anyway, you can buy these singl-y rather than a full set of 3, so that should be what you want.

Adam.

I really hope you didn't actually tune to ADGBEA PG, as it would've been more than just a higher transposition of a normal guitar's tuning.

Hopefully you meant (and tuned to) ADGCEA, otherwise you really would have hated it...

And yes, if the strings feel slack in the E-tuning, it's heavier (thicker) rather than lighter (thinner) strings you'd want.

As a guitar player and owner of a Mini May, I do not care for this particular guitar. I have played many lower-end/cheap (yet full sized) electric guitars which sound far better than the Mini May. Keeping the Mini in tune seems to be a near impossible task. The only resemblance that this guitar has to the Red Special is the shape - the tone and sound come nowhere close. This guitar is suitable for children who need a practice instrument, nothing more. I would imagine this would be an especailly fun guitar for a child who just happens to be a Queen fan. As an adult Queen fan and guitar player who searches for a pure and recognizable Brian May sound, however, this guitar is not for me. To those of you who are fellow serious guitarists, I doubt the Mini May will be guitar for you, either.

Thanks all, I've ordered a chrome pickup cover - that'll do for the level of investment in the guitar.

Thicker strings now ordered too - figured it out in the end.

And the last thing I expect is a Brian sound - I wanted a travel guitar, this was a good price, and it sounds ok.

For those that are vaguely other than disinterested...

http://i15.tinypic.com/6d2o1t4.jpg

I think it looks better with the silver pickup, even though it's just the standard one.