I read with interest that Brian had to resort to using another (unnamed) guitar and amp to record the solo on 'Hero' due to his guitar being in Munich while he was in London
This must have been one of the very few times he used something other than the Red Special
Others being..and please add if you remember more than me
Crazy Little Thing
Mother Love
Long Away
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Togg wrote:
I read with interest that Brian had to resort to using another (unnamed) guitar and amp to record the solo on 'Hero' due to his guitar being in Munich while he was in London
This must have been one of the very few times he used something other than the Red Special
Others being..and please add if you remember more than me
Crazy Little Thing
Mother Love
Long Away
Except there is no solo on The Hero. Unless you are talking about the album version which sounds so much like the red special I would put money on it.
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
Togg wrote:
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
Well colour me gobsmacked. The melodic solo at the end of The Hero sounds incredibly like the Red Special. I wonder is Brian hallucinating?
Holly2003 wrote:
Togg wrote:
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
Well colour me gobsmacked. The melodic solo at the end of the album version of The Hero sounds incredibly like the Red Special. I wonder is Brian hallucinating?
And what about the "hidden" (or something like that...) familiar piece on "the wedding march"??.. I dont know what he´s talking about...
Ha, he probably meant the white one.
As the piece says the red secial was in Germany at the time. The guitar he picked up to play the solo was probably (and I´m just guessing here) a Sunburst Satalite Start copy as featured in the PLAY THE GAME video. The time line seems correct, the Play the game vid was recorded in the UK in May 80 - around the same time as work on flash was finishing. Does sound like the red special though. However Brian usually ends up sounding like Brian whatever the equipment combination...
Holly2003 wrote:
Holly2003 wrote:
Togg wrote:
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
Well colour me gobsmacked. The melodic solo at the end of the album version of The Hero sounds incredibly like the Red Special. I wonder is Brian hallucinating?
That's not a strat solo. Doesn't sound remotely like one. It's far more likely that the riff on The Hero was played on a different guitar, not the solo. Brian may be being a bit careless with words or maybe his memory is failing. Or maybe my ears are painted on.
Bigfish wrote:
As the piece says the red secial was in Germany at the time. The guitar he picked up to play the solo was probably (and I´m just guessing here) a Sunburst Satalite Start copy as featured in the PLAY THE GAME video. The time line seems correct, the Play the game vid was recorded in the UK in May 80 - around the same time as work on flash was finishing. Does sound like the red special though. However Brian usually ends up sounding like Brian whatever the equipment combination...
Holly2003 wrote:
Holly2003 wrote:
Togg wrote:
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
Well colour me gobsmacked. The melodic solo at the end of the album version of The Hero sounds incredibly like the Red Special. I wonder is Brian hallucinating?
Trust me it wasn't, that was the first guitar I ever bought it was £60 new and total crap... There is NO way Brian would have used it to play anything, the reason it was used in the Play the game video was that it didn't matter if they dropped it.
As a matter of fact there's no solo in 'The Hero', and the (marvellous) melodic lead is actually a variation of 'Flash', which probably came from an earlier session (as well as the high 'ah-AH' near the explosion), and it's indeed very obviously the Red Special.
Brian probably mistook it for the rhythm guitar (note that 'The Hero' sounds very different on stage - you can tell it's the same guitarist but on a different instrument).
And of course he's quoting Chopin...
Brian probably mistook it for the rhythm guitar (note that 'The Hero' sounds very different on stage - you can tell it's the same guitarist but on a different instrument).
And of course he's quoting Chopin...
Sebastian wrote:
it's indeed very obviously the Red Special.
Most of a guitarist's sound is in his hands - especially with a feel player like Brian. If you give him an SG plugged into a Marshall, he's still gonna sound like Brian.
Myself, I can achieve a very similar tone playing a Les Paul through a Fender twin.
Sir GH wrote:
Sebastian wrote:
it's indeed very obviously the Red Special.
Most of a guitarist's sound is in his hands - especially with a feel player like Brian. If you give him an SG plugged into a Marshall, he's still gonna sound like Brian.
Myself, I can achieve a very similar tone playing a Les Paul through a Fender twin.
Yes, I'm sure Dr May still sounds like him on any guitar with any amp (e.g. the Ibanez on 'BttL'). But that particular solo is still
indeed very obviously (recorded with) the Red Special.
It makes much more sense that Brian confused the 'non-RS' part, considering:
- The rhythm guitar on The Hero sounds very much like same guitarist but different guitar (compared with live).
- The solo in question is actually a Flash Gordon reprise, rather than The Hero
- The Hero was, reportedly, a new song, while Flash had already been done (thus justifying the whole 'rushing session' in the first place)
- This wouldn't be the first or the last time Dr May makes a mistake
This last argument doesn't mean we've *got to* doubt *everything* Brian says, but indeed establishes a precedent: if he said My Fairy King was on 'Queen II' (only an album apart from where it really belonged), Master-Stroke had been done at Wessex (again, Wessex were used one year later), Fred hadn't used Steinway... it IS possible that he mistook the solo for the rhythm bit, as they're both in the same album track (though technically not the same song), and that possibility turns bigger when you think about the fact that the solo, is, again, indeed very obviously (recorded with) the Red Special.
Are you a guitarist?
Have you tried to achieve the same tone with different configurations of gear?
Have you tried to achieve the same tone with different configurations of gear?
I am a guitarist, but I have never tried to achieve that tone. There would be no sense in lying about it.
Brian's sound is 99% in his hands, but that 1% left would still be noticeable (however briefly) on a solo like that (and that's what happens with Mother Love, for instance, or Nothin' But Blue). That Flash Reprise solo lacks that 1%, while the rhythm guitar on The Hero (and Battle Theme, which is probably the same BT anyway) doesn't.
I'm not saying it's impossible to sound like the RS using a different guitar and amp, and I'm not saying Bri never did it. I'm positive, though, that if Brian ever played a melodic solo like that using a different guitar, it was not there. It's much more possible that he simply misremembered, and The Hero (rhythm guitar) was the one he'd done with different gear.
Brian's sound is 99% in his hands, but that 1% left would still be noticeable (however briefly) on a solo like that (and that's what happens with Mother Love, for instance, or Nothin' But Blue). That Flash Reprise solo lacks that 1%, while the rhythm guitar on The Hero (and Battle Theme, which is probably the same BT anyway) doesn't.
I'm not saying it's impossible to sound like the RS using a different guitar and amp, and I'm not saying Bri never did it. I'm positive, though, that if Brian ever played a melodic solo like that using a different guitar, it was not there. It's much more possible that he simply misremembered, and The Hero (rhythm guitar) was the one he'd done with different gear.