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
Holly2003 · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Togg wrote: [/b]
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
[/QUOTE]
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.
Togg · Member since
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
Holly2003 · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Togg wrote: [/b]
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it[/QUOTE]
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 · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Holly2003 wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Togg wrote: [/b]
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
[/QUOTE]
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?
[/QUOTE]
masterstroke_84 · Member since
And what about the "hidden" (or something like that...) familiar piece on "the wedding march"??.. I dont know what he´s talking about...
john bodega · Member since
Ha, he probably meant the white one.
Bigfish · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Holly2003 wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Holly2003 wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Togg wrote: [/b]
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
[/QUOTE]
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?
[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE]
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 · Member since
That's not a strat solo. Doesn't sound remotely like one. It's far more likely that the [b]riff[/b] 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.
Togg · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Bigfish wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Holly2003 wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Holly2003 wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Togg wrote: [/b]
Check out Brian's soapbox, he talks about it
[/QUOTE]
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?
[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE]
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...
[/QUOTE]
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.
Sebastian · Member since
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...
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]
it's indeed very obviously the Red Special.
[/QUOTE]
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.
Sebastian · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Sir GH wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]
it's indeed very obviously the Red Special.
[/QUOTE]
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.
[/QUOTE]
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
[b]indeed very obviously (recorded with) the Red Special[/b].
It makes much more sense that Brian confused the 'non-RS' part, considering:
- The rhythm guitar on [i]The Hero[/i] sounds very much like [b]same [/b]guitarist but [b]different [/b]guitar (compared with live).
- The solo in question is actually a [i]Flash Gordon[/i] reprise, rather than [i]The Hero[/i]
- [i]The Hero[/i] was, reportedly, a new song, while [i]Flash[/i] 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 [i]My Fairy King [/i]was on 'Queen II' (only an album apart from where it really belonged), [i]Master-Stroke [/i]had been done at Wessex (again, Wessex were used one year later), Fred hadn't used Steinway... it [b]IS [/b]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, [b]indeed very obviously (recorded with) the Red Special[/b].
The Real Wizard · Member since
Are you a guitarist?
Have you tried to achieve the same tone with different configurations of gear?
Sebastian · Member since
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 [i]Mother Love[/i], for instance, or [i]Nothin' But Blue[/i]). That [i]Flash Reprise [/i]solo lacks that 1%, while the rhythm guitar on [i]The Hero[/i] (and [i]Battle Theme[/i], which is probably the same BT anyway) doesn't.
I'm not saying it's [b]impossible[/b] to sound like the RS using a different guitar and amp, and I'm not saying Bri [b]never [/b]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 [i]The Hero[/i] (rhythm guitar) was the one he'd done with different gear.
