Indentifying the real 'Red Special'

Hi all

I have a question that may have a blindingly obvious answer, but to me it's not all too clear.

Brian May must have in his collection a fair few replicas of his Red Special, but often when watching him play live, I find it hard to tell which is the actual guitar he made with his father and which are his replicas. So, the question I pose to you all is, how can you tell which guitar is the actual proper 'Red Special' compared to the numerous replicas he uses?

Thanks

Nyall

He has a sixpence inlaid into the headstock on the original I think - he added it a few years back when the copies became prevalent.

Yup csmdrums is spot on, Sixpence in the headstock :)

The 'real' one has a balloon attached to it so he can find it after the gig....

Cheers chaps, apprecitate it muchly!! :D

The real one has a kind of a square-mark above the six switches which later was replaced by a little 'back-to-the-light' star.

The sixpence is stuck on rather than inlaid though.
Greg Fryer made replicas of the original. They were named George, Paul and John. BM has two which look just like the Old Lady
but there are a few easily identifiable features to help even a novice identify them.
John has a white string-guide (nut) and slightly different colour.
George has a rosewood fingerboard instead of the usual black-painted oak....and this also hasn't been coated/lacquered with the Rustins.
They both have the Fryer logo on the headstock.

The original also has parts of the black paint missing from the upper end of the fingerboard/fretboard in quite a few places. There are quite a selection of details that are only on the original.
Flip it over and it has a small semi-circle of replaced veneer at the bottom and also a large piece that was fitted in (by Fryer during the restoration) where years of various belt-buckles etc had worn the finishes out.

Thanks for the in depth reply, it certainly has helped and I greatly appreciate it! :) Every time I see Mr May play now, I'll be pointing out which guitars which to whoever's nearby!! ;)

I was going to mention the badger tail hanging from the neck but, as you said, you're a newbie...

[QUOTE] [b]LouLou wrote:[/b]

The real one has a kind of a square-mark above the six switches which later was replaced by a little 'back-to-the-light' star. [/QUOTE]

I was lucky enough to meet Queen a year ago, and was handed a Red Special at the time. The photo taken of me cuts off JUST before where the sixpence would be, and I always assumed it was a replica because why would they let a fan hold the real thing.

This thread just made me realize that I appear to have actually held the real deal... it has the star, and it has matching scratches on the paint to the original. Holy crap!

I can't open the pic. Can you reupload it?

[QUOTE] [b]LouLou wrote:[/b]

The real one has a kind of a square-mark above the six switches which later was replaced by a little 'back-to-the-light' star. [/QUOTE]

Responding to a 2 year old post, but I believe that was to cover up a switch for a built-in distortion unit that Brian quit using even before Queen was a band. I have the cd that has the "1984" tracks on it, and on some of them, you can notice sometimes the RS has a different sound to it.

You can see the real RS here:

[QUOTE] [b]The King Of Rhye wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]LouLou wrote:[/b]

The real one has a kind of a square-mark above the six switches which later was replaced by a little 'back-to-the-light' star. [/QUOTE]

Responding to a 2 year old post, but I believe that was to cover up a switch for a built-in distortion unit that Brian quit using even before Queen was a band. I have the cd that has the "1984" tracks on it, and on some of them, you can notice sometimes the RS has a different sound to it.

[/QUOTE]

It housed a fuzz unit (possibly a Vox one)It had a red switch that was a different type to the 6 Jean Renaud (white) ones.
It can be heard most noticeably on 'Son and Daughter' - 3 guitars play the solo part and one is the fuzz. As stated, it was removed and covered with the red-dot, then black square of 'gaffa' tape then the BM star during the restoration by Greg Fryer.

All the things mentioned above and also the real Red Special has some kind of scratches at the end of the fretboard.Sorry if this was mentioned earlier...