Brian May - History Of His Effects Pedals

[Music] hi guys gus here and in this video we're going to be looking at the history of brian may's effects pedals okay guys the first effect we're going to talk about is the treble booster so brian may use the oc 44 germanium transistor based dallas range master treble booster pedal from the late 1960s up to the queen tours in mid to late 1973 brian bought his first range master second hand and used it to record the first queen album from june until november 1972. live he used a range master around the time of the release of the first album in july 1973. the treble booster is a very simple battery-powered device to boost the guitar signal and a simple network of resistors and capacitors to shape the sound and give it the right frequency balance the range master was used by brian on queen recordings queen 1 queen 2 and a knight at the opera the range master is perhaps the most famous of all the treble boosters produced it employed a germanium transistor and it has a distinctive raw metallic sound similar to that produced by half cocked wire pedal although not as full sounding as the cornish or fryer boosters it's actually able to produce the same output boost level which is around 25 db you can really hear the boost effect on the opening of sweet lady great king rat and brighton rock brian used the oc-44 germanium transistor-based dallas range master treble booster pedal from the late 1960s up to the queen tours in mid to late 1973 brian bought his first range master second hand and he used it to record the first queen album from june to november 1972 the following album queen 2 was recorded in 1973 and brian's guitar tone seemed a little bit similar to the first album although it was also different and sounded a bit plush and richer and heavier as opposed to the rather cleaner sound of his guitar from the first queen album it could be that he was using a slightly different treble booster and lots of other variables such as his amplifier and the tubes and the mic positions as well would come into factor brian's range master pedal was lost around mid to late 1973 and it's quite possible that brian used this original range master treble booster to record both the queen and queen 2 albums brian told guitartech greg fryer in 1998 that the range master booster was left behind at a gig by roadie and lost when brian asked the roadie where the treble booster was and learned that it had been left behind at the previous gig the roadie then apparently said oh i didn't think it did very much this seems likely to have occurred around mid to late 1973. as is obvious the treble booster was a critical part of brian's sound and he needed to replace this as soon as possible obviously the dallas range master had been out of production for many years and it would have been difficult for brian to locate one brian's father harold then came to the rescue and made him another treble booster similar to the range master brian and harold had the circuit for the range master drawn out prior to this time and both brian and greg still have copies of this original hand-drawn diagram which was kept with the original red special plans and here you can see brian in 1974 with the harold may trouble booster pedal and a gen wah wah pedal and here's a close-up in 1974 of the harold may treble booster one thing to bear in mind that it's also possible that john deacon who was an electronics graduate could also have made the replacement for the lost range master this booster may have used the same germanium transistor as a range master or it could have used the newer cheaper npn silicon transistors available at the time such as the bc547 or the bc238 both harold may and john deacon possessed the electronic knowledge and experience to be able to make such a trouble booster for brian or they could have adapted different versions of the treble booster if brian so required it pete cornish made many treble boosters for brian may and the first ones he made were in 1975. pete told mark reynolds that the first treble booster of brian mays that he examined in 1975 had been made by john deacon and that it used a silicon transistor in this article published in 1993 in uk guitar magazine we can see that pete cornish stated that it was actually in fact john deacon who made the triple booster originally for brian regardless of who made it it was very likely that the silicon transistor booster that pete cornish examined in 1975 was the one that was used on the queen album sheer heart attack and you can hear the slightly different tone that this silicon transistor treble booster would have brought to brian's live and recorded sound with queen in 1998 whilst working at brian's london alliton hill studio guitar tech greg fryer interviewed john deacon about the origins of the legendary dekey amp and he also asked john if he had made the first trouble boosters for bryant at that time as john was studying for an electronics degree when he first joined queen in 1972 john told greg that he did not make the trouble booster for brian and said that brian had other people doing that for him now it could be guys that john deacon actually forgot that he'd made the treble booster for brian due to the sounds of time brian has actually forgotten a lot of what happened but he did say that his father harold had made a number of treble boosters so who exactly made that treble booster we'll probably never know greg fryer states it is my opinion that the treble booster which brian may used for the recording of sheer heart attack from july to september 1974 heralded the golden era of his sound with queen which began in mid to late 1974 and continued through the rest of the 1970s i believe that brian's rich lush sounds as heard of masterpieces such as killer queen and other songs from the album are unlikely to have been produced using a germanium transistor range master style treble booster it is highly likely that the treble booster which brian used on sheer heart attack had an npn silicon transistor such as the bc548 or the bc 238 and here is a great photo of freddie and brian in london at the imperial college on november the 2nd 1973. we can clearly see a switcher for the echoplex a yen war and also the handmade treble booster the wire pedal was an italian gen crybaby unit from 1974 brian may's very simple guitar pedal setup was then moved on a little bit we can see that from 1974 brian may actually had a pedal board although it was simple it contained a treble booster and wire and these were mounted on a long plywood base the wawa was mounted high off the plywood base possibly on a block of wood and there were two echoplex foot switches on the board also richard paul jones captured brian may's pedalboard in a photograph taken of freddy on stage at london's rainbow theater on 20th of november 1974. the harold may or john deacon treble booster can be clearly seen placed next to brian's gen wawa it's also seen along with one of the echoplex foot switches for the single delay and obviously the treble booster pictured is a different shape and color to a dallas range master these photos are from queen's tour of japan in 1976. the photos were taken by bob wegner and we can clearly see his pedalboard in these photos mark reynolds says pete cornish first started doing electronic work for brian may in 1975. pete was called in to help ryan with his gear because he was getting bad noise issues during rehearsals outside the place they were rehearsing was a giant radio mast and this was the cause of radio frequency noise problem i asked pete what treble booster brian was using at the time he first met him and what germanium transistor was in the booster pete told me very specifically that brian was not using a germanium transistor triple booster at that time and pete said it was a silicon transistor booster made by john deacon he was very adamant about that fact pete said the booster was very crudely made and this may partly explain why the unit was prone to picking up radio frequency noise p cornish went away and made a new treble booster for brian which was designed to filter out the rf noise which had been a big problem for brian he said when he returned it brian said that the treble booster was not powerful enough pete then came back with a bc149 treble booster which brian used from then on he also provided brian's roadie with a box full of cornish humbuster units because brian's guitar pedal amp rig was very noisy and he also supplied some ground lift switches in these units which remove the hum issues between the amplifiers pete said brian's roadies weren't too pleased with him because they had to insert the humbuster units between a number of brian's leads along with all the other things they had to do i have never really found out what brian was using prior to pete cornish getting involved with regard to preventing earth loot hum which happens when you use several guitar amps together regarding the treble booster with the extra plus 15 db preamp which was on all the time driving the guitar audio signal the plus 15 db preamp is a clean boost and didn't add any distortion to the audio signal pete stated that it was there because the massive cable runs from the guitar to the pedalboard and from the pedalboard to the amps caused a loss of audio signal and the signal ended up not being strong enough to drive the amplifiers to the desired level by using the treble booster signal alone so the plus 15 db preamp was added to help compensate for the loss of signal due to the long cable runs shortly after this brian adopted the bc149 booster and two separate tb extra boxes taped together so then the pedal board went guitar treble booster bc 149 to the tb extra then the fox phaser and then to the vox ac30 amplifiers the preamp and clean boost then disappeared from the board it could have been that pete cornish might have built something else off stage to help raise the guitar signal by that time you can see the duplex pedal which was basically two treble booster extras in one box in december 1977 on the bob harris show when queen were playing we are the champions the older duplexes were two separate boosters they were not internally linked pete cornish's modern duplex has one input and one output as a dual switch booster unit they are not the same as the vintage ones which had two separate boosters you can see here in the late 1970s brian may using his black plywood pedal board on this pedal board the signal flow was as follows the guitar the bc149 treble booster the treble booster extra duplex the fox phaser and then to the ac 30s this board was actually used right up until 1982. it last appeared live with queen in england and milton keynes on the 5th of june 1982 and at that time brian had also began to use a boss ce1 chorus pedal the boss ce1 can also be seen at the side of the black plywood pedalboard in the milton keynes concept video footage shortly after june 1982 the plywood pedalboard was given to pete cornish and pete cornish was asked to use the component parts and make brian's new pedalboard more roadworthy the pedalboard which was dated by pete cornish was july 1982 serial number 076 after all this effort apparently brian preferred the sound of his earlier and more simple plywood pedalboard apparently brian said that pete cornish had added new things to the circuit such as level matching buffers etc that brian may actually disliked and it was also more difficult for him to use compared to the older pedalboard which he was very familiar with the consensus was that the larger pedalboard did not sound good but that the main problem that brian may encountered was regarding the ergonomics of it the new pedalboard was a larger rectangular size and had foot switches that brian couldn't easily find with his foot on a dark stage often with smoke effects obscuring his vision and take note that also brian may would wear clogs as shoes and it was very important for brian at this professional level to be able to use his pedalboard very easily and automatically we split second timing on a darkened stage but it was obviously too late to do anything about it and brian may was stuck with the new pedal board and just had to make the best of it the large 1982 pete cornish pedalboard was opened and examined by nigel knight and pete maladron pete cornish had literally taken all of the earlier plywood pedalboard parts and fitted them into a larger pedalboard system that he had made along with extra things such as level matches and buffers the two booster circuits in the larger pedalboard were the bc 149 circuits and you can see these clearly in these photos according to pete cornish the standalone treble booster pedals that he supplied brian in the mid 1980s were hotter than the original ones and these included some twin transistor boosters such as the one pictured he also made a lower powered single transistor a bc182l circuit p also made brian some boosters with the bc182l transistor pink cornish said that these bc182l boosters were friday afternoon boosters that brian needed urgently and that he did not have the original transistors available so had to use these transistors as a substitute greg fryer said in july 1996 that the treble boosters made by pete cornish were brian's favorite trouble boosters and were the ones that he preferred using for recording live it's worth noting that um brian may's favorite version of pete's trouble booster which we'll call a tb83 as it was made in 1983 has a 10 narrow fabric capacitor at the input whereas the originals had a 4.7 nanofarad capacitor which was the same as a range master original also pete's modern tb83 appears to have been using a hotter and thicker sounding transistor compared to the original single transistor treble boosters that he made for brian in the 1970s and 1980s from the mid 1980s and into the 1990s brian used his live stage rig treble boosters made by peak cornish which were twin transistor units similar to the guild treble booster circuit these twin transistor treble boosters were considerably more powerful than the single transistor bc149 or the bc182l treble boosters and were foot switchable with the circuitry housed in a large box these boosters sometimes use the bc239c or the z text equivalent transistors pink cornish's involvement with queen started in 1972 his first commission from queen was to eliminate the ground loop hum caused by the interconnection of three vox ac30 amps and two modified echoplex ep3 delays in january 1972 he designed and built special circuitry to isolate the amps and echoes which successfully eliminated all the hum problems reportably he used to extend his old echoplex's head travel considerably to get longer delays in june 1982 pete was requested to build an integrated system for brian may stage setup with the majority of the wiring permanently installed in order to reduce the rigging time the system comprised of a footboard connected to a main routing unit via a 25m multi-core cable the ac power for the amplifiers the routing system and the echoes needed to be stabilized at a constant voltage at this time brian stage setup now consisted of 12 ac 30 amps and two mx ddl2 delays fed from a power isolation transformer plus the remote footboard which brian operated on stage brian says of mixing guitar effects such as chorus and delays the problem with guitar effects like chorus and delays is that they add a time shifted or delayed version of your signal and in a certain way they disturb the original sound if played in the same couple of speakers indeed the frequency extension of a delayed note is exactly the same and this way the cone of an amp is still moving reproducing the original signal and then he has to reproduce the delayed line too this kind of mixing is not the best one the best one is to let the air be your mixer so brian's advice is to use a second amp to reproduce the chorus version of his guitar playing a third one for the first delay output and a fourth one for the second delay output etc in the 1982 peat cornice design pedal board a modified fox phaser pedal was added with a foot operated speed controller other modifications were as follows the potentiometer was fitted into a crybaby chassis as the original speed control pedal was badly worn along with a replacement heavy duty bypass switch the original fox circuit board was too large to fit into the crybaby chassis so pete incorporated it into the pedalboard with a built-in nine volt dc power supply he did not do any audio modifications to it the roland boss ce1 chorus ensemble was stripped down and was stripped down and the circuit board with modifications was fitted into the pedalboard pete's modifications involved level matching so as to allow the treble boost signal to pass through it unattenuated the even tied harmonizer foot controller was also added the pedalboard had built in foot switches and outputs to a remote rack unit okay guys let's talk a little bit about the guild brian may treble booster pedals guild made these pedals firstly in the mid 1980s and brian himself actually used one in a music video the original brian may guild pedal was as you can see a red color pedal with two knobs which will gain an intensity and a foot switch and on this circuit board you can see the silicon transistor guild named this pedal a power booster but the circuit is basically identical to a treble booster this pedal featured a 4.7 nano farad input cap and essentially this is a peat cornish tb83 treble booster clone one thing to note is this is a battery only pedal in the 1990s guild released the brian may pedal this is also referred as the bhm2 pedal the pedal case is left unpainted with just the text printed on it and apparently the intention was that it looked handmade now apparently in the 90s brian may actually took his treble booster pedal to guild and so that they could make a direct clone of it this is pretty close to the cornish pedal brian may took to guild we can see in this pedal that it actually has two silicon transistors this pedal features two npn transistors the model name is mps 1898 just looking at the schematic here guys we've got a one meg pull down resistor which emits the sort of pop that you get from turning the pedal on and off after this we've got a 100 nano farad input cap so slightly different from the previous 80s version of the guild triple booster in the 1990s brian was using a june 1982 strap mountable multi-effects unit he said of these in a december 92 guitarist magazine interview i've tried most of the guitar synths and stuff but i just prefer my instruments it's very human and it makes the right noise i do play through zoom boxes these days which i enjoy i think they're a good little piece of apparatus they're good for each end of the spectrum for the full-blown solo or for clean rhythm the only thing perhaps they don't handle is that intermediate area which the ac30 is very good at where you can strike a chord and it's distorted but you can still hear what the chord is let's have a look at brian's current guitar touring rig so looking at this setup the guitar signal goes first into the cat treble booster and then to a sennheiser sk 500 transmitter both of which are mounted on the strap it arrives and fires some aerials and goes straight into the sennheiser receiver an ew500 g2 and from there it goes into a custom splitter designed by mike hill the main signal then goes through a dunlop rack mount wah a crybaby dcr2sr and then it's split further two ways one of the signals goes straight into the center amp and the other to the effects loop of which there are two these loops go separately to the tc electronic g major 2 boxes one is acting as a spare also included in the main splitter are a d key out a tuner out plus there is a controller board which his guitar tech is able to control all of this setup with this allows the guitar tech to route the signal to either all three ac30s or just the two outside ac30s or the center ac30 only or the d key the tuner is a cork pitch black which is permanently on and it sits on the side filled by his guitar rack and here we can see a digitech brian may pedal which is used for the tie your mother down song when he plays the side solo he normally switches to another pickup setting but he's always struggled to pick up the slide out of his strap set the pickups right and hit the note at the start so now using the digi tech brian has a tie your mother down solo setting on this at the bottom of the rack is a cuckoo c pcr 1000m which sets the voltage for the whole rig including the amplifiers everything is set at 230 volts which the ac30s were designed to run at it also keeps the rig running at 60 hertz rather than 50 which really helps in the reliability of the amplifiers the cat stb unit was originally designed for brian for use in conjunction with his strap-mounted radio transmitter system and it has a 4.7 nanofarad input cap thank you for watching this video and thank you very much for the comments i do read them all until the next video take care guys this is goose signing out

Channel: The Guitar Show

Views: 88,440

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Id: R0E1nTpKnGM

Length: 24min 30sec (1470 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 14 2021