PICKUPS

The single coil pickups, still the three original Burns Tri-sonics, are wired together in series. When combined, their output is higher than if they were wired in parallel like a Fender Strat’s pickups are. Designed around a ceramic bar magnet, they’re pretty hot to begin with, and, in order to solve issues with microphonic feedback, Brian had to fill them with Araldite. His most revered tone comes from a treble booster, a number of Vox AC30S that are turned up full and the Red Special’s bridge and middle pickups switched together in series and in phase; that’s the guitar sound that’s graced every single Queen album and every gig Brian’s participated in since 1966.