Bohemian Rhapsody

My son and I went to see the new Queen movie which inspires me to get off the couch and start building a ukulele inspired by Brian May’s Red Special Guitar.
For those not familiar with the story behind the guitar, as a teenager Brian’s family couldn’t afford to buy him an electric guitar. But that didn’t stop brian and his father. They found scrap wood from an old mantel and an old table to build the guitar, old motors parts to build the bridge and they wound there own pickups.
I’m not much of a guitar player so to pay tribute to this amazing story I decided to build an acoustic ukulele version of the guitar.
Here is a progress picture of the Uke I’ve been working on next to a picture of the original guitar,

That's going to be a very special ukulele. Looking forward to seeing and hearing the finished project.

That's great. I love doing mods like that to my bass ukes.

(Tip, before you upload an image, hit two carriage returns, then upload, that way the image is below the paragraph and doesn't force the lines to separate.)
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My son and I went to see the new Queen movie which inspires me to get off the couch and start building a ukulele inspired by Brian May’s Red Special Guitar.

For those not familiar with the story behind the guitar, as a teenager Brian’s family couldn’t afford to buy him an electric guitar. But that didn’t stop brian and his father. They found scrap wood from an old mantel and an old table to build the guitar, old motors parts to build the bridge and they wound there own pickups.

I’m not much of a guitar player so to pay tribute to this amazing story I decided to build an acoustic ukulele version of the guitar.
Here is a progress picture of the Uke I’ve been working on next to a picture of the original guitar.

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8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video

damn that's looking fabulous Rob.

Thank you for the background story. No I am not aware of that.. he is a great guitarist, glad his father was determined to build that guitar, By the way, Brian May is now a PhD. Dr May !
I am planning to see the movie this week. I heard it’s very good.
Your Uke looks really really good ! Look forward to hearing its voice

That does look special. I was thinking that someone by now must have produced a Brian May uke, and sure enough they have - Brian May himself (or perhaps someone paying to use his name).




I'm actually surprise the uke isn't a solid body.

Thanks for sharing the picture.
I knew that there was a mass produced model and for along time that held me back from building my version of the Special Red.
I do a lot of building acoustic versions of famous solid body electric guitars. The criteria I usually go by when deciding what to build is:
1) Is it a unique instrument
2) Is it associated with a specific musician
3) Do I like the music
4) Does the build present a learning opportunity for me.
The Special Red checked all the boxes.
I avoid building popular instruments like Telecasters and Les Paul's. I'm actually starting to run out of things to make.
If anyone has any suggestions , I'm always looking for ideas.
Take a look at my facebook to see some of my other celebrity inspired ukes.
https://www.facebook.com/RIGuitars/

If anyone is interested there’s a short clip on Youtube of Brian May with his George Formby banjolele that belonged to his dad.