Skip to content
Gear Avail

Rock

Brian May

Queen, 1973 onward

One treble booster, one AC30, and a guitar he built with his father out of a fireplace mantel. The whole orchestral guitar sound on those records comes from stacking that single voice, not from a big board.

Load this board into the builder

The chain

Shown in conventional signal order rather than the order the sources list them, so it reads the way it would be wired: guitar on the left, amp on the right.

  1. 1
    Drive / fuzzNo photo available

    Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster

    Drive / fuzz

    Cuts the bass and slams the front of an AC30, which is what turns a naturally dark rig into that violin-like sustain.

    Not stocked by any store we track

    Search the site
  2. 2
    ModulationNo photo available

    Foxx Foot Phaser

    Modulation

    Occasional, and always subtle. The layered harmonies do most of the texturing work instead.

    Not stocked by any store we track

    Search the site
  3. 3
    DelayNo photo available

    Echoplex EP-3

    Delayrack or amp-top unit

    Tape echo used for the timed, canon-style repeats rather than for ambience.

    Not stocked by any store we track

    Search the site

Documented on

  • Queen II

    album · 1974

    • Father to Son
    • The March of the Black Queen

  • A Night at the Opera

    album · 1975

    • Bohemian Rhapsody
    • Good Company

    The Bohemian Rhapsody solo is one guitar and one booster, tracked to sound like several.

  • News of the World

    album · 1977

    • We Will Rock You

Editorial gear history, assembled from interviews, rig rundowns, live photography and liner notes. Brian May is not affiliated with Gear Avail and nothing here is an endorsement. Rigs change between tours and between takes, so this one is scoped to 1973 onward rather than presented as a career-long setup. In most cases what is documented is that a pedal was on the board during those sessions or that tour, not that it is audible on a specific bar of a specific take.