Brian May Red Special Guitar Tremolo Arm Tip Design and Make

Описание: In this video I discuss and reproduce one of the often overlooked details on Brian May's Red Special guitar - the plastic tip on the end of the tremolo arm.

I show you the 12 mm diameter light grey vintage Milward knitting needles of the type that Brian's mum Ruth would have used and which Brian fashioned his tremolo tip from. I talk about how the plastic has discoloured and now has a greenish hue with wear and tear over many decades of use.

The reproduction grey/green tip on my Red Special guitars resulted from a collaboration with Mickäel Dansan in 2016. I show you how I designed the object in TurboCAD then 3D print the objects. I explain how I colour the "creamy white" Phrozen brand 3D printing resin to approximately match the average colour of the Red Special tremolo arm tip using a mixture of black, green and yellow epoxy resin dyes from a resin colorant kit.

I 3D print several batches of tips at two different colour densities using my Elegoo Mars 4 DLP 3D printer.

If aftermarket versions just don't look authentic enough for you, a custom grey/green beige coloured injection moulded part is available for sale at Dansan Guitars' online store for a reasonable price:

https://dansanguitars.com/store/

Please check out my other YouTube videos and my website, dsgb.net for details of my projects and content related to Brian May's guitars and musical equipment.

Time Index of Chapters

00:00 - Introduction - Slow motion cascades.
00:16 - Comparison of the tips on Red Specials, a Burns Special and a Fender Stratocaster.
00:38 - Close up of the Red Special tremolo arm tip showing wear and tear.
00:55 - Showing the 12 mm light grey plastic Milward England vintage knitting needle.
01:07 - 2012 picture of the Red Special in daylight showing the tremolo arm tip as being grey.
01:15 - Red Special book photograph showing wear and tear.
01:22 - Comparing the Dansan Guitars grey/green beige plastic tip to a 2004 Burns Special white plastic tip.
01:26 - Comparing the Dansan Guitars grey/green beige plastic tip to a standard Fender Stratocaster white plastic tip.
01:29 - The Dansan Guitars online store.
01:42 - CAD design process stage 1: tracing over a photograph using a bezier curve.
01:53 - CAD design process stage 2: creating a design sketch with imperial dimensions.
02:18 - CAD design process stage 3: rotating the half-shape to form the solid 3D object.
02:29 - Montage of dsgb YouTube video thumbnails. Please follow, like, comment and subscribe.
02:50 - A look at the 3D CAD object.
02:58 - The epoxy resin colouring kit.
03:12 - Equipment for measuring out 3D printing resin and dye colorant: automatic and manual pipettes.
03:31 - A look around the 3D object.
03:38 - Red Special book photograph showing the mottled grey/green appearance.
03:53 - Dilution of black coloured resin to achieve the light grey colour of the Millward knitting needle.
04:30 - Preparing the yellowish green colour resin.
04:47 - Comparison of three densities of greenish colour resin against the original image.
04:50 - Comparison of the lowest colour density greenish resin against the Dansan tip.
05:01 - Showing the laboratory notes of the systematic investigation.
05:19 - Photographs of the first batch of 12 tips coming out of the 3D printer.
05:31 - Photograph of the second (lighter colour density) batch of 12 tips in daylight.
05:38 - Comparison of the two batches of tips.
05:51 - Comment by Brian on my 3/4 scale Red Special when we met him back stage in December 2017.
05:55 - Outro 1 - Grogu from Star Wars makes an appearance.
06:06 - Outro 2.

Image credits to Haynes Publishing, Brian May archive and Richard Gray for Carlton Books. All images remain the copyright of their owner and are included here under the fair usage policy.

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