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• Review

We've been privy to the developments of the BM Super for a while now and we're very happy to finally see the finished article on the market. As with all current official products that bear the Queen legend's name, Brian May's tech Pete Malandrone and Aussie luthier Greg Fryer have been involved from the beginning of the R&D process.

The Super is built in Japan by luthier Kazutaka Ijuin, who is well-known among Queen guitar fans from his KZ Guitars operation that has produced some of the best copies of Brian's Red Special.

The concept here, however, is to fill the gap between the very affordable BM Signature and the Brian May Replica – the latter painstakingly made by East Anglian maker Andrew Guyton – so the Super does include a number of compromises in spec when compared to the original.

There's an interview with Greg Fryer up on the BMG website that goes over each and every nuance in detail, something that space forbids us from doing, but here are some of the important highlights.

Construction

The body, although of the exact same shape and dimensions as the original, is fashioned from mahogany rather than the veneer of blockboard, oak and mahogany taken from the now legendary fireplace by Brian and his father back in the mid-sixties.

The fingerboard here is of heavily yet expertly lacquered ebony, rather than the original painted oak, and the real anoraks will notice that the Super's mahogany neck is glued-in rather than secured by a single hefty bolt. To be accurate, the original's neck was intended to be glued in, with the neck material actually extending well into the body and stopping just short of the bridge pickup.

"We've been fortunate enough to have played the original Red Special on several occasions over the years, and the BM Super gets incredibly close to the real thing."

As it is, the neck is arguably the Super's most interesting feature. Its dimensions are exactly those of the original and it is subsequently huge. The best way to describe the profile would be that of a 'V' with its apex flattened (imagine a trapezoid cross-section) and, although it shouldn't be quite so comfortable on paper, it's truly wonderful to play.

With a nut width of just over 45mm, a zero fret and a familiar old Fender-type 184mm radius, the benefits to overall tone of necks of this size shouldn't be underestimated.

The trio of Burns Trisonics have been tweaked electronically to resemble the originals more closely and the vibrato array, which is impressive in its authenticity, is set up perfectly for those necessarily subtle wobbles.

The team has opted to use a Wilkinson roller bridge to keep costs down, rather than custom-manufacturing a copy of the original's – do see the website for more information and background on that.

Sounds

The following clip showcases a range of the Super's tones: