The
Red Special is the
electric guitar that was designed and built by
Queen's guitarist
Brian May and his father, Harold, when Brian was a teenager in the early 1960s. The Red Special is also sometimes referred to, by May and by others, as the
Fireplace or the
Old Lady. A guitar that would define May's signature style, it was intentionally designed to
feedback after he saw
Jeff Beck playing live and making different sounds just by moving the guitar in front of the amp. He wanted an instrument that was going to be alive and interact with him and the air around him.