Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Brian May Red Special Guitar Bridge Design, Function and Installation
In this video, I continue with the recent theme of reviewing the design and function of the unique hardware on Brian May's Red Special guitar by taking an in depth look at the frictionless roller bridge. Brian made all the individual components of this assembly by hand including the cylindrical saddles with their intricate axles. I'll also discuss the fasteners and shims used to install it and set the desired string action.
To illustrate the discussion, I'll show you two professionally engineered assemblies with different interpretations of Brian's original design and I'll compare these with the one I made in January 2022 for a brief time lapse video with no commentary.:
youtube.com/watch?v=OJzt_NhJth0
General Description
The bridge on the Red Special is made from six aluminium blocks and has suffered significant wear and tear through decades of sixpence impact which makes understanding the as-built form and dimensions challenging. I'll talk through the numbers after this general overview. The block heights are staggered to follow the 7 1/4" neck radius to a good approximation and have five semi-cylindrical slots to allow intonation adjustment.
The strings sit in a circumferential groove milled into each cylindrical steel saddles which themselves locate in the intonation slots via a fixed axle. The bridge pieces are secured to the guitar body with 6BA slotted cheese head machine screws into brass Hank rivet bushings acting as a threaded insert.
Height adjustment is via slotted rectangular shims which are made from brass and phenolic resin sheet and these sit on top of a section of the black acrylic which is separate from the main pickguard/scratchplate.
Due to the small metal-to-metal contact areas of the string on the roller saddle and the saddle axles in the intonation grooves, the assembly is inherently low friction as designed and does not require any lubrication. In fact, lubricants should be avoided because they will harbour dust and metal fines over time increasing friction in the system.
It is tempting to apply a small amount of grease to prevent the roller saddle dropping out and becoming lost if a string is broken, especially during a performance. By all means do this but be aware that it compromises smooth operation to avoid an occasional problem. If this is a significant issue for you, it is worth looking for an aftermarket design with captive rollers that could be modified to fit your Red Special guitar.
Detailed Description
Brian's original design sketches show a width of 2.6" (66 mm) although it isn't clear to me why this would be a decimal fraction. The most straightforward option would be to have made all six blocks 7/16" wide so the total width is 2 5/8" (66.7 mm). However, the outer blocks have angled faces with a wider base and narrower top so four inner blocks at 13/32" (10.3 mm) wide and two outer blocks of 1/2" (12.7 mm) wide would accommodate this. Most versions I see adopt these dimensions with slight variations.
Individual block heights with increments of 1/32", that is 11/32" (8.73 mm), 5/16" (7.94 mm) and 9/32" (7.14 mm) follow the 7 1/4" neck radius to a good approximation.
The saddle rebate is likely 13/64" (just over five millimetres) wide since it accommodates a 6BA bolt head which is 0.193" (4.9 mm) wide. The 6BA machine screw head is 5/64" (2 mm) deep and is of cheese head style rather than countersunk.
The roller saddles themselves are 1/8" (3.2 mm) diameter steel cylinders with a central groove in which the string sits and have 1/32" (0.8 mm) axles protruding from either side, between 9 and 9.5 mm total width. In modern assemblies, these are turned from stainless steel.
00:00 - Introduction.
00:40 - dsgb YouTube video thumbnails advertisement.
01:01 - The original Red Special frictionless roller bridge.
01:59 - Lubrication discussion.
02:48 - Design details.
04:31 - String spacing discussion.
06:16 - dsgb home made CNC milled roller bridge.
06:58 - RS Mods roller bridge Installation.
08:17 - Fryer Guitars captive roller bridge.
08:58 - KAT (Knight Audio Technologies) Burns Special hybrid roller bridge.
09:28 - Outro.
Please check out my website, dsgb.net for further information on all my Brian May guitar and amplifier projects.
#BrianMay #RedSpecial #Queen
Brian May Red Special Guitar Bridge Design, Function and Installation
In this video, I continue with the recent theme of reviewing the design and function of the unique hardware on Brian May's Red Special guitar by taking an in depth look at the frictionless roller bridge. Brian made all the individual components of this assembly by hand including the cylindrical saddles with their intricate axles. I'll also discuss the fasteners and shims used to install it and set the desired string action.
To illustrate the discussion, I'll show you two professionally engineered assemblies with different interpretations of Brian's original design and I'll compare these with the one I made in January 2022 for a brief time lapse video with no commentary.:
youtube.com/watch?v=OJzt_NhJth0
General Description
The bridge on the Red Special is made from six aluminium blocks and has suffered significant wear and tear through decades of sixpence impact which makes understanding the as-built form and dimensions challenging. I'll talk through the numbers after this general overview. The block heights are staggered to follow the 7 1/4" neck radius to a good approximation and have five semi-cylindrical slots to allow intonation adjustment.
The strings sit in a circumferential groove milled into each cylindrical steel saddles which themselves locate in the intonation slots via a fixed axle. The bridge pieces are secured to the guitar body with 6BA slotted cheese head machine screws into brass Hank rivet bushings acting as a threaded insert.
Height adjustment is via slotted rectangular shims which are made from brass and phenolic resin sheet and these sit on top of a section of the black acrylic which is separate from the main pickguard/scratchplate.
Due to the small metal-to-metal contact areas of the string on the roller saddle and the saddle axles in the intonation grooves, the assembly is inherently low friction as designed and does not require any lubrication. In fact, lubricants should be avoided because they will harbour dust and metal fines over time increasing friction in the system.
It is tempting to apply a small amount of grease to prevent the roller saddle dropping out and becoming lost if a string is broken, especially during a performance. By all means do this but be aware that it compromises smooth operation to avoid an occasional problem. If this is a significant issue for you, it is worth looking for an aftermarket design with captive rollers that could be modified to fit your Red Special guitar.
Detailed Description
Brian's original design sketches show a width of 2.6" (66 mm) although it isn't clear to me why this would be a decimal fraction. The most straightforward option would be to have made all six blocks 7/16" wide so the total width is 2 5/8" (66.7 mm). However, the outer blocks have angled faces with a wider base and narrower top so four inner blocks at 13/32" (10.3 mm) wide and two outer blocks of 1/2" (12.7 mm) wide would accommodate this. Most versions I see adopt these dimensions with slight variations.
Individual block heights with increments of 1/32", that is 11/32" (8.73 mm), 5/16" (7.94 mm) and 9/32" (7.14 mm) follow the 7 1/4" neck radius to a good approximation.
The saddle rebate is likely 13/64" (just over five millimetres) wide since it accommodates a 6BA bolt head which is 0.193" (4.9 mm) wide. The 6BA machine screw head is 5/64" (2 mm) deep and is of cheese head style rather than countersunk.
The roller saddles themselves are 1/8" (3.2 mm) diameter steel cylinders with a central groove in which the string sits and have 1/32" (0.8 mm) axles protruding from either side, between 9 and 9.5 mm total width. In modern assemblies, these are turned from stainless steel.
00:00 - Introduction.
00:40 - dsgb YouTube video thumbnails advertisement.
01:01 - The original Red Special frictionless roller bridge.
01:59 - Lubrication discussion.
02:48 - Design details.
04:31 - String spacing discussion.
06:16 - dsgb home made CNC milled roller bridge.
06:58 - RS Mods roller bridge Installation.
08:17 - Fryer Guitars captive roller bridge.
08:58 - KAT (Knight Audio Technologies) Burns Special hybrid roller bridge.
09:28 - Outro.
Please check out my website, dsgb.net for further information on all my Brian May guitar and amplifier projects.
#BrianMay #RedSpecial #Queen
