![]() May still uses the original Red Special, although many copies have been made. ![]() It was originally intended to have f-holes, but May and son never ended up carving them. The body, although appearing to be solid, is actually semi-hollow – with oak in the centre and mahogany veneer on the top and bottom. The inlays were hand carved from buttons, the neck is made of mahogany from an old mantle, and the fretboard is oak (a somewhat unusual choice for a fretboard). The unique bridge and vibrato was custom built out of aluminium, motorcycle valve springs, and a knife. May originally wound his own but didn’t like the sound. The pickups are Burns Tri-Sonics and the magnet was flipped in the middle pickup to reverse the polarity. Brian May’s Red Specialīrian May built his Red Special with his father over the course of two years, ending in 1965, and has been his constant companion ever since. This cheap fiberglass guitar found new life at the hands of Jack White and became the core of the lo-fi and abrasive signature tones that propelled The White Stripes to stardom. Originally, the model could be ordered from the Montgomery Ward catalog, just like a Silvertone or Kay. The body is chambered mahogany instead of fiberglass, which kind of negates the thing that made those guitars unique.Īs The White Stripes gained popularity, many old Res-O-Glas guitars were snatched up and to find one now is difficult. Although the new remakes sound great, they are nothing like the originals. The design has (sort of) been resurrected by Eastwood Guitars who bought the rights to use the Airline name and design in the early 2000s. It had no truss-rod but did feature a non-adjustable steel beam in the neck to keep it straight. They are often mistaken for humbuckers, but under the covers they are really single coils. The company that made Airline guitars, Valco, wound their own pickups, which are still featured in Jack White’s guitar. Between 19, Airline guitars made Res-O-Glas guitars, which were essentially fiberglass hollowbodies with a piece of maple going down the centre to mount the pickups and bridge to. It stays in the studio where it belongs.” Jack White’s 1964 Airline JB Huttoĭuring Jack White’s years in The White Stripes, he became well known for using cheap off-brand guitars such as his Kay Archtop and his Crestwood Astral II, but his most famous example was his Airline guitar. “James played it on the last record, and I know it will be on the next record. “That guitar has taken its lumps over the years (like many of us) but it is alive and kicking despite its inability to stay in tune,” said Chad. We recently spoke with Hetfield’s longtime guitar tech, Chad Zaemisch, about the guitar: It was used on Kill ‘Em All and some subsequent albums. ![]() The guitar wears the scars of years of abuse and some custom etchings by Hetfield himself, including a middle finger on the back, a skull and crossbones on the headstock, and the iconic ‘Fuck It’ on the front. Its original burgundy finish had been painted over with white nitrocellulose lacquer by the time it found its way to James. The guitar underwent some minor alterations, with the original pickups swapped out for Seymour Duncans. READ MORE: The history of the Gibson Flying VĮlectra made these Flying V copies from 1974 until they were discontinued sometime in the early 1980s.But we won’t criticise him too much – he was young, and it was the third guitar Hetfield ever owned. In hindsight, he probably should have known it wasn’t a Gibson – the bolt-on neck should have been a dead giveaway. As it turned out, it was an Electra Flying Wedge Model 2236 with a Gibson truss-rod cover on the headstock. Early on in his musical career, James Hetfield bought a guitar for $200 under the guise of it being a genuine Gibson Flying V. ![]() We’ve all (probably) made some unfortunate gear purchases in our lives. ![]()
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