“He told me the story about a young guitarist he once let play his guitar at rehearsal. I said, ‘Brian, that was me’”: Steve Vai pays tribute to Brian May as he receives his radical custom Red Special

Steve Vai has paid tribute to Brian May, after finally getting his hands on his eye-catching reimagining of the Queen legend’s iconic Red Special guitar.

May famously built his Red Special with his father, but for his own radical take on the famed build, Vai went down a different route. He linked up with the UK-based Guyton Guitars for a truly radical variant, which included “Steve specified woods, electronics, and scale length.”

May's original electric guitar has been treated to several spin-offs over the years, including a fundraising pink model and, more recently, Tony Iommi received an exquisitely made left-handed version.

However, Vai and Guyton have gone all-out with theirs, which boasts a quilted maple top and an intricately carved custom pickguard, alongside a host of other Vai-isms. It’s left the For the Love of God shredder in a reflective mood.

“In the 1970s, when I was a kid trying to figure out how to play anything in tune, Brian May was one of my absolute heroes,” he says in an emotional Instagram post. “His tone and touch oozed rock and roll class, the songs he wrote, and the notes he chose dug deep into my psyche and helped shape a future fantasy image of myself in my mind.

“But his Red Special was not just a guitar to me, it was a mythical object, an alchemical wand built by a young genius and his dad. I studied every photo and rumor I could find. That guitar planted the seed that maybe someday I could build my own, which thankfully never happened, due to a total lack of expertise.”

Drafting in Guyton, then, proved to be a masterstroke from Vai, who is now able to honor his hero in the right way. It's an apt full-circle moment for Vai, arriving years after a rather memorable meeting with the British virtuoso.

“At 20 years old, I moved to L.A. and started working with Frank Zappa,” Vai continues. “One night, I walk into the Rainbow Bar and Grill and see Brian just standing there. I thought I was hallucinating.

“Brian was incredibly kind to this unknown kid and then did the unthinkable: he invited me to a Queen rehearsal at Zoetrope. Sitting in a room with the entire band was already unreal enough, but then I saw the Red Special… time definitely slowed down.”

Vai was given the guitar to play. “It was heaven,” he reflects. Then, years after Vai sat in on that Queen rehearsal, May was the musical director at a guitar legends concert in Seville, Spain – and Vai was on the bill.

“Brian told me the story about a young guitarist he once let play his guitar at rehearsal,” Vai adds. “A kid who was in town working with Zappa and who played amazingly well. I let him tell me the whole story and then said, ‘Brian, that was me.’ This stands as one of the most satisfying full-circle twists the universe has offered me.”

Vai says he’s “truly humbled” to own the ‘Green Red Special,’ calling it “beyond beautiful,” crafted with a “devotion made tangible.” It’s certainly living up to its special billing.

It might not be the only high-end Red Special that we see in 2026, either. Gibson – to whom May signed in 2024 before releasing a signature 12-string acoustic last year – could be planning to release Murphy Lab-aged replicas.