Steve Vai has partnered with a UK guitar builder to reimagine Brian May’s iconic Red Special, with a few tweaks of his own – and the result is quite something.
The Queen guitar hero’s legendary Red Special is one of the most well-known electric guitars of all time. Originally built by a young May and his father, it laid the foundation for a huge selection of Queen hits and, later, nspired the creation of Brian May Guitars – a brand that offers accessible remakes of the instrument.
As such, we’ve seen a few different takes of the Red Special over the years, but trust us when we say you’ve never seen one like this. And, what’s more, it was built for none other than Steve Vai, bolstered by a few tweaks that take it closer in line with the shredder’s Ibanez signature guitars.
Showing off the build on social media, Guyton Guitars writes, “What a pleasure it is to finally be able to share this. It's been a long term project, but now it's finally in the very talented hands of its owner, the one and only Mr. Steve Vai!!
“Steve specified woods, electronics and scale length, all subtly different from the original RS [Red Special]. The scale length is 25.5", with the neck being much closer to his Ibanez Jem/Pia guitars than Brian's Red Special.”
To compensate for the longer scale length – the OG is 24” – Guyton made the body itself slightly bigger. It comes with Yonderbosk Vai-Sonic pickups (custom-wound pickups made for Vai that fit the Red Special schematic), and some faithful expansive switching, including Series/Parallel and a built-in KAT treble booster.
Oh, and we should probably say, it looks absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. That veneered 5A quilted maple top – which has a matching headstock – is sensational. The birdseye maple fingerboard? Phwoar. Even the smallest details are exquisite; just look at those Yin Yang fingerboard inlays, cut from mother of pearl and Tahitian black pearl, with 9ct gold dots. Double phwoar.
And we haven’t even mentioned the pickguard yet. Crafted by Greg Goodwillie of Goodwillie Guns and Guitars, it depicts Vai’s logo among a swirl of elegant motifs, and raises the humble pickguard to high art levels.
“It’s not every day you get to work for a guitar player rightfully belonging on the pantheon of rock gods,” Goodwillie writes on Instagram. “There’s loads of little bits added into the scroll work .. the more you look the more you see, it was a seriously fun job and I’m very VERY proud to have been part of the build.”
“Mr. V is ELATED with his new guitar,” Guyton Guitars adds. “Rumour has it, Steve and his tech Doug have filmed an unboxing video, watch this space…”
At the time of writing, an unboxing video has yet to be shared by Vai, but we’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for when it lands. Here’s hoping we see him play it soon, too…
It might not be the only high-end Red Special that we see land. Gibson struck up an official partnership with May last year – and, when we spoke to May in June 2024, he dropped a heavy hint about the prospect of US-made Murphy Lab replicas of the Red Special.
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