I Want to Break Free

i have recently mastered the guitar solo from Queen's 'I want to break free'. However Brian May uses a strange effect on his guitar...i can't describe it but anyone who knows the song will know what i'm talkin about. My £140 Effect Pedal doesn't seem to have this effect, and i'd like to know if anyone can help me get this effect. Is it a simple re-adjustment of my amp or do i need a whole new effect board?

Try auto wah with a flanger or chorus. It is a synth on the record though, my suggestion will get you the live at wembley sound.

My guess would be he's using Electro-Harmonix Synth for guitar or something similar and a distortion. In a real-life situation a (auto) wah and a distortion would suffice.

It is not a synth on the recording. that"s May, all right. But the sound he gets has more to do with guitar than a effect pedal. i don"t know if you know that, but May built his own guitar from some silly kind of wood. and if you are listening to queen recordings, you will hear he has a lot of "hard to get effects". so don"t dwell on it, yust use a nice warm distortion and kick it!!

So KRUNO, mahogany is some silly kind of wood, funny because most guitars are made from that same WACKY material. Read about the song before posting, it is definately a JUPITER synth on albumn.

Dude, Totally Wronf. Trust Me On This One, I Know About Queen. Amy Axe Is Not Made Of Mahogany. Have You Seen Brian"s Guitar? It Looks Like ****. But It Sounds Amazing. And It Is Not Made Of Mahogany. Od, Mahogany Gives A Nice Sound And Sustain. That"s Why Most Gibson Guitars Are Made Out Of Mahogany. But May"s Isnt.
Ps.
Last Note In The Solo? It Is E, Low String, Played With Tremolo. No Synth. Try It, And You Will See What I Mean. I Mean, If You Don"t Belive Me Or Something, Ok. But That"s The Way It Is. No Disricpect Or Something. Try It Out, And Send A Reply By All Means!!

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data4/Burns/Brian-May-Signature-01.html

read on

To clear up this argument here is something i read in a mini book on how to get certain legendary guitarists tone that came with the newest issue of Total guitar magazine. The Brian May section included quote's from interviews with Brain May about the origin of his red special, his guitar has a mahogany neck made from an old fireplace, and the basis of the body was an old oak table with some blockwood and veneer, he said the oak took the strain. The vibrato arm was initially a nitting needle and the fret markers were made from filled down pearl buttons.

Brian may used wah, reverb and a treble booster as effects, he probly will have used other effects too but the mag only highlights these few as far as ive read. He also used an old sixpence as a pick.

* The signature guitar available to buy will probly be made of mahogany, ive never looked but the above is what the original that he made is made of


And that song may have been played on a synth because Brian May also plays synth, i have the live at wembly DVD and ive seen him playing keyboards on it but ive never noticed what songs he plays it on.

Yeah! Ok, anyhow, it is not at all importanat who is right nad who is not. may played synth, Freddie played synth and a guitar... whatever. The important thing is: I think the solo was played on a guitar, cause you can hear it when he bends. And other thing is that the exact same sound would be impossible to recreate. Cause of his guitar and all. Primativ, no hard feelings? I was yust trying to help you out here. I hope you are not mad or anything. And Rob?
You are right "bout the guitar!

Electro-Harmonix Guitar Synth is an old guitar effect. You plug in the guitar and the box creates a synth sound based on what you're playing.While it has many parameters, it doesn't do oscilations, and as such tends to sound like an auto wah. I have immense respect for Brian May, but the solo in question is most definitely played with this box or alike. I've had that effect box for a while, and am aware of its capabilities. Try any guitar synth effect and judge for yourself, but don't haste into "no effects, just his hands and a weird guitar". I only use a wah and a Marshall most of the time, but I'm trying to develop an ability to recognize other effects when I hear them.

Brian May uses a special guitar, made himself. This is the reason. Simply, you cannot get the same effect.

Resistance is futile. I am being assimilated. Oh, my knee.
BRIAN MAY IS GOD AND HIS GUITAR IS MADE FROM SUCH STRANGE OAK FIREPLACE THAT IT SOUNDS IDENTICAL TO A SYNTH. ON OCCASIONS. IT'S A REALLY STRANGE PIECE OF WOOD. EITHER THAT OR MR. MAY IS A SYNTH HIMSELF AND FINDS IT COMFORTABLE TO EXPRESS MUSICALLY IN SUCH FASHION.

"Weird" pieces of wood do not make guitars sound like synths, and anyone who disagrees has no idea about what goes into the sound of a guitar. It may give a slightly different tonal quality in terms of frequency (mahogany is darker than swamp ash, etc) but it will not drastically change the ADSR (that's Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) qualities of the instrument.

My guess on the guitar solo is that he is using an EQ with alternating boosted/cut frequencies (for those of you who have graphic EQ's, try alternating each frequency band with a heavy boost then a heavy cut and it will sound like a phaser at a certain point of the sweep) along with a heavy noise gate to kill the sustain and make the notes end rather suddenly. Add a light flange and you should be about there.

That's all speculation but I've gotten close to that sound excluding the noise gate.

I think someone ruled out it being a synth because of the bends ... (?)

Isn’t that what the pitch bend wheel is for?

Also the pitch drop that ends the solo seems to go quite low. I’m not a guitar expert, but wouldn’t you need like a Floyd rose bridge to go that low? I like guitar effects and all, especially all the money I spent on them. But to me it seems like I’d need a sh*t ton of effect pedals and tweaking to get the exact sound that a great synth like a Jupiter or CS-80 can get with just the VCA and VCF envelopes. And I can play this on keyboard. It does not sound polyphonic either to me.

To settle this once and for all the solo was played by Fred Mandel (occasional touring keyboard player) on a keyboard. See this to get the confirmation straight from the horse's mouth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlG5SxvYSqA