Correction, he doesn't put five pickups in his guitar- he uses 3 trisonics. But I guess even though you made a mistake pinpointing out how many pickups he's using, I guess it's fair enough to say that there's nothing to "oooh" about his tone- if you look at it in today's context. sure, today there's a lot of other good tones out there but you have to remember that these guitarists of new all owe their tones to innovative guys like brian may. The research and improvements of work of other guitarists, better technology, and new equipment has made it easier to create better tones and imitate what many of the highly regarded innovative tones of the past eras. For instance- when hendrix first came out, everyone was figuring out how he got his tone but now everybody now can basically do a pretty accurate jimi hendrix because of research and better, accessable technology. But try to understand that if you judge his tone in the context of his era- it's pretty inovative and unheard of. If you were growing up in the early 70s and first saw Brian May's first sounds come out- like many others (ie. your beloved guns and roses etc.), I'm sure his tone would be something that you would ooh and aaah about. Who would've thought of mixing rock and opera? Who would've thought that guitars can sound like a brass section of a jazz band? If you think Brian May's sound is thin, you should listen to him more because this guy has a lot of tones in his arsenal. I also admire this guy because unlike Hendrix, Page, and Van Halen, Brian May is the only guitar player that I know who never relied on production models (except for the ac30s and the trisonic pickups which was a pickup unheard of at that time) to make his tone. Both the red special- his guitar and the deacy amp is home made. It was because of his work with guitar layering, extensive harmonies, and orchestration that those techniques became pretty much a standard to modern musicians. I am aware that his tone is not something new nowadays but you have to admit that his sound was one of the best and the most unique during his era.