Brian May Deacy Amplifier: Legendary Tones
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2023
- This brief follow up video to my series on building a replica of Brian May’s legendary Deacy amplifier illustrates some of the tones you can get from it when paired with a Red Special guitar and suitable treble booster.
If you want to find out why Brian May enthusiasts hold this DIY practice amp built by John Deacon of Queen in such high regard, please watch part 1 of the series which serves as an introduction:
• Brian May Deacy Amplif...
Although I own a KAT Deacy amplifier replica, I built my own DIY Deacy amp replica over winter 2022/23 using a circuit board kit by Knight Audio Technologies (KAT), salvaged 1960s vintage ELAC loudspeaker and tweeter units and a DIY veneered chipboard cabinet. The build project is covered in two videos:
Part 2 - Circuit Board Assembly and Discussion
• Brian May Deacy Amplif...
Part 3 - Making the Cabinet and Final Assembly
• Brian May Deacy Amplif...
I have built my own Brian May Red Special guitar and own a replica KAT Brian May stage rig and other Brian May guitars and musical equipment. You can find out more about them at my website: dsgb.net
Thanks to Ricky Peraza of Miami, FL for demonstrating my DIY Deacy and Luke Holwerda of Phoenix, AZ for recording the clips. Luke organises a US Brian May Red Special enthusiast meet-up which might interest you. Check out his UA-cam channel @Lukeyourself and Facebook page:
/ lukeyourself
/ lukehguitar
#BrianMay #Deacy #Deacyamp #JohnDeacon
First off all, this amp sounds legit, as a queen fan, my ears cannot decieve me. Thanks for making this demo possible. Second, really a tour de force for a non tube amp, i can imagine great tonal capabilities to squeeze out off it and lots of fun for days. Lazing on a sunday afternoon sounded quite great, kudos to the player. All the best.
Thanks for the kind comments. 😀💜 Luke, Ricky and Andrek had some fun with it at the 2023 US Red Special meet-up.
Wow! That deacy sounds amazing!
It's wondrous how you can push a small four transistor amplifier based on the Mullard circuit into compressed, crunchy overdriven tones. It's all down to smooth clipping of the sine wave. 😀👍🏻
I am in awe !
Just seeing this now!!!!! So awesome. Was so badass to play it!
You're behind the curve man! 😂 Thanks again for demonstrating it for this video, your blues improvisation sequence was badass. 👌🏻
@@dsgb Been out of the loop 😂 Appreciate it! Hope to see you in reading
More than likely. Looks like I'll be back to travelling alone though. 😞
@@dsgb Same for me. From Miami to London!!
Sounds Brilliant!!
Thanks Brad. I think Ricky should have backed the volume off a bit and moved further away from the unit to avoid too much overdrive and feedback. I plugged my KAT Deacy in at the weekend and it was turned away from me and resting on two cardboard boxes and the KAT rig flight case. Using the internal treble booster on the Guyton RS Transporter it sounded really good with resonance through the items it was resting on. The lesson with a Deacy amp is to experiment using different treble boosters, positioning of the unit relative to the guitar and rest it on something that will accentuate bass resonance to give a fuller tonal spread.
Mark Reynolds spoke to Brian Zellis about this and he said that Brian used to rest the Deacy on an empty flight case when recording with it.
Fantastic work keep it up 👍🏻
Thanks. I'm pleased that you appreciate it. 🙏🏻😀
These are great, i love mine
Sounds fantastic, great playing too.
Thanks! 🙏🏻
@2:27 Wow! I wouldn't have ever guessed that such an out of tune moment would have made it to tape! I think I am far too hard on myself.
Sounds brilliant! ❤🎉
Given how meticulous all four members of Queen were in the recording studio and how we have heard that Brian built up some Deacy harmonies note by individual note, I can't help but conclude that the pitch was deliberately out of tune and intended to work in context of the overall mix. 🤔
@@dsgb I read or heard in an interview with Brian, that he'd noticed a while after that it was out of tune and it had bugged him for years. I think, he said when they did the remastered series a few years back, he went in and used a pitch corrector on the offending item.
Interesting information although I struggle to rationalise why he, Roy Thomas Baker and Gary Langan didn't notice and/or care enough to re-record it when reviewing the recording during mixing. 🤔
@@dsgb Well, first thing to realise is they're only human. Nothing more. Nothing less. They get tired like everyone else.
Rockfield wasn't a state of the art studio. Queen weren't 'massive' when it was being recorded. The tape was getting knackered from all the overdubs, and the budget was running out.
From what he said, he didn't 'hear' the tuning issue until he heard it played on radio in the car. It definitely wasn't deliberate.
O.k. A reference to this information would be useful if you can find it please so we can elevate these comments above conjecture and speculation . 👍🏻😀 For example:
www.soundonsound.com/people/roy-thomas-baker-gary-langan-making-queens-bohemian-rhapsody
"John Deacon had also thrown together something like a Tandy Radio Shack speaker with a 3 Watt amplifier, and we tried that with a treble booster... It certainly all stands up today when I hear it all again."
"If there was anything we heard at the time which we thought we wouldn't get away with, we would just wipe it and re‑record it. So everything you hear was planned, albeit disjointedly planned, the way it should be."
2:03 is heaven
Great video. Super informative and clear. Didn't expect to get blown away by the soloing tho 👏
Thanks! I had to seek assistance from a guitar player with talent (Ricky Peraza) for that. 😀👍🏻
Reminds of when I took the electronic guts from a cheap tape recorder and turned into an amp. Had insane compression and gain. You couldn't turn it past 2 without feedback. Didn't sound all that bad either, though nothing like this one.
Cool story. John Deacon might have thrown this amp together from budget upcycled parts but I'm sure that the end result wasn't a surprise. 😏
great tone....and that's only a KAT Deacy right ie not the proper Supersonic board? ...well for me that sounds every bit as convincing so as to not really matter!
Hi Dale. Yes, my DIY Deacy uses the latest KAT kit amplifier circuit board. Nigel says he has gone to great lengths to match all the component values including the transformers to the circuit board in Brian's original Deacy amp. Everybody who has played through it is very satisfied with the tones it produces.
Mine seems very quiet but sounds lovely, it's equivalent in volume to approximately 8 o'clock in a vbm1, which is very quiet... So I'm not sure if I fried a transistor or what's wrong.... Speaker is elac 16 ohm.... Video on my channel
I’ve assembled the circuit board but am having trouble finding a suitable crossover capacitor, is there anything you could suggest?
The subject of capacitor choice in audio crossover networks is a specialist topic on which I am neither qualified nor experienced to comment. Audiophiles, sound engineers and professional and amateur audio system builders appear to discuss this topic a great deal and opinions can be somewhat controversial.
You might find the information on the following websites helpful:
www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html
www.sup-audio.com/html/high-standard.html
Modern film capacitors are more stable than vintage or modern electrolytic capacitors. Then it comes down to choice of value. You will need to survey and consider information available on the internet to help you make your choice.
Fantastic job - how much would you charge to make me one, seriously? It sounds amazing ...
I am a hobbyist, I don't make items for sale. However, the go to guy who makes exquisite Brian May Deacy amplifier replicas is Manuel Angelini of Doxy World in Nantes, France:
doxyworld.com/supersonic_pro.html
Mic and distance used in the last part of the video please ? ( 2:23 Bohrap rhythm section )
That is an extract from the studio recording made in 1975 so it would be difficult to obtain that information. However, Brian records the Deacy at Allerton Hill by positioning a studio quality microphone (e.g. Shure) close to the baffle in front of the low frequency driver (woofer). You might be interested in reading this:
deacyamp.com/blogs/news/brian-mays-deacy-amp-plinth
@@dsgb ohh , I thought you recorded that , are you sure that is the Deacy speaker? Sounds a lot bigger than the other takes and with a resonance I can't hear on the other takes
@@dsgb I wrote a reply but it seems to have disappeared.
My comment is that the take I mentioned sounds very different from the other takes , and seems to have a resonance not present on the other takes. Sounds to me like a bigger speaker.
Thinking you recorded that , I was curious to know what was used in that specific take.
Maybe Brian used the Deacy amp with a bigger speaker? Seems we'll never know. Cheers !
I choose to review and approve all comments before publishing them which is why your earlier comment 'disappeared'.
I downloaded the Queen studio stems from an internet site so I can't vouch for their authenticity to the original recording. Isolated tracks will sound different than in the mix.
May we one-day get to look inside the speaker box?
Please watch Part 3 in the series which covers final assembly:
ua-cam.com/video/5E_zpUDWBpE/v-deo.html
@@dsgb Thankyou.
Do a sample no boost
and boosted with vox wah set as like a tone control
I'm not sure what this is intended to demonstrate. 🤷🏻♂️ I don't possess a Vox V847 Wah pedal.
And... No tubes, correct? 😊
Correct. The amplifier circuit has four germanium transistors.
If I pay you enough will you make me a guitar?
Hi Matthew. I can't afford to pay myself enough to make me a guitar.😂 It's too time consuming at the moment and I don't have a proper workshop space so I don't make anything except occasional small jobs for close friends. Perhaps when I'm retired in 2039.
@@dsgb I'll hold you to that. Just thought you looked like you have the thorough expertise to build what I'm after -- BM-based, of course.
I'm just an amateur enthusiast. I don't have any expertise but thanks for your supportive comments. My media content is intended to encourage other amateur enthusiasts to make their own Brian May gear and support them in those endeavours with useful information. 👍🏻😀
Sounds Queeny.
But I don't particularly like it.
It is useful to get alternative opinions, especially from people outside the Brian May enthusiast community who can be biased. What specifically do you not like? 😀