9th April 2024:
After much discussion – and a few delays – the first prototypes of the ‘Astronaut’ guitar design are now underway with manufacture and I am hoping that they may be completed by Kazutaka-san around early-mid May 2024. This will be exciting!
Fingers crossed …… 
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2nd February 2024:
Been a real trip the last few days dragging out my 1996 Brian May Red Special replica plans to assist with final drawings (scratchplate and layout) of my ‘Astronaut’ Red Special guitar project. ‘Astronaut’ is my version of the Red Special guitar redrawn and re-imagined in Fender scale length.
This is a guitar concept that I first properly envisaged back at Brian’s studio Allerton Hill in 1998. I began the drawings around 2005, spoke to Barry Moorhouse about the concept in 2007 here in Sydney (but unfortunately he didn’t seem interested), in August 2014 during the Queen + AL Australian tour I showed Brian the mid stage drawings with comparisons to Red Special Strat Tele Les Paul body shapes, and little by little every year or two I have come back to the drawings to refine the overall body shape and concept.
Early last year I was preparing to scrap this guitar idea and walk away from it and other things, and sadly I thought this was a guitar which would never see the light of day (because I have not been making guitars since 1997) ….. until I mentioned it again to my friends Daizo and Kazutaka from Kz Guitar Works in Japan who I had earlier around 2018 spoken to about the concept. They remembered it and thought that now was a good time to make prototypes and develop the guitar’s potential.
On Facebook yesterday a friend asked me about the name ‘Astronaut’. My answer to Mark Stevens was that yes there is a connection to my first VJ’s name (the VJ is an Australian class of sailing dinghy which I have been sailing since I was 13). Around 2005-07 because I was doing a whole lot of stuff for Brian such as building his AC30s, treble boosters, WWRY pedals and AC30s, kicking of the Brian May Super guitar project (with Kazutaka Ijuin making them in Japan), developing other Brian May/Fryer pedals etc, I searched around for a name for my redesigned Red Special which somehow also fitted in with stuff Brian was interested in. I wanted a connection in the guitar’s name. As you’d know, Brian was full on into his PhD in Astrophysics around that time, so the first name idea that came to me was ‘Astro Star’. Which was OK but a little clunky sounding. Then I was doing more design work on the guitar in 2012 when Neil Armstrong died, and straight away it occurred to me that the guitar should be named Astronaut. The link to my first VJ Astron – which as you mention was the first Keith Smith built Astronaut, was obvious! I was very happy with the new name because of the dual connection, and immediately drew up a promo poster featuring a doctored image of the famous moon walk photo taken by Neil Armstrong of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon – featuring Buzz carrying an Astronaut guitar in his left hand of course with the slogan ‘Houston we do not have problem…..’ 
By the way as many people would know, my 1996 plans were what I made the replicas for Brian from, a few photos below of those guitars 
240131 Astronaut and Red Special 1996 plans
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11th July 2023:
Over the last few days I have begun pickup testing for the new guitar and have recorded several videos. Two GoPro videos below show me playing the Kz RS Jnr Hybrid guitar with its standard KGW Trisonic pickups through Manuel Angelini’s Deacy Amp. The videos have also been a good workout for the Deacy Amp, and have allowed me to find its best voltage setting when using a Red Special guitar.
Earlier I tested the Kz RS Jnr Hybrid through a Vox MV50 amp, and my handmade custom Vox AC30 amp. In the next 7-10 days I hope to have more videos available which demonstrate Matt Netherwood’s Yonderbosk pickups fitted to the Kz RS Jnr.
The Kz RS Jnr Hybrid guitar and Treble Booster Touring pedal were played through Manuel Angelini’s Deacy Amp. The BM solo passage played was from the 1998 song ‘Why Don’t We Try Again’.
The Kz RS Jnr Hybrid and Treble Booster Touring pedal were again played through Manuel’s Deacy Amp.
Using his adjustable power supply, the voltage to the Deacy Amp was varied from 9.5V down to 7.0V to determine which setting gives the best classic Brian May Deacy sound. The BM solo passage played was from Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.
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5th July 2023:
At the moment prototypes being made of my ‘Astronaut’ guitar design. It may be some months before the first prototype is ready.
In the meantime as time permits I will post info about the guitar and the reasons why I have designed the instrument.
I began thinking about this guitar design in 1998 when I was at Brian May’s Allerton Hill studio repairing and refurbishing Brian’s Red Special guitar. That work then led onto other fascinating research on Vox AC30s, treble boosters, the legendary Deacy Amp, Burns Trisonic pickups and more.
In around 2005 I began drawing up the design and did a few versions of the body shape. Over the next several years whenever time permitted, I came back to the drawings and kept working on the body shape, redrawing version after version so that it ‘flowed’ better to my eyes and tinkered with other design aspects. The other aspects of the guitar were things such as bridge, tremolo, pickups, knobs and switch placement, switching of pickups, scratchplate shape etc, and these were altered depending on what I considered my objectives were at the time.
Hopefully I will have more info soon.
Hooroo, Greg Fryer
14th July 2023:
More Deacy Amp testing with the Kz RS Jnr Hybrid Red Special guitar which incidentally has a 25″ scale length similar to a PRS guitar. My Astronaut guitar is designed for 25.5″ Fender scale length plus a whole lotta things Kazutaka and I have designed to suit the instrument and make it unique.
How do the phase switches on a Red Special guitar effect the guitar’s ability to feedback when using the Deacy Amp (same can be true when playing a cranked AC30):
Fryer Guitars 
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