Red Special Necks

The making of John, Paul and George Burns July 1996 – November 1997:

Headstock templates drawn up in November 1996 for John, Paul and George Burns:

At top is George Burns slimmer headstock template Nov 1996, and at bottom is Red Special headstock template Nov 1996

George Burns slightly slimmer headstock design superimposed on BM Super 2007 headstock drawing from Kazutaka Ijuin

Fingerboards:

English White Oak fingerboards were used for John and Paul. A Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard was used for George Burns. Fortunately I had in stock over a hundred Brazilian Rosewood fingerboards bought in the 1980s which were stable, dry and usually very beautiful looking and sounding. George Burns’ fingerboard with its spectacular chocolate and caramel swirls was one of the best from my stocks.

Fret slotting was done at Chris Kinman’s Brisbane factory. Chris Kinman, who has become well known around the world since the mid 90s with his innovative noiseless guitar pickups, has been a friend of mine for many years and has always been a very creative thinker, always left of centre and very good fun to be around. Chris was one of Australia’s best electric guitar makers in the 1970s and 80s but has put that aside now to concentrate solely on making guitar pickups. Fortunately for me, in 1996 Chris still had a factory full of guitar making equipment and didn’t mind me using his fret slotter.

Chris Kinman fret slotting machine #1

fret slotting machine #2

The tiltable magnifying glass above allows for lining up the blade for jobs like cutting the zero slot back in towards the 1st fret 0.6mm. In the 1980s Chris suggested to me the idea of bringing in the zero fret shorter by 0.6mm and I have used that concept on all of my custom guitars since then. The brass guide with holes drilled sets the scale length