How to sound like Brian May part 2: Amp and pickup comparison

Recreating step-by-step the guitar tone in the guitar solo from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. In this video I compare what happens if we use the correct pickup combination with different amp simulations, or the closest amp simulation with different pickup combinations.
/ traqguitars

[@wholock0001]

Came for the tone, subbed for the acting :P

[@ravelitschimo]

wow. it almost sounds the same. didnt expect it form the merlin-pickups. thank you very much.

[@EricAndre99]

2:07 perfect

[@TheRye07]

but all are great

[@ravelitschimo]

Great job man, Solo and Guitar ... you build a 7 String Blue rocket 🚀

[@SevasGuitar]

2:37 is the most closed sounding for me. Original BR solo sounds like softer not like 2:07 (pickup impedance is lower than Merlin pickup), but violin sounding. There must be a compressor or something.

[@TraqGuitars]

Right, 2:37 is the closest I managed to get in my opinion. The difference with the red strat is that there the mini humbuckers are wired in parallel. The Merlin pickups are wired in series, that causes the impedance difference

[@jahjah67]

Nice video and nice tone, sir. I really enjoyed this. Just wanted to share my opinion. Although all sounded quite nice, the Merlin Strat 7 in series out of phase with the Bohemian VBM Detail sounded the most accurate to my ears. The Cruisers surprisingly sounded second best to me although not quite as rich. I'm guessing that's because it was in parallel instead of the fullness one gets with series. Very nice clip!

[@TraqGuitars]

thanks! Indeed the strat in series is the closest setup to the original, and the closest to the recorded tone that I could get. The rest of the clips aim to show how close you get when you alter some ingredient (pickups or amp)

[@philbooth6372]

To be honest they all sound fine!

[@ravelitschimo]

The vox amp the liked most... the out of phase, whatever it means get closer to Brian mays sound. But at the end. I like all your solos.

[@julensdad]

Very cool and elaborate video. You seem to be a very diligent guy, man :-i

[@DSKim-ej5uf]

I think video is the most talented person I've ever seen.I like the video is the best.guitar cover song.What do you think about this.Thank you for being friends with music.m

[@mikkywhalan]

What settings do you use

[@TraqGuitars]

you mean the amp eq knobs? I didn't go far from the standard setting in each patch, you can see the patch names and (some of) the eq settings in the little pic show top-left for each sound

[@mikkywhalan]

@@TraqGuitars thx I have a vox vt40x on the normal channel

[@mikkywhalan]

Did you use the amp gain or a booster/overdrive?

[@TraqGuitars]

@@mikkywhalan ah I see, no, I didn't add any pedals, just standard (modelled) amp gain. I haven't tried the Vox modellers so I can't comment in detail on those, but an AC30 emulation with the right pickup combination should get you close to the recorded tone.

[@mikkywhalan]

@@TraqGuitars ah ok I have a stock squire neck and middle pickups and a dimarzio FS1 in the bridge with a vox vt40x it has a topboost and a normal channel so what will be better top boost or normal

[@PedroSilva-ie1ov]

Dude, this video has 100 Gigabytes per second of bitrate?

[@dvribeira]

Great! Now I only need to be able to play that :P

[@rovicher]

Great Vids man, congratulations. The pickups in series are the best, I prefer Merlin Start 7 (Neck+middle series out of phase) ACE 900 Original at 4:11, the attack at the beginning note is strong and dramatic, and the whole riff sounds so warm and vibrant, impressive vids.

[@TheRye07]

i like the first one

[@serviciosmultimediaara9782]

Dont you know where to find info about wiring a Single coil pickup out of phase?

[@GunsNRoosendael]

i just added a 2 way switch that reverses the ground and hot wires from my middle strat pickup, so when the switch is engaged the 'in-between' setting on the 5way swtich will be out of phase.

[@macshebly4330]

It's verry simple to get B.M sound mate, buy an AC30 and a Rang Master treble booster and you doneand dont forget a phaser , a Chorus, some delay, reverb. and the magic gone hapend.

[@cobowe]

Your missing 1.5k eq hump... Also a slow 10 stage phaser

[@serviciosmultimediaara9782]

Hello Traq, very nice work you have done with the taks of chasing the dodgy Brian May´s tone. I think the closest one is the (2xMErlin Pickups Classic Strat 7, neck+ middle series out of phase VBM detail)

[@TraqGuitars]

thanks, that's the one I consider to be the closest I could get, the others are there to show what happens if you have e.g. a different amp model, or - on the other hand - a different guitar or pickup combination :)