Brian May Guitars web designer, Phil Murray, met up recently with the awesome and highly acclaimed  guitarist, MIKE CASSWELL, [currently playing in We Will Rock You, London],  for an interview about his Brian May Guitar. Mike was kind enough to take some time out from his busy schedule to offer some great insights into how he enjoys playing the BMG.

Q1:  Given the fact that this model of the Brian May Signature guitar was designed initially as an affordable, sub £500 replica of the Red Special, how  do you find playing the BMG in the heat of battle of  'We Will Rock You' as a working guitar?

MC:  "On the show there are a lot of the Brian May guitars to choose from, and I have two or three favourites that seem to suit my playing better than some of the others, particularly in terms of how the tremolo is set up and the stability of the tuning. At some points in the show we don't have much time to tune up in between songs, so I'm always looking for the guitar that stays in tune the longest and gives me the best usage of the tremolo system. The answer would be to have a couple of my own guitars set up to my exact specifications, but as a whole they are consistently good, always comfortable to play, and through the treble booster & the vox cranked full blast, you instantly get that BM sound. I own a lot of high end and vintage guitars, but the quality of these Brian May guitars always amazes me, given the price of them."

Q2: Did you have to adapt your normal setup to get close to Brian May's tone for the show? If so what pedal setup and amps do you use? 

MC: "We don't use our personal systems for the show; we use a scaled down version of the one that Brian uses, which is simply a BM guitar into a battery only Fryer treble booster, a Boss chorus pedal, and a Boss tuner straight into a point-to-point wired Vox AC30 at full blast. Doing this gig is a case of adapting your own playing in order to be as authentic as possible." 



Q3. How versatile did you find the Brian May Guitar in terms of handling the wide range of musical styles featured in We Will Rock You?

MC: "I'd have to say that there isn't a wide range of styles covered in the show, due to it being a representation of Brian's very distinctive style. There is,however, a wide range of tones, which comes down to you being able to control the volume pot on the guitar with right pickup selection, just as Brian does. Inherently the guitar would actually be suited for a wide range of styles because of the large range of tones you can get out of it."



Q4. There is a new hi-spec version of the Brian May Signature guitar due for delivery later this year, but are there any improvements [in terms of build of playability] that you would like to see in future versions of the current guitar?

MC: "There are just a couple of tweaks that would be nice; locking machine heads might be a good idea, as this would take some of the worry out heavy tremolo use. Also, I would recommend some higher grade volume and tone pots, with a more gradual sweep, much like a quality American Strat. Apart from that, the guitar is a great working tool. Oh, and it might be a bonus if there was some real pretty wood on show."



Q5. Do you think the Brian May Signature guitar would lend itself to playing non-Queen related material and how would you compare it to a Gibson, Fender Strat/Tele or other guitars in the price range?

MC: "This guitar can be used for all sorts of styles of music, and there is nothing in this price range that is this good. We all love our Strats, Teles and Gibbos, but they are very specific sounding guitars, which is great, but you can get a lot of these sounds from the BM guitar. I can't think of anything on the market that is this good quality for this sort of price bracket. I've had the pleasure of playing Brian's original red special, and these guitars capture everything that is right about that iconic one-off."

Mike Casswell - Biography
[Courtesy of www.licklibrary.com ]

London based session guitarist, Michael Casswell has worked all his adult life in the music industry as a professional guitarist, songwriter, singer and producer. He has been signed to major labels such as RCA America, MCA, Universal and Polygram.

He has toured with artists such as Brian May, Ronan Keating, Rosy Royce, Cozy Powell, Dean Freidman, Limahl (Kajagoogoo), Rhinos Revenge Band (bass player and drummer from Status Quo) and many more.

Michael’s playing has been heard on countless TV Ads, jingles, theme tunes and even a late 80’s William Friedkin film “To Live And Die In LA”.

In the mid 90’s, just before the untimely death of drumming legend Cozy Powell, Michael wrote and produced the last Cozy Powell studio album which was released on Polygram Records.

Michael has also taught taught higher diploma guitar at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music and is currently a tutor at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guilford.

From metal to country, funk to swing jazz, Michael has played it.