Building on the success of the widely acclaimed 2021 BMG 'Two Tone' Arielle model, styled after American virtuoso Arielle Schwartz's distinctive, eponymous custom build and engineered in collaboration with Brian May himself, the House Music team is thrilled to drop the first in a series of fresh new alternative seasonal colourways for this unique instrument.
Now available in traditional translucent Antique Cherry flavour, "the Red Special in a parallel universe" continues to rock a sleek, retro-futuristic look infused with choice elements from Dr. May's storied homespun creation and of course delivers everything one should expect from a Brian May Guitar — impeccable design, superior quality, pro-spec construction, exceptional playability, and devastating tonal dexterity.
The flamboyant, asymmetric angles of the Arielle's Indonesian Mahogany body clearly pay homage to radical American automotive and electric guitar designs of the 1950s and '60s, with a distinctive raised centre strip increasing the body mass for enhanced sustain and resonance, and a split, 3-ply parchment pickguard and classic gloss finish completing the cool, vintage look.
Employing the short 24" scale favoured by Brian May on the original Red Special, the one piece mahogany neck, in perfect balance with the lightweight body, has been engineered with a decidedly contemporary feel, featuring a generous 45mm nut width, comfortably spacious profile, and wonderfully smooth 24 fret ebony fingerboard with Arielle's choice of abalone diamond snowflake inlays in the traditional BM pattern.
Like the best-selling BMG Special, the Arielle features three BM branded 'Tri-Sonic' style single coil pickups, modern replicas of the vintage '60s units so fundamental to the Red Special's powerful and distinctive sonic character with the same series wiring, retro-styling and magnet alignment as the originals.
The unique Brian May designed electronics system is provided by six black DPDT switches featuring high quality contacts mounted on a contrasting 3-ply black control plate. Engaging each pickup individually as well as providing dedicated phase reversal, this familiar configuration gives the BMG Arielle the same astonishing tonal agility as the original Red Special itself.
Volume and tone are controlled by 250k pots with a Sprague 0.033μF 'Orange Drop' film capacitor delivering exceptional sonic purity, a nuanced tonal roll-off sweep and, with individual pickups or selected pairings, a pleasingly warm response, without getting too muddy or bright.
Continuing BMG's long association with veteran British engineer Trevor Wilkinson, the Arielle is fitted with his acclaimed WVP 2-point tremolo, a vintage-flavoured variant of the unit used on the BMG Special. With a modern, friction-free design offering one of the smoothest actions of any fulcrum vibrato currently available coupled with a sleek, low-profile surround to eliminate lateral saddle movement, the WVP offers superior comfort, stability and performance.
Additional features include a stamped steel, heat hardened top plate, solid stainless steel saddles, and a "stagger-drilled" solid steel sustain block that provides unrivalled tuning stability, ensures easy and accurate intonation adjustment and improves overall sustain, brightness and top end, resulting in a more expansive, sharper tone.
The distinctive BM style headstock sports 3-a-side locking chrome tuners with an 18:1 gear ratio for precise tuning and a thumbwheel locking mechanism that clamps the string securely. These superb quality machine heads allow for quick and easy string change with fewer string wraps and will maintain rock-solid tuning stability and more accurate return-to-pitch, even with lots of vibrato and string bends.
A premium quality, padded gig-bag, made from durable showerproof material, with twin rucksack-style shoulder straps, side and front grab handles, dual front pockets and stitched BMG logo, is supplied as standard.
Versatile and bold, the heart of the sound is round, wide, warm and rich, with clean, clear highs and crisp note articulation, even when overdriven. Eminently capable of authentically delivering the hardest of rock or the most intimate dream pop shimmer, the Arielle has clearly been engineered to be a brilliant, one-stop stage and studio workhorse.
For blues and roots styles, there is a pleasing presence and a tight, focused bass response whilst jazz players and country pickers will love the chiming clarity, especially on out-of-phase settings, and the smooth, hollow twang of the neck pickup. Cranking up the gain, combining two or more pickups in phase, the broad Tri-Sonic response and resonant body give crunch chords ample room to breathe and allow lead licks and solos to project clearly and powerfully. In all positions — single coil or humbucking — the Arielle retains a natural brightness with a tight, balanced, low end courtesy of its shorter scale length.
With a fast, modern radius neck, inviting 24" scale, a body shape that balances comfortably whether sitting or standing, and a responsive, diverse tonal palette, this is an instrument designed to an endlessly rewarding joy to perform with.
Got it! She works and came undamaged. Love that the volume is closer to my pinky. She is beautiful, just wiped the strings and barely any tuning, intonation seems almost perfect, I will give it a few weeks, see if needs super minor adjustments. I do have Brian’s Special from Burns, which I have treasured for so many years. I’m so curious, your choices were great, it stays in tune, so maybe the zero fret not so necessary 🤘🎸💕. But the zero fret does work so well in the Special, never broke a string on that one 🤣🤞
Guitar is well built, short scale with 24 frets is great as I have a hand injury and it has become difficult for me to stretch to 5 frets. I love the out of phase sounds possible.
My husband is blown away by the quality of the guitar and that, although there was a long journey to the west coast of the USA, it was still in tune right out of the box. Thanks for making such a high quality product that my guitarist loves!
