Page "Red Special" Paragraph 6

He still uses the original but he has been using replicas in some performances since his own company ( Brian May Guitars ) builds this instrument.

One of the most well known occasions on which the original guitar was not used is in the videos " We Will Rock You ", and " Spread Your Wings " since he did not want to expose the Red Special to snow.

He also opted out of using the Red Special for the " Play the Game " video, using a knock-off guitar based on a Fender Stratocaster since at one point in the video, singer Freddie Mercury would snatch the guitar from him and " throw " it back to him ( also the reason he used a cheap Satellite-badged copy instead of a real Strat ).

Another video that did not feature the Red Special was " Princes of the Universe ", where May used a white Washburn RR11V ( for reasons unknown, and this guitar is often mistaken for a Jackson Randy Rhoads ).

May also recorded the original of " Crazy Little Thing Called Love " on Queen drummer Roger Taylor's Fender Esquire but performed the accompanying video with a Fender Telecaster.