Vox Deacon Brian May Combo "Deacy"

Product details

Brian May's guitar work with Queen resulted in some of the most memorable rock anthems of all time. His guitar sound is instantly recognizable, and, while many have tried to emulate it, reproducing his distinctive recorded trademark tone has been largely impossible, until now.

May and VOX Amplification have enjoyed a long association, and the guitarist's wall of AC30s is a spectacle that's thrilled concert-goers for years. Along with his "Red Special" guitar, VOX has become a part of the artist's stage presence. But, in the studio, there's another device that's contributed mightily to May's enviable guitar tone. It's called the "Deacy" in honour of its creator, John Deacon, Queen's bassist, and it's an unlikely combination of a piecemeal amp, built of parts salvaged from a refuse heap in the early 1970's, and May's handcrafted "Treble Booster" pedal. Along with his guitar, this constituted an entirely original, homemade system, with a surprisingly pleasing and unmistakable sound quality.

May's one-of-a-kind combo amp started with a simple amplifier circuit board that consisted of an obsolete solid-state design, and was almost certainly lifted from a discarded car radio. The board was installed into a compact, 1960's "bookshelf" HiFi speaker cabinet, fitted with a small woofer and tweeter. There were no controls to speak of, and the invention was powered by a 9 Volt battery, yielding an output of 0.45 Watts RMS. When teamed with May's Treble Boost pedal (which accentuates the upper-mid frequencies) and Red Special guitar, the resulting sound was both unnervingly beautiful and historically monumental.

This Deacy amp is one of May's most prized possessions, and, due to its age, an irreplaceable treasure. The electrical components have all fallen out of production, and the batteries are no longer readily available. Now though, in collaboration with Brian May himself, VOX Amplification is pleased to introduce a new amplifier that will allow its user to achieve the greatly desired effect of May's homespun system. This amplifier is the Brian May Special, painstakingly designed to capture every inherent sonic characteristic of the original May setup, with the addition of a few modern conveniences.

The Brian May Special is a 10 Watt, 1 x 6.5" combo amp that sounds identical to May's homemade "Deacy System" (his Deacy amp/Treble Boost combination). While keeping the genuine feel and sonic integrity of the amp system intact, VOX added several enhancements that offer superior operation and versatility. The new Brian May Special features controls for Gain, Tone, and Volume, as well as a High/Low Gain switch (again, the original sported no controls whatsoever). A Booster output allows the Booster section of the Brian May Special to drive another amp, in the same manner May employs live when he uses his Treble Booster to overdrive his AC30s (the Booster section of the Brian May Special sounds exactly like the effect of May's famed Treble Booster device). Additionally, the Brian May Special has an Emulated Recording/Headphone jack and an External Speaker jack.

As a final flourish, and evidencing the incredible attention to detail in this amp, VOX has incorporated two "battery simulation circuits," one each for the Booster and amp sections, to precisely duplicate the novel quality lent to the original Deacy system by its battery power sources. The result is a very unique-sounding, compact combo that can be used for practicing, recording or driving another amp.

Speaker: 1 x 6.5" custom-voiced, full-range speaker
Inputs: Input jack
Outputs: Booster Output, External Speaker, and Headphone/Recording Line Out.
Controls: Gain, Tone and Volume. Gain (High/Low) push switch, Power switch (with LED)
Dimensions: 330 (W) x 273 (H) x 170 mm (D)/13" (W) x 10.75" (H) x 6.7" (D)
Weight: 5.6kg /12 lbs.