Brian MayPedalboard, 1977
Brian May's black plywood touring board carried three units between 1977 and 1982: a BC149 treble booster, a TB Extra Duplex booster box and a treadle-controlled foot phaser, feeding his wall of Vox AC30s.
Black plywood touring board
Order evidence: A source states the sequence
Inside the rig · 3 units
Pedal roles & evidence
How each unit fits Brian May's 1977 setup. Board-specific roles and the evidence behind each identification and position.
Source-described orderIdentity and position are evidenced separately. Reconstructed positions are not observed connections.
Gain
BC149 Treble Booster
Role in this rig
Raises and brightens the Red Special before the two optional extra boosters and the AC30s.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Documented
Gain
TB Extra Duplex
Role in this rig
Adds selectable extra gain after the always-on BC149 booster and before the phaser.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Documented
Modulation
Foot Phaser
Role in this rig
Closes the black plywood board with foot-controlled phase movement before the AC30s.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Documented
Documented equipment · Documented order · Serial path
Fryer Guitars documents this exact black-board order from conversations with Brian May, Pete Cornish and longtime tech Brian Zellis. Cornish's separate July 1982 system archive corroborates that the two boosters still preceded the Foxx phaser in the successor rig; it is not treated as a photograph of the earlier board. Echoplex footswitches controlled offstage parallel delays and do not carry guitar audio, so they are excluded. A CE-1 appeared beside the black board at its final June 1982 show and is outside this representative 1977-1982 chain.
Cited sources
MethodologyQuestions about Brian May's 1977 pedalboard
- What pedals did Brian May use in 1977?
- This dated entry lists 3 units: BC149 Treble Booster, TB Extra Duplex, Foot Phaser. This is the recorded inventory, not a claim that every connection or model identification is confirmed; see the evidence and routing notes.
- What order were Brian May's pedals in?
- A cited source states the order: Guitar → BC149 Treble Booster → TB Extra Duplex → Foot Phaser → amplifier.
- Is this Brian May's full guitar rig?
- No. This dated entry covers 3 units in the effects path, not every piece of gear Brian May owned or used. Floor pedals, rack units and routing devices are included only where recorded; omitted equipment and uncertain connections are explained in the notes. It is not a complete or current rig inventory.
- When and where was this pedalboard used?
- 1977-June 1982. Queen live touring system. This is one dated setup as documented, not a career-wide gear list.
- How does the archive know what was on this pedalboard?
- 2 cited sources, listed above with the date each was read, including Fryer Guitars, Pete Cornish. Among them an archive record and an official listing. The units are recorded as documented equipment, and the page was last audited on 2026-08-02.