Well, as they often say, all good things must come
to an end. After an over 10 year run building these fantastically
unique guitars, I have decided to stop production and spend more time
making music and with my family. I started RS many years ago, in the
late 90's, because I had always been a big fan of Brian and the music
of Queen, and as a guitar player and enthusiast, was always
fascinated by the uniqueness of the Red Special guitar...yet I was
never able to own one. At the time, there were no guitars available
on the commercial market other than used Guilds, and I wanted
something a little closer to the real thing. I did a lot of research,
met some nice new friends on the Internet who helped me with ideas
and some details on the original guitar and went on down the road.
The original intent was to just make a guitar for myself, but as
things progressed, I though that there might be others out there who
might be interested in the same sort of guitar. One thing led to
another, and RS was born. RS never had any investors or financial
partners, it started with one guitar and grew from there, but it was
always a very small operation. One of my goals early on was to meet
Brian, and hopefully work out some sort of endorsement or licensing
deal on the guitars, but there were so many production and supplier
issues in the early days, that even though I did have discussions
with Brian's management, things unfortunately never materialized. I
still kick myself over this, but because of my limited budget and all
of the delays with some of my suppliers implementing design changes,
it just was not to be. I did, however, manage to achieve my goal of
meeting Brian and giving him a guitar (although I had such short
notice, that the building of the guitar was very rushed) at the
Hollywood Bowl the night of a Queen + PR show. I was so nervous, and
it was very hectic getting backstage...but there I was, my brother
and I sitting there with Brian alone in his dressing room before the
gig. I had assumed that since Brian agreed to meet and take a guitar,
that there was some interest in the guitars or at least that it was
going to be a friendly meeting. I was shocked at first when there was
thoughtful awkward silence, and then Brian expressed his thoughts
that I was “sort of ripping him off” by selling guitars based on
his and his dad's design. I was completely caught off guard and tried
to explain myself, while of course sweating profusely! The mood of
the meeting shifted to a friendlier tone when I explained that I had
brought him a guitar...he played and studied it briefly as we
chatted. I then said goodbye, got a picture with him and left,
heading straight to the bar for a stiff drink and watched the great
gig.
Steve Turpin Please email us for any questions.
|