“Freddie is always with me. He was like a brother, and now I have a Mercury on my guitar, too, which makes me very happy”: Brian May on how astronomy, the Everly Brothers and Freddie Mercury influenced the design of his Gibson SJ-200 12-string

Gibson Brian May SJ-200 12-string.

It’s bewildering that Gibson never gave its big-bodied super-jumbo the 12-string treatment and offered it in its regular line-up.

The company did create the occasional special based around the concept, but in reality left the door open for Guild to fill the 12-string jumbo hole with its F-512 – a big, bold beast beloved of players as diverse as John Denver and David Gilmour.