The Deacy Amp (pronounced "Deeky" ) is an electric guitar amplifier created in 1972 by

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

's bassist

John Deacon John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English retired musician who was the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits " You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" a ...

, who is an electronics engineer by training. The amplifier circuit board from a Supersonic PR80 portable radio found in a builder's skip (dumpster) was fitted into a

speaker cabinet A loudspeaker enclosure or loudspeaker cabinet is an enclosure (often rectangular box-shaped) in which speaker drivers (e.g., woofers and tweeters) and associated electronic hardware, such as crossover circuits and, in some cases, power ampl ...

and powered by a 9-volt battery. The amplifier had no volume or tone controls and for most of its history it was never broken and thus never repaired. It was used along with Queen lead guitarist

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

's Red Special electric guitar and treble booster to produce sounds reminiscent of various orchestral instruments, such as violin, cello, trombone, clarinet, or even vocals, starting from the songs "Mad The Swine" (an unreleased song from the 1973 album ''

'') and "Procession" from the 1974 album ''

Queen II ''Queen II'' is the second studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 8 March 1974 by EMI Records in the UK and Elektra Records in the US. It was recorded at Trident Studios and Langham 1 Studios, London, in August 1973 ...

''.

KAT Deacy Amp replica

In 1998, Greg Fryer undertook the job of trying to make three copies of the Deacy Amp with May's full backing with the help of UK amplifier specialist Dave Petersen. These amplifiers produced a similar compressed and saturated sound but lacked the tonal characteristics that were so crucial to the unique Deacy sound. In 2003, Nigel Knight became involved in the amplifier's development. Several prototype amplifiers were built that were continually edging closer to the sound of the original but all fell short of the mark when compared side by side with the real amplifier. It was only in 2008 when Knight was given permission to take the original Deacy Amp apart and test and analyse each individual component that he finally began to understand the intricate workings. With this new information in hand, Knight called on speaker manufacturers

Celestion Celestion is a British designer and exporter of professional loudspeakers. History Origins What became Celestion was started in Hampton Wick (suburban London) in 1924. Cyril French and his three brothers had taken over a plating works and ...

, who developed and produced nearly 30 prototypes for testing and analysis over a two-year period. Custom transformers were produced to exact winding and laminate specs, obsolete components were sourced and made

RoHS The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), short for Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, was adopted in February 2003 by the European Uni ...

compliant and bespoke cabinets were constructed from

Sapele ''Entandrophragma cylindricum'' is a tree of the genus ''Entandrophragma'' of the family ''Meliaceae''. It is commonly known as sapele or sapelli ( ) or sapele mahogany, as well as aboudikro, assi, and muyovu. Origin of the name The name ''sape ...

veneered chipboard, exactly as the original. In 2010, some 12 years after the project commenced, The Brian May Deacy Amp replica was given the official approval and blessing of both

and

. The first production run of KAT Deacy Amp replicas were shipped in March 2011 and sold out within one month. Production of the KAT Deacy Amp was later discontinued.

Vox VBM-1 Brian May Special Amplifier

In 2003, Vox released the VBM-1 Brian May Special amplifier. This mains-powered unit combined a treble booster with the sound of the Deacy amp circuit with a 10W amplifier pushing an integrated 1 × 6.5" twin cone speaker. Brian May had allowed the Vox engineers to study the original Deacy amp to enable them to develop the circuitry required to accurately reproduce the original sound. The amp featured a unique white vinyl covering on a traditional-looking Vox amplifier design with a Brian May 'Back to the Light' star logo in the lower right corner of the grille cloth. The top-mounted controls from left to right are: * 1/4" input jack socket * Gain knob * Booster input * Gain (high/low) push switch * Tone knob * Volume knob * 1/4" recording/headphone output jack socket * 1/4" external speaker output jack socket The three knobs were of a 'chickenhead' design. Vox discontinued the VBM-1 amp in 2005.

References

External links

KAT Deacy Amp replica
{{Brian May Queen (band) Instrument amplifiers