Queen – A Night At The Opera
The music gear and equipment used by the artists, producers, engineers, and more involved in the making of the 1975 album A Night At The Opera.
Music from A Night At The Opera
Artists on A Night At The Opera
Gear Used On A Night At The Opera
Explore the instruments, equipment, software, and production tools used in the making of Queen – A Night At The Opera (1975). Click more on each item to see exactly how it was used.
Brian May
Roles:
World Instruments used by Brian May on A Night At The Opera
This video is from the documentary about Queen's album "A Night at the Opera". In the documentary Brian May discusses the recording of the song "Good Company", where he talks about using the banjolele, which was his fathers. He mentioned in the video that it was his "upbringing to guitar".
Guitars used by Brian May on A Night At The Opera
Classical & Nylon-String Guitars
Ovation 1658 Legend Custom 12-String
Avg price: $1,800.00
In this video Brian performs his heautiful song '39, using this guitar.
Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitars
Avg price: $899.99
As evidenced by this photo from a 2017 performance at London's O2 Arena (courtesy Wikipedia), and per this article from Guitariego, dated March 19, 2020.
Though there have been many replicas and reproduction made over the years, original Red Special, the actual guitar he built from scratch with his father when Brian was just a teenager, is still Brian's main guitar.
This is one of the few homemade guitars famous enough to have it's own Wikipedia page.
Cymbals used by Roger Meddows Taylor on A Night At The Opera
Zildjian 15" A New Beat HiHats
Avg price: $505.17
Roger Taylor can be seen using Zildjian 15" A New Beat HiHats in a photo from the "A Night at the Opera" tour in 1975.
Freddie Mercury
Roles:
Pianos used by Freddie Mercury on A Night At The Opera
According to the book Queen: The Early Years by Mark Hodkinson, Freddie Mercury used a white C. Bechstein IV grand piano for the recordings of A Night at the Opera, the UK tour following the album's release, and the music video for Bohemian Rhapsody. It is reportedly the same piano that Paul McCartney played on the recording of The Beatles' song Hey Jude, as well as the one Rick Wakeman used for David Bowie's album Hunky Dory.