Tone library / Queen / Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody amp settings — Orange Crush 12

The Queen guitar tone for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, dialed in for a Orange Crush 12 with a Ibanez GIO GRG170DX. Studio version, A Night at the Opera (1975) — main guitar solo

Original rig

Red Special (Burns Tri-Sonic pickups in series, neck + middle out of phase) + Dallas Rangemaster treble booster + cranked Vox AC30 normal channel

Saturated, singing, nasal out-of-phase midrange with smooth top-end sustain

Amp settings — Orange Crush 12

BOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	6
Bass	4
Mid	7
Treble	7
Master	5

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Guitar

PICKUPneck+middle TONE7 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9

Used as a treble-booster proxy to push the front end with a high-mid focus; amp remains the primary gain source

Drive 2 · Tone 8 · Level 9

02Boss DS-1 Distortion

Bypassed — TS9 provides the required midrange push without adding fizzy clipping

Tone 5 · Level 0 · Dist 0

Why these settings

The Orange Crush 12 has thick low-mids, so bass is pulled to 4 and treble bumped to 7 to recreate the chime of a cranked Vox AC30. The TS9 is set with drive low, tone elevated, and level cranked to emulate Brian May's Dallas Rangemaster pushing the preamp into singing sustain. Heavy rock section (04:07): switch guitar to bridge humbucker with tone on 10.

PRO TIPBrian May uses a British sixpence coin held lightly with the serrated edge against the strings; using a rigid coin or stiff metal pick gives the signature chirpy, metallic scrape at the start of each sustained note.

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