In January 2007, the readers of Guitar World voted May’s guitar solos “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Brighton Rock” into the “top 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time” (“Bohemian Rhapsody” was voted No. 20 and “Brighton Rock” was voted #41).
Aided by the uniqueness of his guitar – the Red Special – May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song “Procession”; in “Get Down, Make Love” he was able to create various sound effects with his guitar; in “Good Company” he used his guitar to mimic a trombone, a piccolo and several other instruments for the song’s Dixieland jazz band feel. Queen used a “No synthesizers were used on this album” sleeve note on their early albums to make this clear to the listeners.May also used his guitar to create the chime effect in Bohemian Rhapsody.