Greg Fryer’s background is in guitar, effect pedal and amp making and has been working in this area since 1980. Being a keen professional guitarist to begin with, Greg began experimenting with guitar repair and building in 1978 after instruction from his friend Nick Thurn, and in 1980 started working with the well known repairer/maker Romney Godden at Brookvale on Sydney’s northern beaches. Romney was a larger than life character and was Sydney’s best guitar repairer at the time.

During the 1980s and 1990s Greg become known throughout Australia for his work for local and international touring acts such as Midnight Oil, INXS, Cold Chisel, Pink Floyd and others.

Greg has become well known internationally through his work for Brian May which began in 1996. In 1996-7 he made 3 replica guitars for Brian of his famous Red Special guitar and in 1998 undertook a major restoration of Brian’s original priceless Red Special. Greg has designed and handbuilt pedals and custom Vox AC30s for Brian May’s own use, as well as for the We Will Rock You theatrical productions playing around the world.

In 2003 Brian and the WWRY productions asked Greg to come up with a solution for both the amps and guitar pedal chain used in the WWRY show by its two guitarists. As with Brian’s own AC30 amp rig, the guitarists in the shows are running their AC30s at full volume in order to achieve the authentic Brian May/Queen sound, however running the amps like this greatly increases the risk of failure due to the overstressing of valves and components as many people would know. Greg was asked to develop ways of achieving the full volume BM sound at lesser amplifier volumes and to look at ways of improving reliability under the demanding night after night playing conditions of the WWRY productions.

This work entailed designing 3 new guitar effect pedals to suit the dual amp Brian May style requirements, and also meant handbuilding the AC30s to Greg’s own specs in a manner not dissimilar to the way the amps of the 1960s and 1970s were made. This template has fortunately proved very successful and since 2004 many WWRY productions throughout the world have used Greg’s handbuilt amps and pedals.