looky that funny gee-tar Martha!

December 5, 2004 7:26 PM

Artistic guitars. Check out the Folk Legend, the Skeletar, and the MotorGuitar.
posted by Wet Spot (14 comments total)

the bollocks bass. (NSFW)
posted by quonsar at 7:30 PM on December 5, 2004

Carver Doug's elaborately bas-reliefed Fenders and Gibsons

Knotafish's trash-to-treasure homebrew instruments

Girl Brand Guitars' unique Tele-inspired creations
posted by arto at 7:48 PM on December 5, 2004

So, if I buy one of those, I'll be able to play like Yngwie Malmsteen. Right?
posted by Demogorgon at 7:54 PM on December 5, 2004

This combo could kick even quonsor's ass.
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 8:04 PM on December 5, 2004

These guitars are seriously incredible. Thanks for the link, I'm going to share this one with all my guitarist friends.
posted by baphomet at 8:39 PM on December 5, 2004

Ugh. While I admire the craftsmanship that went into these instruments, I wouldn't want to be seen with any of them. The Folk Legend just screams MULLET!!
posted by aladfar at 8:40 PM on December 5, 2004

In all seriousness, thanks for the links. There's some nice work here too.
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 8:41 PM on December 5, 2004

arto beat me too it. d'oh!
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 8:42 PM on December 5, 2004

No discussion of guitar making could possibly be complete without a pointer to the work of Danny Ferrington. There's an amazing breadth to his work -- each guitar he's made is a unique sculpture and a perfect musical instrument. The best way to learn about his work is by reading his book, "Ferrington Guitars," that came out in 1992. (It's out of print, but findable.) Anybody who is anybody among guitarists of the past 30 years has a Ferrington, from Elvis Costello to Johnny Cash, Kurt Cobain to Emmylou Harris. If you've seen The Ladykillers, you've seen his handiwork -- Hanks' band's instruments.

I wish there was a link that I could provide with a single image of Ferrington's work, but I can't find anything. It's a shame that there's not a gallery of his work out there somewhere.
posted by waldo at 9:13 PM on December 5, 2004

I envy anyone able to wield the Skeletar without irony.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:19 PM on December 5, 2004

Those are pretty impressive... don't know how playable, but they are all works of art.

I had a custom guitar (a standard type "metal" one-pickup strat with Floyd Rose) built by this guy (on the right), who for a very short time built these '57 Chevy guitars, about the same time as he was starting work on them. I think I actually played the one on the wall to the right behind him. He only built maybe 5 or 10 of them total, I think. They were very well done, authentic to the tail-fin of the '57 Bel Air, and when you pulled up on the whammy bar...

... the taillight lit up!

Guitar geek heaven. :)

Oh, and the metal Strat is for sale. :)
posted by zoogleplex at 9:30 PM on December 5, 2004

I've been thinking about guitars all week after seeing this Gizmodo entry.
posted by breath at 9:36 PM on December 5, 2004

I find these 'works of art' to be on the same plain
as paintings of elvis on velvet.
if you want to see some interesting examples of
electronic string instrument form+function try:

http://www.stick.com/
http://www.nedsteinberger.com/
posted by MikeHoegeman at 8:12 PM on December 6, 2004

sorry, make that "plane" above.. -mike
posted by MikeHoegeman at 8:15 PM on December 6, 2004