(UPDATE 04/10: An earlier version of this article gave Sergio Pierachini credit for building this guitar. The DIY guitar was actually created by luthier Christian Boeger. You can check out his build in greater detail on his Facebook page)
A Facebook post from a luthier named Christian Boeger has gone viral after he (quite literally) turned a wooden pallet into an electric guitar.
Here at Guitar World, we’ve seen guitars made from some wild alternative materials – from aluminum cans to Himalayan salt – but we've never seen a build quite as literal as this.
Quite simply, it's a wooden shipping pallet with some playable additions. A neck has been clamped onto the edge and a humbucker has been slotted below, transforming what might typically used for transporting pedals, amps and guitars into a piece of musical equipment itself. Some might say it can hold more than just a tune.
“Introducing the Les Pallet electric guitar!” Boeger writes in the post's caption.
Unsurprisingly, the instrument looks horrendously impractical to play, as its maker wrestles with the sizable six-string in the video. Rather aptly, the pallet has six planks of wood running across its base.
While it might not be as ergonomic as a Standberg, it incredibly doesn’t sound terrible. In the clip, it’s played through a clean amp and there’s certainly plenty of body to give it a resonant bass. Its tone is quite palatable, actually, and throws a massive spanner into the tonewood debate.
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Jokes aside, it shows how simple the core ingredients are to turn anything into a guitar – if it has strings, a neck, and some basic electronics, you're good to go. So, it begs the question, what's next?
Well, for Boeger, more crazy custom builds are next: “Thanks everyone! So grateful for all the plays and responses,” he wrote in a follow-up post.
“I’m cooking up some ideas and am open to suggestions for future weirdness…”
Other out-there builds we've seen in recent years have included a pixelated '8-bit bass' guitar, an acoustic guitar made entirely from reclaimed acrylic, and the rise of Paoletti Guitars, a firm that turns old wine barrels into guitars.
Those latter two creations offer great sustainability benefits – something an Aussie firm called Re-Tuned recently took to a new level with the announcement of its campaign to turn unused acoustic guitars into quirky Bluetooth speakers, to help save instruments from the scrap heap.
