Guitar Instagram is a weird and wonderful place, and you never know what will wash up in your feed day to day, but this image of a Batmobile-inspired Hallmark Wing-Bat electric guitar, shared by Detroit dealership Guitar HiFi, was enough to snap us out of our doom-scrolling.
The limited-edition is reportedly one of 100 made back in 2009. It takes its cues from the iconic Batmobile vehicle from the original 1966 Batman series. The instrument pictured is number 42 and was built by luthier Bob Shade, incorporating the Swept-Wing design of the vehicle into the guitar’s mahogany body.
It features a maple neck, 24.75” scale, an ebony fingerboard, a single 60 Custom pickup, and a Shade vibrato and roller bridge. More importantly, though, the turbine on the bottom of the instrument can be illuminated by flipping an onboard switch!
It’s all finished in black with fluorescent red detailing and, when first produced, came with a custom hardshell case, a certificate of authenticity signed by the Batmobile’s original designer George Barris (who endorsed the build) and a Barris crest, which can be mounted on the instrument.
The Wing-Bat guitar is still available to order via the Hallmark Guitars site, for a rather tempting price of $999. However, in the spirit of the original Batman show, we suggest any potential owners play nice and slow. As Adam West’s Batman said, “a good driver always observes the speed laws”.
While the Wing-Bat project was led by Shade, car designer Barris already had some prior form in the guitar industry, having built Vox’s incredible 1967 promotional vehicle, the Voxmobile.
The Voxmobile was created in 1967 by George Barris, the master of crazy customized cars. This car was built to promote the Vox guitar and amp company and it appeared in a few movies including Psych-Out and The Phynx. Yes, the amps and keyboard are fully functional. pic.twitter.com/VUc1wk3wa7January 5, 2021
The car featured giant mock-ups of a Vox Phantom bass and guitar along its sides and incorporated three fully operational Vox Super Beatle amplifiers and had a Vox Super Continental organ built into the hood.
There were also an astonishing 32 input jacks located around the vehicle, routed to the three amplifiers, alongside five Celestion G12 speakers and one 18″ Celestion woofer.
Fortunately, despite its age, the Voxmobile seems to have survived in pretty good shape this far, with the last owner we can locate being guitarist and dealer Kevin Ryan (who dons a stunning grille cloth suit in the video below).
Guitar World reckons it's not a bad option for a mobile rig, though we might struggle to persuade airlines to board it as hand luggage...
