Three Exceptionally Unusual Custom Guitars

Even as compared to other musical instruments, guitars are often associated with individual expression and creativity, which is why there are so many unique custom guitars and accessories for guitar that are used by only a very limited number of players.

In some cases, such as the Ultra Guitar designed by Aaron Brown for the Steve Vai album Ultra Zone, the design is unusual but the guitar at its core has many of the same components that Steve Vai’s Ibanez custom guitars did.

In others, however, the design is not only exceedingly unique but it enables and sometimes requires a completely different playing style.

Hamer Five-Neck

Whilst arguably the most famous multi-necked guitar is Michael Angelo Batio’s infamous spinning Quad Guitar, there is one guitar that technically has it beat in terms of pure numbers.

Rick Neilsen, the guitarist for Cheap Trick would often play multiple guitars during solos, and this concept eventually evolved into a guitar that had five necks that he would rapidly move between during solos.

Eventually, the functionality of these guitars changed, with one featuring a twelve-string bridge, and one having a Vibrola vibrato.

Warr Guitar

In the early 1970s, Emmett Chapman created a ten-stringed instrument designed to be played purely through two-handed tapping. The Chapman Stick, most famously played by experimental bassist Tony Levin, allowed for a guitar to be played with the range and versatility of a piano.

The Warr Guitar was an extension of this, converting the Chapman Stick concept into a guitar with as many as 14 strings, although the number is typically limited to 10 (six guitar, four bass).

Pikasso

The Pikasso was designed with a simple brief: make a guitar with as many strings as possible.

The result looks like what would happen if an entire shipment of guitars had a horrible accident, but it is designed to ensure that all 42 strings are actually playable by a single guitarist.

It consists of two fretless twelve-string necks, as well as a long six-string, with the topmost neck overlapping the other two, allowing for some truly surreal acoustic soundscapes. Interestingly enough, it resembles a guitar sculpture made by its artistic namesake.