Think you’ve seen it all when it comes to the weirdest guitars? Well, you haven’t! Check out these 17 crazy guitar designs – you won’t believe number 15 isn’t Photoshopped!
17 Weirdest Guitars In The World
1. The Destroyer
This weird guitar was custom-built for the 2007 Jersey City studio artists tour.
Part guitar, part mandolin, and can you guess what the antennae is for? A freaking theremin, that’s what!
And as if that wasn’t enough, the Destroyer comes complete with in-built effects, tuner, and glow-in-the-dark capabilities thanks to its multitude of LED lights. In addition, the guitar also came with a matching amp.
Mark Dalzell is the creator of this unique guitar – you’ll find plenty more photos on his Flickr page.
2. Steve Terreberry Djentar
This is what happens when a couple of YouTube legends try to one-up each other.
After Jared Dines unveiled his 18-string Ormsby in early 2019, Steve Terreberry decided to outdo him a couple of months later with this insane 20-string multi-scale model made by 10S Guitars.
Watch Steve unbox and try out this monster for the first time in the video below.
The Djentar weighs an incredible 50lbs, and need 3 separate truss-rods with 6 carbon fiber supports to tame the 9-piece neck.
The pickups were custom made for this guitar, and there are no controls aside from the most metal of all controls – a killswitch.
The guitar features an insane 25.5-35 inch scale length with a partially fretted maple and rosewood fingerboard.
Jared and Steve actually put together the music video above that features the two guitars. Which one would you pick?
3. ZZ Zulu Warlord
Well, that’s what the gentleman selling this monstrosity on Craigslist christened it.
A vegan guitarist’s worst nightmare, this taxidermy special features a deerskin hide body covering, steer horns, and in case you didn’t notice them, the volume and tone knobs are sheep eyeballs.
4. Grassroots GR-PPG
This has got to be the epitome of a ‘no-frills’ Strat!
The GR-PPG was made by Grassroots for the Asian market, and would probably make for a decent travel guitar!
Essentially, they’ve taken a Stratocaster and deleted all of the body aside from the wood underneath the scratchplate.
Weirdly, I actually kinda like it!
5. The Swinger Guitar
Belt out a victory solo every time you serve an ace with the Swinger tennis racket inspired guitar.
The Swinger puts the soul of an electric guitar into a body inspired by vintage tennis rackets. Pretty standard so far then, eh?
This unique guitar actually features some pretty premium hardware, such as a beautiful figured maple neck, Steinberger tuners, and golden mother of pearl inlays.
An interesting feature is the semi-fretless fingerboard, with the lower half being fretted and the upper fretless.
Find out what it sounds like in the video below!
6. Bender Distortocaster
The Bender Distortocaster looks like it would be more at home in a Salvador Dali painting than in your lap.
Although bizarre in appearance, these ultra-rare and ultra weird guitars are reported to be excellent players.
Here’s a great YouTube video in which you can hear the guitar.
7. The Rockin’ Chair
Ever wished your guitar was also a chair? Yeah, me neither!
What’s incredible is that after making the bass, the builder somehow thought it would be a great idea to build a guitar version as well.
Definitely one of the most ridiculous guitars in this list.
Check them both out in action in this video. As far as weird guitar designs go, these are right up there!
8. The NO-Caster
Talk about your hollow-body guitars! The No-Caster is more a study of negative space than a guitar!
The No-Caster, designed by Eric Mecum is able to be played sitting down, but a strap is obviously preferred for this bizarre guitar!
Three kinds of aged plywood, recycled bicycle inner tubes, many screws, tape. What more do you need?
I’m super curious to see it being played, but unfortunately I was unable to find a video.
9. Lego Bass by Davie504
Is there anything you can’t do with Lego?
This guitar looks like it came straight out of Minecraft, and was created by YouTube bass legend Davie504.
Seems like it will be a fairly fragile beast – imagine accidentally stepping on it, eek!
It took 2000 bricks and 3 full days to build, and you can see how he made it in the video above.
10. Flipped Stratocaster
Most of the time when you hear about a guitar being flipped it’s a left handed player converting a righty guitar into a lefty.
That’s not quite the case with these crazy guitars!
The body has been flipped 180 degrees for a completely unique aesthetic.
Check out the video above to find out more about these weird guitars.
As it turns out, the relocated controls actually allow for some pretty unique tricks while it’s being played!
11. Lawsuit Proof Les Paul
Another design which takes the idea of flipping a guitar to extremes.
This time the body is in the shape of a headstock, and the headstock is in the shape of a body!
Gibson is fairly ruthless when it comes to their guitar designs, so they’re fairly well known for taking legal action over copyright infringement. This design is a tongue in cheek poke at Gibson’s lawyers.
Fairly sure the design is just a rendering, but it’s a fun idea nonetheless!
12. Baster Stereo Strat
While it might be great as an art installation, I’m not quite sure about the practical qualities of this creative guitar!
It’s essentially two Strats which have a shared neck. The result is a pretty cool looking instrument which sounds absolutely awful.
Definitely one of the weirdest guitars on this list!
See it in action on Vimeo and find out why it never made the mainstream – yeesh!
Also, would it not have been better to have one right handed and the other a lefty? A fun concept nonetheless!
13. Wangcaster
You knew I had to include this infamous guitar in here somewhere! As far as ugly guitars go, this has to be right up there.
It started its bizarre life as a strat copy by Cort, and was built by sculptor Doug Rowell.
He bought the guitar online, but found that it was of such poor quality that he decided to take it apart and have some fun with it.
The old plywood body was replaced and carved from cherry wood, and a new headstock was made from maple.
He says that the guitar is ‘fully representative of the nature of the electric guitar’.
14. Manzer Medusa
Thought that 15 string bass was over the top? Well this absolute beast has 52 strings of sheer and utter insanity.
This multi-necked monster instrument was custom built for Danish musician Henrik Anderson by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer.
It features multiple necks including fretless, baritone, a scalloped fretboard, and even harp sections. Where do you even start!?
Check out the video above which shows the idea behind the guitar as well as a demonstration of how to play it.
It actually sounds brilliant (unlike most of the other weird guitars in this list!
15. Yoshihiko Satoh 12 Neck
The string count keeps on exploding! This behemoth has a whopping 72 strings! It was designed by Japanese artist Yoshihiko Satoh.
Unless you happen to have the 24 arms required to play it, it definitely another guitar which falls purely under the art category. It does look fantastic though, doesn’t it?
The artist has also created similar guitars where the guitars are seamlessly connected in a straight line, as well as one very cool looking model where the guitars are arranged in a circular formation.
He calls this range of sculptures ‘Present Arms’.
If you’d like, you can watch him ‘attempt’ to play one of these crazy guitar designs here on YouTube.
16. Coon Dog Guitar
Wow, this one is super realistic! Looks like an actual dog asleep inside a guitar case.
Oh wait…it is an actual dog asleep inside a guitar case.
My bad, next photo!
17. Teenar Girl Guitar
The Teenar guitar is built from an armless female mannequin.
CREEPY. That is all I’ve got to say about this one.
