Blues licks: YouTuber builds guitar out of 50lbs of salt

There’s a lot of discussion about tonewood in the world of guitar, and its effect on sound, feel, weight and so on. Youtuber Burls Art, however, has sidestepped that discussion entirely, and made a guitar with a body of Himalayan rock salt – take a look above.

The T-stye guitar sports a single pickup (burls art wasn’t keen on routing out a cavity so close to the neck pocket), as well as a regular T-style metal control plate – held in with friction only. While playable, (skip to 8:50 for a performance on it) the guitar is unsurprisingly brittle, and extremely heavy – weighing in at 22lbs (around 10kg). For reference, a Les Paul is around 9-12lbs (4-5.5 kg). Sweat or moisture of any kind also presents an issue, as the soluble material the guitar is made out of will dissolve into the water and tarnish. For some extra security, Burls Art coated the back of the guitar in a thick layer of epoxy.

The guitar should excel at transparent overdrive tones, however, as the crystalline salt structure allows some light to pass through in quite a beautiful way.

For more about Burls Art’s unique guitar builds, take a look at burlsart.com. Previous notable materials used for guitar builds include pencils, jawbreakers, paper and styrofoam.

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