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Watch YouTuber build a ludicrously thin electric guitar and put it to the test

The 19mm wide body carries a surprisingly heavy tone.

Burls Art's Limba Blade

Image: Burls Art/YouTube

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YouTuber Burls Art has expanded to his ever-growing line of eccentric handmade guitars, now challenging himself to create the thinnest guitar possible. Coming in at a ridiculously thin 19mm, check out how the developer creates the axe and listen to the final product in action.

The YouTube channel, which was formed in 2019, has become widely recognised for its ability to create the most unorthodox and bizarre guitars. Currently holding close to 600,000 subscribers, the content creator has often pushed the boundaries of guitar-building, constructing axes made out of materials such as carbon fibre, pencils, styrofoam and salt.

Now, with his latest video which was released last week (July 19), the luthier has developed potentially his most intricate and difficult task to date — setting out to construct the thinnest guitar possible.

“Maybe this is just an excuse to finally build a guitar out of wood in my shop, but I’ve always been a fan of thinner guitars, and I had some pretty cool wood sitting in my shop, so this sounded like a fun project to try out,” he says, explaining the motive behind the challenge.

Burls Art's Limba Blade
Image: Burls Art/YouTube

Ironically, this is one of the first times that the YouTuber uses wood to construct one of his unconventional designs. Choosing to construct the body out of a much more sturdy material than usually seen on his page, Burls Art opts for black Limba wood to be the basis for the model, a hardwood from West Africa that is reminiscent of mahogany.

Aiming for a final product that is under one inch thick, less than half the width of the average Gibson Les Paul, the YouTuber describes the main challenges that will arise as he constructs the axe:

“There are a few different factors I have to account for when determining how thin I can get this guitar. The largest factor being the electronics, like the pickups and volume and tone pots,” he explains.

Here, he employs Lace Alumitones to be the humbuckers in the guitar, a choice he made simply because they were the thinnest models he could find when browsing online. What’s more, the final product, which weighs a mere 4.5lbs sports is deemed too thin to house a switch, instead incorporating three knobs, two for the volume (bridge and neck) and one for the tone.

Named the Limba Blade, the finished result plays surprisingly well and has already received an extensive level of praise from the channel’s subscribers.

See the full build below.

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