This guitar is made of 10,000 leaves – and it actually sounds good

Upon first glance, this might seem like an ordinary wood-based electric guitar. But don’t be fooled so easily. The brainchild of Filipino luthier and YouTuber Marlon Roxas, this six-string is made of 10,000 leaves and tree bark that he found on a walk. Isn’t that where everyone’s mind is on a wander?

• READ MORE: No, this isn’t the newest member of Slipknot – it’s just a guy that fitted a real engine onto his guitar

Now, we’ve seen loads of guitars made out of various strange materials before, including one made of plastic dumped into the ocean, another built from 1,000 aluminium cans, and even one put together using 5,000 roasted coffee beans. Those are, of course, all the work of the debatable king of wacky guitar builds, Burls Art.

But in his latest video, Roxas stakes a commendable claim to the crown, melding together 10,000 leaves and various chunks of bark he found on a walk to create a fully-functioning instrument.

To begin, he bags up a mountain of leaves and starts laying them out inside the outline of a guitar, which itself is lined with epoxy resin. Then he applies pressure to flatten everything down. He does this several times, before laying down a heated blanket to effectively flatten the surface and keep it stable for a three weeks.

Once dry, he shapes and sands the body and works on attaching the headstock and fretboard. He also adds a single humbucker pickup to the neck and shapes clumps of wood into volume and tone knobs.

Played through a Flatsons FGA-3 3W mini amp, the guitar has a surprisingly warm and ambient sound to it. Watch the full YouTube video here:

To see more from Marlon Roxas, head to his official YouTube channel.