Steampunking is a concept which dates back to the Victorian ages in Britain. It became popular during the 1980’s and 1990’s, which also co-incidentally, were the best two decades for guitar music. Steampunking involves usage of steam power. Guitars work by taking advantage of the laws of acoustics. After steampunking, they’re powered by a series of gears and knobs that create the sound. Guitars and steampunking were pretty much made for each other. Not that there is anything wrong with a regular acoustic or classical guitar, and definitely nothing’s wrong with the electric guitar! But what we have here is a collection of the seven most awe-striking steampunk guitar models which will sweep you off your feet clean! You might even start finding your regular solid body a bit boring! Steampunking is also a form of customizing. Add more aesthetic potential and dynamics to your guitar’s looks and get your one-of-a-kind model, which will not make you stand out but may over flow your mind with ideas for stage gimmicks!
Villainizer Steampunk Guitar
The Villainizer was designed by Jeff Ritzmann on behalf of Thunder Eagle Guitars. It first came out about a few years ago. It was custom made of a Jackson V, Randy Rhoads model. You can’t tell what Randy Rhoads would have thought of it, but its awesomely cool features like side cutting copper piping, connected by coils, the welds and the rusty body, will surely take you over. Its body has been designed with fake rust but it looks real. Even the humbucking EMG pickups (both on neck and bridge), have been copper coated. Contact Thunder Eagle Guitars directly if you want to get your own piece.
Scott Patton Signature Guitar
Scott Patton, the lead guitarist and music director of the country band ‘Sugarland’, and Buddy Blaze Fine Stringed Instruments, have worked together to build this new Scott Patton signature model guitar, named the Generator. It was unveiled in May 2010 on ABC channel’s Good Morning America show. The Generator features a custom graphic designed by Stephen Jensen, a renowned graphic designer. This guitar is handmade and is part of the handmade AL II series.
It features an alder Body with mahogany set neck and ebony fretboard. It has 24 jumbo fret two octave neck with a stainless steel adjustable truss rod. The package also contains a deluxe Buddy Blaze hard shell case.
See-through Steampunk Guitar
This see-through steampunk guitar is a homemade guitar created by Kwerk from the Telecaster Forum. It’s based on a Fender Telecaster and the neck was self crafted with Matai and Black Maire wood brought from New Zealand, which also happens to be the creator’s native land. It took him about two months to complete building this and he calls it the ‘Clock-Kwerk-Caster’. Laminated layers of 1/4″ acrylic sheets were used to build up the transparent body of this guitar. It has a couple of Wilkinson humbucking pickups and a generic telecaster bridge, giving it that sweet clean sound of Fender.
Organum Insolitus by Mark Dalzel
Mark Dalzell has designed the Organum Insolitus using elements of steampunk. It incorporates clockwork gears, cloth wire, hand hammered brass and wood to bring that 19th century flavor. The guitar features a TV with a Fresnel lens magnifier and has a built in amplifier with phaser effects. It has only one humbucking pickup which can be repositioned or adjusted along the bridge side or the neck side with an attached red faucet handle. A patch bay has been provided to patched through all the effects like TV, phaser, etc. It can also be connected with an external amplifier with a standard 1/4″ cable.
The Organum Insolitus was most definitely built to please the Goth fans with it’s authentic 19th century look.
The Nautilus
This Thunder Eagle Guitars’ creation, the Nautilus and it’s name were both inspired from the movie ‘20,000 Leagues Under The Sea’. Based on a Dean ML model, the Nautilus has been bordered and feathered with lexan on the outer edges to give it the iron girder look. Brass, Oak and copper fittings and custom wood scroll work completes the structure. It has a submarine-like porthole window which surrounds a sound-activated blue plasma lightning dish.
The headstock too has been custom fitted with a lexan adornment, with a reverse painted Dean logo. The machineheads are custom made with genuine seashells as if paying tribute to Jules Verne. It has even been accented with real rust.
Steampunk Guitar Norwescon 32
This handmade bass guitar was created by Molly Porkshanks Friedrich. Porkshanks has been involved with creating art for the various Gothic, Celtic metal and viking metal bands like Abney Park, The Georgetown Orbits, Mungus and solo musician Michael Creature, etc. The guitar has a golden colored body with long devil horns sticking out from the upper cutaway.
Steampunk ukulele Bass 20″
Made by Celentano Woodworks, this steampunk ukelele bass measures at 30 inches and with a 10″x10″ body. It has a spruce top and sapele mahogany body. The neck is maple wood and the fret board is made of ipa. The headstock is furnished with lace wood. It also has brass clock gears and nails to give it that 19th century steampunk flavor.