The Stratocaster is one of music’s most iconic instrumental forms and as such, it’s seen its fair share of inventive redesigns (remember the time someone made a Strat out of 40,000 matchsticks?) Coloured pencils, however, are a new domain, and this time, YouTuber Burls Art has documented the building process.
To create the unique guitar, Burls packs the 1,200 coloured pencils tightly in a box and binds them together using an epoxy resin overnight. Using a makeshift milling machine to trim and then sand off the pencil slab, he drills the Strat shape using a wooden mockup and jigsaws it out. Burls then carves out and solders in all of the standard electronic hardware and pickups. Five coats of enamel finish the beautiful body, before a simple white pickguard and Squier neck tops it off.
Fender shot off a nod of approval in the comment section, writing “This is really incredible! It also sounds really great. Nice work!”. Here at Mixdown, we’d love to get our hands on one for the look alone. Here’s hoping Burls gets commissioned soon.
In the meantime, stay tuned to see if Fender can top their incredible nine-neck guitar from last year’s NAMM at the 2019 industry showcase.
