What happened when I played this smashed up Stratocaster style guitar?

 

We have all seen those performances when the lead guitarist takes to smashing up their guitars or pouring lighter fluid on them and setting them a blaze.  From a performance perspective, these acts on stage may look cool but equally what a waste when us poorer guitarists would quite happily take those guitars off their hands BEFORE impact.

Then you have those guitars that have been given a relic finish, they could cost in the thousands for some brands, just to get that old worn in look.

So what if you are someone who enjoys that extreme of the relic look, the (and I have just coined this phrase) ‘Smashed Up’ finish?

Brighton based luthier, Daniel Devilson is making it an art form to produce guitars that look smashed up with his company, Devil and Sons.

I recently met Daniel at The Brighton Guitar Show and was keen to check out the completely ridiculous End of the Road Stratocaster.  In short Daniel gets different guitars and then ‘destroys’ them and then puts them back together so that they look totally unplayable but they are actually anything but unplayable!

John Hicks playing the End of the Road Stratocaster from Devil and Sons.

Before I share my experience of playing this guitar I will let Daniel share his video on how he made this unusual guitar…

In short, I was on a stand at the Brighton Guitar Show and could only play this guitar through some earphones as the silent period had just kicked off.

A mess or art?

Every attention to detail has been made to ensure that this guitar turns heads and divides opinion.

I had a lovely chat with Daniel about his work and on his stand he had a selection of guitars such as the ‘iPad guitar’ and one that looked like a space ship in the style of the Millenium Falcon.

It is clear that Daniel relishes in making guitars that would make significant performance statements on any stage whilst still being excellent guitars.

The S-type that I played looked like it shouldn’t play at all and yet despite the neck’s geometry being completely out of place to the norm, it was super easy to play and it would be a lot of fun to stand on stage with one of these and see the reactions on the faces of the audience.

For me, despite the guitar looking like a mess , the fact is that this is a designed ‘mess’.  It is meant to impact on how we feel about the ‘norm’.  It was in the face of this guitar that I needed to put my brain in a different place.  The guitar is meant to shock and inspire.  It is meant to make people react.  Some people will love this and some people will hate it.  Art is meant to have that impact.  If it doesn’t then it is not art then is it?

Daniel takes commissions and clearly loves his art and so do many guitarists as he tells me that he is really busy with commissions.

If you would like to know more about Devil and Sons and see his other pieces then go to his website at https://www.devilandsons.guitars/