Tonewood? How about ToneStone?

Mildly related, solidrockproducts.com/

I thought of it right away when I saw the topic. Anybody ever buy one of these? If so, does it sound like it costs an arm and a leg?

I'd be more worried about what it would do to my belt buckle...

Here's a guy playing an 8-string stone guitar:


He seems to get lots of sustain out of it.

I love the fact that it's got a hole in the headstock. Could this be to keep it from being "head heavy"?

Agreed. That guy has several diffferent clips up on YouTube. In one, he just lets it sustain- and you can tell that it's not all strictly acoustic sustain. In some of the clips, one can see a large Orange half-stack in the background, which is presumably what he's playing through.

The Zerberus one above looks suspiciously like it was made out of a chunk of granite countertop. If one were to drop by a local granite countertop maker, one could probably buy a scrap piece big enough for a guitar body. And, if you slipped the guy $50 and gave him a template, you might even get him to cut it for you. Hmmmm . . .

The guy in the video, that one looks like it was made out of that "cultured marble" stuff they use for bathroom vanity tops. I don't have a clue how you would work a piece of that, but presumable there's some tooling that facilitates that.

Funny thought.


Put on your Kurt Vonnegut beyond-the-forseeable-future-caps for a moment and ponder this scenario.

Ten thousand years from now (let's get cute and call this the "stone age") the tonewood debate will be rushed out the back door, and the big topic will be tonestone.

Next it comes down to different types of stone. Some guys will like hard stone, like granite, while others will prefer a softer stone, such as marble.

Some guys will want that natural, unfinished black, combined with the crisp highs and scooped mids of basalt.

Custom shops will open in which guitars can be designed, poured and molded into high quality, single piece custom instruments.

Future versions of Pete Townsend will be bashing holes in the floor wherever he goes. In the future version of Woodstock one of those Future Pete's will even serve jail time for assault with a deadly weapon, after a member of the audience jumps on stage and has to be stuck. The Future Version of "The Polease" will be shocked and shamed.

And we all thought Jim Morrison had it hard....*waits*

During the next set, the future version (henceforth to be known as F.V.) of Jimi Hendrix will set his stone guitar on fire... and then pick it up and use it to finish his set.

The F.V of GWAR will be using guitars that actually ARE weapons, instead of guitars that just look like weapons, to go about the maiming and mauling of mock-ups of the F.V. of George Bush, and whatever the heck that t-rex thing is.

There will be a F.V. of guitarnuts dedicated to refinishing, rewiring, repairing, rebuilding and whatever else we do here now.

The F.V. of one of our members will develop a technique in which one uses a kiln to alter the stone body of ones guitar to change it's bass response.

The F.V. of Newey will still build bass stoned guitars, and will probably still combine guitar and bass pickups in them... The F.V. of me will still think that he should have just left it pink.

And the Chinese knock-offs are probably made of molded concrete...

My guess is the hole on the headstock of for attaching the winch...

I see a whole new line of straps incorporating lumbar supports...

All in all, I figure it's just the evolution of things...marketing trumps function...

I always pondered taking a wood body and drilling something akin to a starburst pattern starting on the outside with all the holes converging on the center of the body. Then take brass tubes and press them into the holes. Each rod would have a brass cap with a small piezo sensor at the end.

What would it sound like? Who cares...the gimmick would sell enough to pay off the tooling and allow me to get out of town before someone got struck by lightening...

Happy Trails

Cynical One

...and there will be a huge controversy over "relicing".

Seriously though, wouldn't something like that weigh a ton? I have enough trouble wrestling a Telecaster around for 4 hours at a stretch.

;D ;D

Earlier Cyn mentioned concrete, and I mused on that idea.

There is, truly, "no new thing under the sun". It's been done.

Concrete Guitar by Parker Sloan

Note the Lace Alumitone HB, centrally mounted. Sort of retro-istic modern (or sumthin').

Now, how in the name of Leo am I going to convince my wife that I need a shotcrete gun?

I want a guitar made out of Plexiglas filled with water and goldfish.. or maybe one filled with colored wax so I can get a lava lamp effect..