Donald Trump has drawn condemnation from guitar players after his most recent NFT release featured an image depicting the former president wearing leathers and playing an electric guitar equipped with a nonsensical tremolo system.
The images were featured in the second round of Trump’s digital trading card drop, priced at $99 a card, which saw all 38,000+ NFTs sell-out in a day. However, despite their commercial success, some of the images have drawn derision from the guitar community.
A closer look at the pictures reveals the 45th president is playing a red Gibson ES-style hollow body guitar, with a Floyd Rose-like tremolo arm that appears to extend directly from a Tune-O-Matic-like hardtail bridge (essentially, making it a useless lever).
Trump’s new Series 2 digital trading cards. pic.twitter.com/ENYY6lPrskApril 18, 2023
The guitar appears in two entirely normal images – one in which the president is standing in front of a giant illuminated ‘45’ sign before a gold mic stand and another in which Trump is riding a motorcycle clad in stars and stripes trousers.
“It brings me no joy to inform you of this,” wrote one Twitter user. “But the trem arm on the guitar in Trump's NFT is not technically accurate. That guitar would have a Bigsby tremolo, or a Vibramate add-on. It's also not a Floyd Rose as there's no evidence of a Floyd bridge or locking nut. FAKE NEWS.”
It brings me no joy to inform you of this, but the trem arm on the guitar in Trump's NFT is not technically accurate. That guitar would have a Bigsby tremolo, or a Vibramate add-on. It's also not a Floyd Rose as there's no evidence of a Floyd bridge or locking nut. FAKE NEWS. pic.twitter.com/cnRqJBn3NXApril 18, 2023
The images appear to share many common elements, which along with the inaccurate tremolo system, has us wondering if they were created using AI.
Either way, it seems no-one on the president’s team or the NFT licensees caught this slip-up before publication. Do the Republican primaries now hang in the balance? History will decide.
One thing we will predict, though, is a new line from Chibson USA: “Introducing the Trump-O-Matic – the whammy bar for hardtail guitars...” (Made in 'GINA).
