Many luthiers claim to have made the ultimate heavy metal guitar, but so few are actually made of, erm, heavy metal. Enter Burls Art – the internet’s favorite guitar-building maniac, who has smelted down 50lbs of copper for a properly heavy six-string.
No material is off limits for the YouTuber, who has previously turned 1,000 aluminum cans, newspapers, and skateboards – among many other materials – into fully functional guitars. But this is arguably one of his most ambitious builds yet.
Copper was sourced at $4 per pound, meaning that $200 of copper wire was assembled for the build. Coincidentally, that's the same amount of Himalayan salt it took the crazy craftsman to make a wacky T-style guitar back in 2020.
The neck was created using a mold that was made out of Petrobond casting sand. Once the weather conditions allowed his outside furnace to be fired up, 12lbs of molten copper – a material that weighs three times more than aluminum – was poured in.
Since copper is a relatively soft material, the first prototype neck bent far too easily. For round two, a 2lb lump of tin was added to 20 lbs of copper, helping to make the final material harder and more durable: Science!
For the body, a T-shape template was cut out of maple, with the remaining bronze from the neck combined with 20 lbs of fresh copper wire.
Calculations were then made to see if some atypical body cavities could help reduce the guitar's weight. Such thoughts were cast aside, though, when the YouTuber realized the guitar would weigh well over 20lbs regardless.
“I believe I'm making the heaviest guitar in the world,” he says. And he's right.
Two Custom Lace Horsepower humbuckers were installed into the finished guitar, which has a 25.5" scale length. The final result weighs in at a staggering 40lbs, which is why you won’t find any strap locks on this thing – it simply wouldn’t be safe to do so.
Even then, Burls Art found playing the guitar sat down to be a crushing experience: “Honestly, playing it, it feels like it starts to cut the circulation on my leg after a couple of minutes.”
“It’s kind of a shock to the mind because visually it is such a small guitar,” its creator reflected, having witnessed an adjustable guitar stand collapse under its weight. “Although it does function like a normal guitar – and if it weren’t for the weight I’d actually say it plays pretty well – it’s probably the first and last of its kind. But it does look cool, so I’ll give it that.”
The heaviest guitar in the world is now available to buy and is priced at $5,000, reduced from $7,000.
Head to Burls Art to cast your eye on the guitar.
