Video: The most complex electric guitar ever?

"I had a dream last night. I am going to do something I suspect has never been done on a guitar before. And it's going to be a little crazy," says Ben Crowe of the Crimson Custom Guitars YouTube channel. He's about to build "the most complex electric guitar ever" in just 90 hours.

"I'm trying to prove that a luthier can build a guitar as insane, as crazy, as a what is possible on a 3D printer - but better, as 3D printers can't print wood," he says.

The build is showcased over 22 episodes (each around 20 minutes in length). It's also sped up and condensed into two "super edit" videos - each around 25 minutes in length. The first super edit is the video above. The second is below. 

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Named "The Complication", the maple and flamed sycamore guitar features an intricate exoskeleton carved by hand and with conventional shop equipment. Watch him do everything from sketch the design, craft the exoskeleton, add cavities and the neck pocket, fit the neck, and add the necessary electronics. No CNC machinery is used.

In total, the build process has been seen by millions of people.

"This was more than a YouTube video," writes a commenter on the first super edit video. "This was an experience. A journey. A telling of a man who decided to tread the not-so-treaded-path. To lead an expedition through the creativity of the human spirit. To defy what was once possible and to lift oneself into transcendence. It t'was a story of Crimson Custom Guitars...and it is told throughout the world, even today, but most of all, tomorrow and always thereafter."

The United Kingdom-based Crimson Custom Guitars' YouTube channel is dedicated to building awesome-looking guitars. For years, the guitar company has shot video diaries of entire custom builds. The channel has amassed more than 218,000 subscribers and 42 million total views.

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About the author
Robert Dalheim

Robert Dalheim is an editor at the Woodworking Network. Along with publishing online news articles, he writes feature stories for the FDMC print publication. He can be reached at [email protected].