Skate Guitars breathes new life into old decks

Though looking street-worn, beaten and abused can actually be a rather favorable look for a skateboard deck, there comes a time when stylish scuff gives way to unsightly eyesore and it's time to break in a new board. Rather than simply throw away all that quality wood, offbeat Argentinian luthier Ezequiel Galasso and pro skateboarder Gianfranco de Gennaro Gilmour have teamed up to repurpose old boards into "born to shred" guitars.

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Unfortunately, there's not a great deal of information available about Skate Guitars. We do know that each guitar is actually made from the remains of at least two end-of-life skateboards, with both the body and neck made from layered maple. Since these git-fiddles already have more than their fair share of scrapes, dings and scratches, you can really go wild without fear of inflicting too much damage to the finish – something that the creators seem to encourage.

All of the instruments are handmade at the Galasso Guitars workshop in Buenos Aires, and the externally-mounted hardware (including P-90, lipstick and humbucking pickups) appears to come in a number of different configurations. Each of the thin-bodied show models photographed in the gallery sports a single volume knob and Galasso branding on the head. One or two even pack whammy bars.

Though models do look to have made their way into the hands of some players, we've been unable to get any pricing or availability information from the Skate Guitar team.

Source: Skate Guitars