I was contacted recently by Marcel Rizzolo in Melbourne Australia who let me know about his dad’s business Rizzolo Guitar Company. I’m always happy to find Australian Luthiers so I checked out their site (no not the most elegant url but ignore that). Rizzolo make a wide range of guitars, Archtops, Solid bodies, Acoustic and Bass guitars. They make an extremely nice Sunburst Deluxe Telecaster, have a look in their Electrics section and I noticed some of the solid bodies use a local Australian wood called Tasmanian Blackwood, obviously from Tasmania which is a sustainable resource that is used as a substitute for Mahogany. I found this information about the sustainability:

”Nearly all Tasmanian Blackwood comes from the so-called Blackwood Swamps near Smithton in the north west, where almost pure stands of black wood trees occur. Here, the harvest is strictly controlled and the forest is managed on a 70-year rotation. This program protects the continuity of the limited resource and guarantees a small but reliable supply of excellent mature logs each year. More importantly, this cyclic harvest, combined with natural regeneration, guarantees the unique Tasmanian Blackwood resource will be here always.” - Ornamental Tasmanian Timbers.

Having said all that, the thing that really caught my eys was the 8 string Archtop which is actually made from European Fiddleback Maple for the back and sides and a favourite for acoustic and archtop guitars, European Spruce for the top. The neck is 3 piece maple with an Ebony fretboard with your choice of a 24 1/2” or 24 3/4” scale length. The tailpiece is also made of Ebony. The guitar features a humbucker in the neck position and an optional Fishman transducer for an extra $600.

Now if 8 string archtops are your thing and you happen to live in Australia, well anywhere really but you will obviously incur shipping costs, this guitar can be yours for $10,000! Yikes! I think that qualifies for my Really Expensive Guitars category!

I really thought I’d seen it all in my quest to find the craziest most expensive guitars on the planet and then I receive a mysterious email alerting me about Precious Rebels Custom Guitars. Well ok it wasn’t completely mysterious, it turns out it was sent to me by one of the artists involved in these crazy creations. Dunbar Studios’ artists who meticulously apply by hand genuine Swarovski Austrian Crystals creating unique playable artwork!

All instruments are fitted with RFID technology, documented and security catalogued by Dunbar Studios to ensure collectors they are in possession of a genuine art work. Now that is something you don’t get on your bog standard 6 string! Well there is a reason, these guitars don’t come cheap, hence why they are in my Really Expensive Guitars category. The guitars start at $15,000 and apparently go up to $60,000 so you better start putting your spare pennies aside. They are the ultimate bling guitars but I don’t think you will see many played on stage, if at all I would be too scared to knock the crystals off!

Check out the video presentation on the Precious Rebels™ site in order to see the guitartworks in all their shimmering glory.

I have found a few really expensive guitars but I’m always looking to add to this category. Now this model just about qualifies as I think anything less than $10,000 is still a plausible purchase for some people (unfortunately not me!) and $10 - 20 is expensive but not REALLY expensive. The PRS 10th Anniversary Private Stock Custom 22 will set you back $23,000 now to put that into some kind of perspective, that is almost the same price as the EVH Frankenstein replica!

So why is it so pricey? Well it certainly isn’t because of the Deluxe Suede Hardshell Case that comes with this instrument, although that is a nice addition. Maybe it is the custom inlays that depict the last 10 years or the custom engraved pickup covers, rosewood tuning buttons and pickup rings and green ripple abalone? Or maybe the gold hardware, black and ivoroid along the fingerboard or the body detail finished in Mother of Pearl. Well it is all of these things of course but also that this is a private stock instrument that has all of these extra details. The PRS Private Stock guitars use woods that are set aside as the “best of the best” or “Paul’s Private Stash”!

This paragraph from PRS’ site explains the private stock philosophy:

”The woods are carefully picked from our “Private Stash” and these extraordinary pieces of wood are some of the best instrument grade woods found on the planet. Each guitar is stained with a complex special technique to bring out the most figure and create a unprecedented three dimensionality. The instrument is carefully guided through each craftsman’s hands, and finally checked by Paul and myself to ensure the best instrument possible. Each instrument is signed by Paul and receives a Private Stock number along with a letter of authenticity describing the specifications and feature of that particular instrument.”

If I had a ‘insert relvant currency here’ for everytime I lost my plectrum I would be a very… no hang on, I won’t exaggerate I’d have about 50 quid. However some people are way more careless than me and may lose a plectrum (should I be calling them a pick?) every week? If you are one of those people I strongly recommend you think twice before reading any further as I don’t want to be responsible for any financial problems caused.

Starpics Australia take guitar plectrums to the next level by hand carving them from precious gemstones, Jade, Opal, Agate etc. They claim that they never wear out , reduce string breakage by up to 500% (!? not sure how they come to that figure) and have a lifetime warranty against breakage. They say you only need one pick for life and so they are able to price them accordingly. Now you will see what I was getting at a minute ago. One of these gemstone plectrums will set you back 50 of your hard earned Aussie dollars for a regular plectrum made from Agate or maybe Jade although a Regular Black Jade Plectrum 1.5mm will actually set you back AUD$80. CRIKEY I head you exclaim, well it doesn’t stop there…
If you would prefer something a little more exotic there is the Lead Guitar Lightning Ridge Honey Opal 2.2mm is priced at a hefty $300 Australian and the Black Jade Opal Overlay Jazz Ultraspeed 2mm will cost you a mere AUD$1000. But wait I want to know what the absolute most expensive guitar plectrum is, well look at that photo to the left. Those are a pair of Plectrums hand carved from a piece of Gibeon Meteorite. Oh, now we’re talking. This is the money is no object plectrum not for your average Joe like me. And remember this price is for a pair, even though they say you only need one for life… maybe the other is for your wife/husband?

Drum roll please…
AUD $5000

Holy intergalactic rock gods!

I’ve mentioned the EVH Frankenstein replica guitar before but as I’ve just read The Van Halen Saga book I thought not only was it worth revisiting but I wanted to add it to my Really Expensive Guitars category now that I’ve seen the price tag! Are you sitting down? Ok so first of all there are only 300 of these guitars in production hence the rather inflated price and it is a much closer replica than anything else he’s ever seen or played according to Eddie.

The price? $25,000. And yes that is US dollars so a direct translation in Australian dollars is $29,000. That’s a pretty hefty price tag for a guitar that Eddie once described as a piece of shit!

Ergo Guitars by Charles Fox are described as high performance luxury guitars with their wedge shaped body, elevated finger board and ultra-low-mass sound board. You would want them to be luxury seeing as the base price is $15,000! The back and sides are constructed from richly marbled cocobolo and deeply figured sapele or flamed maple. European spruce and Western Red cedar are used for soundboards and the neck is crafted from pattern grade Honduran Mahogany with Gaboon ebony for the finger board. All sounds very impressive!

It is worth going on to the site to read about the construction features as Charles Fox has implemented some interesting techniques into the mix. For instance the Low-mass parabolic soundboard with its two plates of tone wood sandwiching a core of honeycomb material and the adjustable sound port which can either be open when playing solo to surround the player with sound or closed for full projection, I like the sound of that!

There are a load of options but they are not cheap, for instance the adjustable sound port is actually an extra $1000, so you might want to think about whether you really need it! 

Hamer’s Uncle Pepper is a one-of-a-kind piece of art created by legendary guitar designer Jol Dantzig, founder of Hamer Guitars.

The artists, together with Hamer Guitars, Rick Nielsen, Cheap Trick, and Liverpool’s Hard Day’s Night Hotel, will offer the guitar for auction to benefit underprivileged children around the world through Yoko Ono’s Alder Hey, Imagine Appeal charity.

Rick and his Cheap Trick band-mates, backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, will perform the album (Sgt. Peppers) in its entirety, and will welcome special guest stars onstage to perform vocal duties. A second set of select Beatles material will also be presented. Each guest star will autograph the new guitar.

“The guitar was designed based on the so-called Sigil of Baphomet, which has quite peculiar history. Back in 14th century, the order of Knights Templar was accused by the Inquisition for worshipping the Idol of Baphomet. And while the masons still deny the fact up to date, I bet they are guilty as hell. The Church of Satan made this sign it’s official symbol.”

This beast has a mahogany, ebony and purpleheart body, EMG Pickups and will set you back $10,000 plus shipping! Not cheap. If you browse your way over to this product page you can see more pictures including photos taken during the construction and also a few mp3’s showcasing the different pickup sounds.

Also available from UVA Instruments is the Scorpio a much more affordable guitar with the option of a 7 or 8 string version - $1990 - $2790. Personally though I think the 8 string makes the body look a bit small and out of proportion but the 6 would look pretty evil. Shredders take note!

Damn this is one ugly looking guitar, especially with that price tag, you should see the back check it out here, yuck! I don’t want a mother of pearl 747 on my guitar thanks very much! And that rocket inlay, oh come on…

This guitar is the “History of Flight Custom Shop Guitar” with custom inlay work of famous moments in aviation history. There will be just one and it is only available through Guitar Center. The lucky purchaser will be flown in the Guitar Center jet to Nazareth, PA where C.F. Martin himself will take the lucky purchaser on a personal tour of Martin Guitars. Following the tour the guitar will be presented to the new owner, who will probably mugged 30 seconds later in the car park and later notice a very similar looking guitar appear on ebay for a few grand. Well it serves you right, it’s not like it it’s Blackie! Nobody has ever touched this guitar. Imagine the price if Robert Johnson had owned it!