“Is it at least made of wood?” Meet the ‘Palletcaster’ – an utterly absurd electric guitar that has been (quite literally) fashioned from a shipping pallet

An Instagram post by Argentinian luthier Sergio Pierachini has gone viral after he (quite literally) turned a wooden pallet into an electric guitar.

Here at Guitar World, we’ve seen guitars made from some wild alternative materials – from aluminum cans to Himalayan salt – but we’ve never seen a build quite as literal as this.

Quite simply, it’s a wooden shipping pallet with some playable additions. A neck has been clamped onto the edge and a humbucker has been slotted below, transforming what might typically used for transporting pedals, amps and guitars into a piece of musical equipment itself. Some might say it can hold more than just a tune.

Pierachini’s caption, “Is it at least made of wood?” [translated from Spanish] is a cheeky one, with the instrument looking horrendously impractical to play as its maker wrestles with the sizable six-string. Rather aptly, the pallet has six planks of wood running across its base.

While it might not be as ergonomic as a Standberg, it incredibly doesn’t sound terrible. In the clip, it’s played through a clean amp and there’s certainly plenty of body to give it a resonant bass. Its tone is quite palatable, actually, and throws a massive spanner into the tonewood debate.

Jokes aside, it shows how simple the core ingredients are to turn anything into a guitar – if it has strings, a neck, and some basic electronics, you’re good to go. So, it begs the question, what’s next?

Other out-there builds we’ve seen in recent years have included a pixelated ‘8-bit bass’ guitar, an acoustic guitar made entirely from reclaimed acrylic, and the rise of Paoletti Guitars, a firm that turns old wine barrels into guitars.

Those latter two creations offer great sustainability benefits – something an Aussie firm called Re-Tuned recently took to a new level with the announcement of its campaign to turn unused acoustic guitars into quirky Bluetooth speakers, to help save instruments from the scrap heap.

A look through Pierachini’s feed tells us that he isn’t usually this avant-garde (read: silly), but that may change after his ‘Palletcaster’ garnered 360,000 likes and counting.