Smoke your audience with a Lagavulin single malt guitar

This special edition guitar has been built by a long-established Italian bass and guitar maker and whisky lover, Andrea Ballarin, whose firm Manne Guitars was founded in 1987 in Schio, in north-eastern Italy.

The weight and rigidity of the cask oak, so different from the standard guitar materials, posed several technical challenges for Andrea and his team.

The flat round ends of the cask were carefully dried, treated and sanded and became the backs of the guitar bodies, preserving much of the distinctive distillery identification markings.

The curved staves, which originally formed the sides of the cask, were flattened and glued together to form the tops and bodies of the guitars. Andrea was careful to preserve some of the distinctive charring marks from the inside surface of the staves: all whisky barrels are toasted and charred on the inside before being filled with whisky.
Three instruments have been built from the one whisky cask: two Guitars  and one Bass. The two Guitars incorporate the cask heads, while the Bass is made entirely from the oak staves.

The guitars have been finished with an oxidised patina and typical rust marks from the hoops of the barrel, and the wood was finally treated with a preparation containing some Lagavulin Distillers Edition from 2007, which won the ultimate Whisky Trophy at last year’s International Wine and Spirit Competition. This ensures that the guitars will always preserve some of their native Lagavulin fragrance.

The guitars has been unveiled at this week’s Frankfurt Music Fair.