blog
Builder Spotlight: Pheo Guitars
The Web is full of luthiers who make unusual guitars. Some are trying to bring something new to guitar building, other are leaning more towards guitar as physical art. One builder I just discovered who makes guitars that definitely lean towards the art side of things — although they are functioning instruments — is Phil Sylvester. Phil operates as Pheo Guitars. Each of his guitars is one of a kind and he refers to them as Prototypes. Each guitars is built from chopped up wood, scraps of driftwood, old guitars parts, and other “interesting” things. While “art guitars” are nothing new, his designs are quite unique — take a look — and one of his ideas is very cool.
The Pheo Bikini is a guitar/bass double-neck that separates into a single guitar and bass (by adding wings.) How cool is that. This guitar could really be a show stopper. Imagine coming out with just the bass half for a song, then just the guitar half for a song, then slapping them both together and playing a bit of bass and guitar during the next song. It probably takes too long to disassemble the wings and re-assemble the double neck for that idea, but it would be very cool. Anyway it’s food for thought.
There is also an odd shaped hollowbody, a giant slab of driftwood headless guitar, and cool looking six string that appears to use a wooden stool seat for the center chunk of the body. Plus about eight more in the gallery. There is also a very entertaining feature video in the News section where Phil discusses his creations (including wild tube amps) and shows some of the guitars in action (Phil sounds like an accomplished guitarist in addition to builder.) While you will probably never own a guitar like one of these, they sure are fun to look at.
[Editors Note: Phil Sylvester emailed me and let me know you can buy Pheo guitars at Destroy All Guitars.]