The most outrageous guitars on the internet

As regular readers of guitar blogs and forums know, the internet is overflowing with lists compiling the coolest, ugliest, most badass, silliest and sickest designs in the history of the instrument.

Of course, it's all subjective. Beauty resides in the eye of the beholder. One man's jetglo Rickenbacker 330 is another man's desert yellow Ibanez doubleneck. Quite simply, what follows is a collection of outrageous guitars that either made us either laugh, cry, or feel very afraid indeed.

In some cases the picture quality is poor. In some cases, the identity of the luthier is anonymous. Thank god. And in some cases, we'd suggest proceeding with extreme caution should there be children or those of a delicate persuasion present. Click onwards and enjoy…

A real gas - ahem! - courtesy of Guitarz blog, this was built by Tex Wynn, a retired machinist now in his 80s. He restores Model T Fords and is an expert on Native American arrowheads.

Take one Sega Genesis games console – or Mega Drive as it was known in Europe – add a neck, bridge and pickups, and hey presto. Just don't play the Mario theme on it, there might be compatibility issues...

Some people put horses' heads in people's beds. They tend to get arrested for mob ties and animal cruelty. We're not sure why, but this equine variation on the Stratocaster outline makes us smile.

Joe Naylor of Reverend Guitars put together this smokin' custom model for Mike Edison, former editor of High Times magazine. Find out more here.

Entirely unsuitable for use in a Little Feat tribute band.

Fred Mangan has also made guitars out of old film reels, church organ pipes and industrial saw blades. Here Queens Of The Stone Age mainman Josh Homme is rocking out with one of Mangan's dishier creations.

Frankly, it's missing an ampersand. Or at least an 'n'...

More misadventures in woodworking. Has yet to feature on MTV as far as we are aware.

Sadly we have no idea who the sax offender behind this is.

Ideal for your Scissor Sisters tribute band, or those songs where you really need to cut through the mix…

Guitar/bass/skateboard hybrid played and ridden by Keith Irish of the Orange County punk band Punk As A Doornail.

It might sound like crap for all we know, but we can't help loving the toilet roll/guitar strap arrangement. Ideal for anarchic protest songs about how the cistern sucks.

A guitar with tan lines. What's wrong with being sexy?

It really comes down to whether or not you have the balls to strap this one on.

...but isn't. Lefthanded, arse-backwards, ridiculously massive Fender Jazz-style bass played by Stig Pedersen from Denmark's D-A-D. Former Darkness man Justin Hawkins has lately been rocking something similar.

We saw this on the Peavey stand at Frankfurt Musikmesse 2009 and thought initially, oh, here's yet another electric guitar that looks like a shark. And then we noticed that the headstock is a massive foot. To play this one, you're really going to need a bigger boat.

If you like big butts and you cannot lie, this is the guitar for you.

Luthier Ian Schneller was commissioned to build this videogame-inspired six string back in 1998.

Luthier Steve Wishnevsky specialises in rustic instruments, and this lefthanded, fretless acoustic bass seems to take its design cues from early harp guitars. And a banana.

We don't know much about this bass, so we won't be carping on about it. It's pretty remackerelable though.

Japanese artist Yoshihiko Satoh creates sculptures that are enlarged, multiplied versions of everyday mass-produced goods in order to "unleash the energy residing in their function and shape." There are many multi-neck guitars out there, but this award-winning 12-neck from 2002 makes Rick Nielsen's five-neck Hamer look understated by comparison.

Okay, so we've already included many-necked delights, but this six-neck bad boy from Hutchins gets extra points for being relatively affordable. Just don't expect us to be your guitar tech if you decide to gig with one.

If six strings just aren't enough, how about 52? Luthier Linda Manzer took the blueprint from the amazing Pikasso guitar she built for Pat Metheny, and constructed the Medusa at the request of Danish musician Henrik Andersen.

A press release issued on Andersen's behalf claims that 52 strings is a world record, but it also states: "Note: We don’t know whether Medusa is a world record, we haven’t checked the whole world – nor contacted Guinness World Records." Ahem.

The ESP Custom Shop is no stranger to the outrageous, and we spotted this frankly rather erm, impractical example of highly skilled luthiery during our hunt for weirdness at Frankfurt Musikmesse 2010.

We're not going to rabbit on about this, so that's all folks. Click here for more about Rick Hayes...

We gather that tuning stability is something of an issue, but the fact that this instrument is playable at all is something of an achievement. More pictures and information here.

Courtesy of a Jedi mind trick from Guitarz Blog, this proved to be exactly the guitar we were looking for. Based on a fighter from Return Of The Jedi, the neck was originally part of an Aria acoustic, while the electrics came from a Stratocaster. Builder Tom Bingham's previous achievements include a Millennium Falcon 'Telecaster'. The force is strong with this one.

In a similar vein to the Wangcaster, only a little more seventies. We don't really know what to say about this other than 'sorry'.

Visionary Instruments' Ben Lewry crammed a laptop into a guitar, and uses it to run musical visualisation software. It's also handy for checking Facebook during a gig...

Strictly speaking, AJ Gannon's madcap Guitar Hero controller/Speak & Spell mash up isn't a guitar, but the fact that it's guitar-shaped and a valid musical instrument is good enough for us. Check it out in action on video.

The Mermaid Guitar sculpture is a truly remarkable, and playable piece of work. Visit Andy Manson's website for detailed images and background information.

Yoshihiko Satoh's second entry in this gallery is an even more impressive 12-neck guitar sculpture from 2003. Just imagine trying to get the case in the boot of your Ford Fiesta...

Built by Lou Reimuller from a mannequin. As far as MusicRadar is concerned, this is (un)comfortably the most wrong guitar of all time.

Liked this? Now read 10 ridiculously cool Steampunk guitars

Connect with MusicRadar: via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

Get MusicRadar straight to your inbox: Sign up for the free weekly newsletter