Music man (Nigel Tufnel signature)

It perhaps seems fitting that this list should end with the custom guitar of Spinal Tap’s lead axe-man. Indeed, Nigel Tufnel’s Ernie Ball Music Man signature model exists as the ultimate send up of certain six-string swingers’ penchants for weird guitars. Effectively a version of Music Man’s Albert Lee Silhouette, it’s no surprise that the Tufnel version of the axe takes the design concept and turns it up to eleven in some of the most excessive ways possible. With a red and yellow hot-rod paint job, the Nigel Tufnel signature continues the classic car theme with a gear stick whammy bar, four cylinder exhaust (which is purely decorative), and for reasons beyond comprehension, a speedometer dial. The guitar is rockin’ four humbucker pickups (which take up most of the length of the body) along with a Floyd rose tremolo and a custom Woodpecker decal. Probably the most hilarious features of the instrument, however, are the fret inlays, which display the names of the notes that correspond to the frets of the guitar. Tufnel has been using the guitar since the band’s Break Like The Wind tour of 1992 and it can be prominently seen in the “Return of Spinal Tap” concert DVD. Ending on a Spinal Tap six-string, it feels appropriate to end with a reference from that film that aptly sums of the crazy world of custom guitars; “there’s a fine line between clever and stupid”.

                      Watch this guitar on YouTube