Video: Man Makes Guitar Amps Out of Rotary Phones, Ouija Boards, Chess Boards
Robert Brenne, a 25-year-old Pennsylvania man, has found a new career: turning ordinary objects into guitar amps.
He's already made amps out of his Ghostbusters lunch box, an old rotary telephone, cigar boxes (of course) and a Pac-Man thermos — just to name a few.
Brenne, who's been playing guitar for 11 years, got inspired when he came across a DIY project two summers ago that showed how to turn a beer can into an amp. After a lot of trial and error, he seems to have it figured out.
"I just thought if I could do this with a beer can, I could do it with anything," Brenne told the Scranton Times-Tribune.
"I hustled around the fall and just thought, 'Let me see if I can get a bunch of these made and actually turn it into a small business,'" he said. Brenne sells his amps through his website, artisticamplification.com. Amps cost between $50 and $175, depending on the amount of work required.
Check out the video below.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**
Join now for unlimited access
US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year
UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year
Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
“Could this be the most impressive tube amp under $700? For simpler needs, we definitely think it’s up there”: Blackstar TV-10 B combo amp review
“It was finally time to see if we could do a second build of this revered Boogie”: The iconic Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ is officially back – 40 years after the holy grail high-gain amp was last produced