The six-string, built out of repurposed pine from Detroit’s historic abandoned buildings, features a hand-painted Jeep logo, topographical map of the city and seven-grille-branded humbucker
(Image credit: Wallace Detroit Guitars)
If, by some absurdly miraculous coincidence, your three main passions in life are Tele-style electric guitars, Jeep cars and Detroit city, you’re in tremendous luck, as a new six-string – branded with the logo of the US automobile giant – has just been made available for preorder.
Wallace Detroit Guitars is the brains behind the special hand-engraved, Jeep-branded six-string, which also features Jeep’s version of the US Army Star on the front and a topographical map of Detroit.
What makes the six-string special is the fact that, as well as featuring the Jeep logo, the guitar itself was built using timbers from repurposed old-growth pine from a range of historic abandoned buildings throughout the city.
(Image credit: Wallace Detroit Guitars)
To maintain the vintage vibe, the wood’s historic stains, nail holes and scars will all be left untouched, with each hand-built-to-order guitar featuring entirely unique wood characteristics due to the sourcing process.
Aside from the pine body, the guitar features a Michigan forest-sourced maple neck and fretboard, chrome hardware with a traditional bridge and control layout, and a deluxe beveled edge white pickguard.
Further Jeep iconography can be found on the neck humbucker, which boasts the brand’s seven-slot grille graphic. The humbucker is in turn partnered with a single-coil bridge pickup.
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(Image credit: Wallace Detroit Guitars)
(Image credit: Wallace Detroit Guitars)
(Image credit: Wallace Detroit Guitars)
Of the context surrounding the one-off axe, Mark Wallace of Wallace Detroit Guitars commented, “Everyone whose Grandpa had to repair a Jeep when it got shot in WW2 came home to Detroit and got to work making them the best vehicles they could.
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“My Grandad, when he was training men in Oklahoma during WW2 (before he got sent to France) commandeered a Jeep one weekend and drove it a few hundred miles to see my Grandma.
“The jeep had gotten hit in a training exercise and it wouldn’t drive straight down the road, so they burned up tires at a pretty alarming rate. Grandad knew this, but the issue with the alignment was also the reason the Jeep was available that weekend, so he filled up the back of it with tires he salvaged and just changed them out whenever he had a blowout.
“That’s the sort of tenacity people associate with Jeep and the people who drive them. And that’s the sort of grit that Detroit has. We don’t quit."
Each guitar is handmade in Detroit, with each iteration promising to contain unique natural quirks due to the nature of the Detroit Packard Auto Old growth wood grain pattern.
To celebrate the release, Detroit-based rock band Detroit Dreamers released Dreamers – a track whose music video features the Jeep-branded axe.
The model itself is available to preorder now for $2,900.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
