Behold: A 38-Fret Guitar

Guitarists have been pushing the boundaries of the range that can be achieved with the instrument for years now, with seven and eight string guitars now standard fare for metal players and some even utilizing nine.

While most of the extended range guitars to hit the market in recent years have focused on expanding the instrument’s register downwards, Said Too Much Productions has gone the other way with a new instrument boasting a whopping 38 frets that extend the guitar’s range upward into the stratosphere.

The experiment made use of a standard six-string guitar with the neck pickup removed, the pick guard modified and a fretboard extension installed, made using a 3D printer, that adds extra frets onto the body. You can see it in action in the video below, including the processes of designing, building and modifying the instrument.

So, does it work? Yes, although I’m not sure we’re going to be seeing these in action any time soon for reasons you’ll see when you watch the video. Still: a very cool experiment!

[via Ultimate Guitar]