Skelecaster: the first and possibly last guitar made from human remains
Rock has a colourful history of boasting some of the weirdest guitars ever conceived. We all know Prince’s symbol-designed Auerswald Model C, The Fool’s psychedelic splashes over Eric Clapton’s Gibson SG, and Rick Nielson’s Hamer five-necked extravaganza. Yet, way beyond ZZ Top’s spinning axes or Nitro’s quad-X absurdity, one Florida metalhead boasts a guitar made of human remains.
It’s a bold claim, but YouTube celebrity and hard rock musician Prince Midnight’s beloved ‘skelecaster’ allegedly features the spine and ribs of his dear uncle Filip, who passed away in 1996. According to Midnight, Filip was the victim of a fatal motorbike accident, and his body was donated to a medical college for research purposes. Due to the country’s Orthodox taboo around cremating bodies, Filip’s remains were interred 20 years later at Thessaloniki’s municipal cemetery, his family having to pay grave rent. Following some international wrangling with Greece’s State Department, Filip’s remains were repatriated to the States, ready for Midnight’s artful reverence for his late uncle.
Crediting Filip with inspiring his love of metal and triggering a lifelong love for Iron Maiden as well as the black metal of Burzum and Mayhem, Midnight thought it fitting to have his uncle “shred for eternity” and form the basic build of a homemade guitar. Using the spine and ribs as the base, knobs, a neck, strings, and pickups were affixed to create his unique memorial axe.
The former chest remaining around the centre unsurprisingly causes problems with ease of playing but also creates its own happy quirks: “You have to strum inside the rib cage, so there are no sweeping chords like Pete Townshend of The Who,” Midnight told Guitar World in 2021. “You can only strum as wide as the ribs will allow. There’s a certain unexplainable quality to it”.
Midnight has stressed the respectful ode to his ‘skelecaster’ project, rejecting any notions that his bone guitar is a crass and tasteless cheap stunt. “I believe part of my uncle Filip is still there, literally and figuratively. Just a warm presence, maybe enjoying his next life as a totally metal guitar,” he made clear. “Now Uncle Filip can shred for all eternity. That’s how he would want it. I’m super-proud of the project and how it serves to honour him, his life and his influence on me.”
His story naturally made the rounds, featuring and giving interviews in many major publications. However, suspicions were had as to the authenticity of the guitar’s assemblage and the veracity of Midnight’s identity. Local reporters have suggested that Prince Midnight may be the comedic persona of another musician, Justin Arnold, or even the prankster work of Odilon Ozare, the proud holder of two Guinness World Records for the world’s tallest hat and boasting the longest nail extensions.
Whatever the truth, Midnight’s creative ode to his metalhead uncle certainly trumps any of rock’s most flamboyant litany of guitars, and if Keith Richards can honour his father by snorting his ashes in a line of coke, then why can’t a loved one live on as a cherished instrument.
