60+ Musicians Record Collection on Same Guitar

Fans often wonder how much of an impact gear makes on a musician. Sure, most people will admit that their guitar idols were better players than them, but just how much of that gap is due to the fact that the stars are playing on the best equipment all the time. An interesting new project, called the $100 Guitar Project, set out to find exactly how big of an impact the actual gear makes on music.

The guitar itself, featuring signature’s by its 69 different players.

It all started when friends Nick Didkovsky and Charles O’Meara found a cheap guitar for sale on the online auction site eBay. Though the guitar was in quite poor shape and did not even have a brand name, something about it spoke to the friends, and they soon purchased the piece.

While waiting for the guitar to arrive, the two developed a scheme in which different musicians would have the guitar for a week, write and record a song on that guitar, sign the guitar, and then send the song and the guitar to another musician. Through this procedure, Didkovsky and O’Meara hoped to create an eclectic mix of music.

By the end of the project, 69 musicians recorded songs in a huge number of genres, ranging from country to experimental. The project was picked up by Bridge Records, and features songs from the like of Fred Frith and Nels Cline (Wilco). The entirety of the proceeds of the records (as well as half of the profit of Bridge Records) goes towards CARE, which fights poverty on an international scale. A film about the project has been rumored to come out in the next several years, but until then, fans will simply have to enjoy this unique project.