I've always loved graphics that are somewhat subtle but very memorable. Budweiser is not exempt from this concept. I found these old steel Budweiser cans and decided to give them a 2nd life as part of a McSwain guitar. These cans conjure up images of an old pickup truck with several of these rolling around in the back with the trusty old dog. So does the tone of the guitar. It is straight up punch and grit! The pickups are Rio Grande Texas and BBQ humbuckers. I laminated the cans to the arched top of the tone chambered redwood body which has a book-matched koa back. The neck is 3-piece mahogany with an aluminum bound 24-3/4" ebony fretboard. The inlays are aluminum Bud crowns. Just to add a bit more colloquialism, I made the volume and tone knob from glass Bud bottle tops. My buddy Jhon Doria dug up an old pull tab in his garden, so I inlaid it into the koa truss rod cover. What else was I gonna do with it???!!! The finish is what I call a "dirty finish" which is distressed and looks like it has been around for as long as the beer cans. Email with any questions. This is for sale: $10,000 USD

The Snake is a combination of an African mahogany body with an American maple top and a 3-piece African mahogany neck with a maple fret board. McSwain cut each of the 2046 individual scales from pieces of broken black lip abalone shell. Once the scales were cut, each piece was inlaid on the contoured Snake's body which continues up the back of the guitar neck. The eyes are LEDs with real rubies on the ends which glow bright red when the volume knob is pulled up. We think McSwain went slightly insane from cutting 2046 tiny individual scales!!!! Once the Snake was complete, Slash was kind enough to sign the back of the guitar for the client, Daniel Morris of Historical Design in NYC. This was the 5th McSwain Guitar that Daniel has added to his growing collection.

Daniel Morris of Historical Design in NYC had a pair of boots made from Nile crocodile skin and guess who got the scraps??? McSwain! We carved the boots after taking a photo of Daniel's boots and scaled it down to fit the guitar body. Once the boots were shaped, We covered them with the "leftover" croc. The conchos on the boots are cow bone that is burned to enhance the design. The maple top on the body has a small carved/stained/burned rope border that also encircles the headstock. I hammered a small piece of metal rod into a mini horse shoe that is inlaid between the pickups. On the back of the guitar I inlaid a real bandana into the "belly cut". The truss rod cover is also covered in bandana. The neck is a 5 piece neck made of mahogany/black walnut and maple strips. The headstock veneer, fret board and pickup rings are all from the same piece of North Carolina black walnut. After the guitar was nearing completion... Mcwain burned it, in a "controlled" manner, of course!

Ben Moody has added yet another guitar to his vast collection of McSwain guitars. We found an old crusty 1971 Ouija board online and scanned it into my computer. Once McSwain morphed it into a runny, twisted version of what used to be a classic Ouija board design, we adhered it to the bottom side of the 3/4" thick piece of plexiglas. Side note: the Plexiglas was from the dance floor from a DMX video that we worked art department on... then "liberated" the Plexiglas. Hey, they were gonna throw it out anyway (as far as we know). McSwain mixed red and brown paint and made "bloody" fingerprints around the perimeter of the guitar. And... McSwain pricked his finger and added a little McSwain DNA to the artwork. Hey, we put blood, sweat and tears into my work!!! We used our Foredom motor tool to grind the Plexiglas top into the classic arched body design, then buffed it until it was completely clear (it looks like ice), before then gluing it to the hollow body base. The base of the body is African mahogany that is completely hollowed out, with a piece of mirrored sheet metal inside to reflect the light from 28 super bright LEDs. The fret board has a tiny light box with "GOODBYE" in plexiglas letters. When the volume knob is pulled up, the body and fret board glow!!! Ben called McSwain screaming the night he got the guitar and said... (and I quote) "I will use this guitar on EVERY record I do from now on. It sounds amazing!!!" (or something like that)

McSwain has always loved the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) attitude of punk rock bands and their homemade fliers/posters for shows. This is the approach that we take with guitar building. Nobody’s gonna do it for you, so you might as well do it yourself! We wanted to pay homage to the punk movement with the Anarchy guitar. McSwain made each of these posters and glued/stapled them to an old worn piece of plywood, finished it off with the good old spray painted “circle a.” Yep, there are a few hidden messages in there too. Let McSwain build your Anarchy with your own personalized punk fliers straight outta the McSwain garage. Contact for price.

This is McSwain's personal favorite of the classic movie monsters. Frankenstein is a 25-1/2” scale maple top mahogany tone chambered body with a 3 piece mahogany neck. The fret board is ebony, maple and purple heart that is literally stitched together with leather cord. The border of the body and headstock are also stitched over black epoxy and red leather dye to give it that “bloody” realism. Frankie needed an appropriate place to “hang” so we created a metal exam table wall hanger complete with a Jacob’s Ladder at the top. The box is lined with leather that is stitched together in a very mad scientist kind of way. Yes, that is 10,000 volts coursing through the mechanism and it will shock the life out of you… or back into you, as the case may be. Ben Moody has taken ownership of Frankie and uses him on a lot of his recording projects. Beware…

The Gulf Motor Oil aka. Saphire Guitar is one of the custom Fuel Series guitars. The surface is an old Gulf Oil can that I laminated to the top of the guitar. This is a thru-neck guitar, with tone-chambered sides. I used Duncan Invader pickups which I faced with the scrap metal that I cut out of the oil can.

Slash (Yes... THAT Slash) came to McSwain with the idea of a completely original gift for his wife Perla. Being that they are both huge Wizard of Oz fans, they designed the Wicked Witch of the West guitar and castle wall display as a surprise for her for Christmas/Valentines Day (it took 3 months to complete). First, McSwain built the "lefty" 24-3/4" scale maple top mahogany tone chambered guitar and loaded it with Rockfield pickups. The witch has eyes that are back mounted dowels painted a pinkish white that glow in the dark. The teeth are made from a small, carved piece of cow bone with gums made of maple dust, super glue and a bit of red stain. Once this dried, I rubbed in black fresco powder to make her look as if she is in dire need of a trip to the Emerald City Dental Clinic! She is enshrouded in a cloud of "smoke" made of Bondo. Creeepy!

Bela – McSwain has always been a huge fan of classic monsters, Bela Lugosi’s vampire in particular. The face of Bela is carved from maple and actually glows in the dark. It is a mahogany/maple body with 24-3/4” scale set neck. The inlays are maple wood-burned with a mother-of-pearl cross. The includes DiMarzio pickups and Sperzel tuners. Keep an eye out for other monsters creeping around these pages in the future! Ben Moody owns this one.

Life is the first guitar McSwain made for his own personal use. He has used this as his number one guitar when playing live for several years and it has never given him a moment’s trouble! It is a solid mahogany body with a 25-1/2” scale maple neck. The theme is Life: The hand of death holds a skull, the hand of birth holds an egg, the sun gives life and the faces at the bottom represent earth to earth, ashes to ashes. Over the years, he had every potential client autograph the back. It is featured in Guitar Hero 5 and is available as a miniature collectible in the "merch" section of www.mcswainguitars.com.